Kili in the Sun!

After my previous two treks up Kilimanjaro being in constant rain, I had lost some belief in the dry seasons in East Africa actually existing anymore.  However, I should not have doubted the weather as on this challenge, we had the best weather I have ever had on any of my previous 16 successful Kilimanjaro climbs. Even summit night, we were trekking in almost zero wind and balmy temperatures of minus 5-7.

Not only did this challenge re-inspire me because of the fantastic weather, allowing us superb views at all times, but also as it is was early in the season after the May rains all the camps were very quiet and we had the surprise of a private summit for more than 30 minutes!

I had the privilege of leading a great group of friends raising money for Motor Neurone Disease Association (MNDA) on behalf of The Ultimate Travel Company.

I did find it hard this year what with my training involving a week spent snorkelling and drinking in Ibiza for my wife’s 40^th – not the best training schedule I must admit and contra to my normal no alcohol for 2 weeks before any high altitude trek.

However, all in all a fantastic challenge and really enjoyable so get out there and challenge yourselves this year.

Expedition Wise team to climb unconquered Himalayan summit

This year is the 60th anniversary of the first successful ascent of Everest by Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay.  Inspired by this historic achievement, this November our Director, Brian Jackson and 2 other Expedition Wise staff, Ian Foster and Bug Wrightson, are attempting to ascend an unclimbed mountain in Nepal.

The 3 intrepid explorers will head out to a recently opened up area of Nepal north of the Annapurna range taking up to 9 days to trek in, 7 days to climb and 7 days to trek out again.

They will attempt to be the first ever people to climb Chhubohe (5,603m/18,383ft).

Brian is specifically raising money for Pancreatic Cancer UK, as he recently lost a friend to pancreatic cancer.  If you wish to support him in his fundraising, please click on the link to his Just Giving page and click on Donate. 

Chhubohe Climb - Just Giving Page

100% of all funds raised will go directly to the charity as Brian is paying for the challenge himself.

Ethiopia Simien Mountains – 2013

Our Director has once again been off leading a Charity Challenge expedition to the Simien Mountains in Ethiopia, now his 5th expedition to these parts.

Well, what a difference a year makes!

In 2012 at each camp there were between 10 – 20 people queuing for medical attention but this year, with the new Arkwasiye clinic, (paid for by a previous Charity Challenge trek group – BDO Stoy Hayward) there were only a handful of people at each campsite.  This is fantastic news for the region.

This year, our Director was leading a group raising money for AfriKids (projects for young people on the streets in Ghana) whilst trekking for 8 days through the Simien mountains from West to East and summiting Ras Dashen, the highest peak in Ethiopia and 4^th highest in Africa on route.

Expecting the usual 35 - 40 degrees of heat each day, the group were very surprised by the first rains in living memory to fall in the Simien Mountains in March, the driest month of the dry season!!  The group encountered snow, hail, thunder, lightning and rain which goes to show that there are no 100% confirmed seasons any more around the world.  The group did well to manage this surprise weather and it actually made the overall trek far more manageable in the lower temperatures of between 20 - 30 degrees.

We Did This!!!

2012 was an amazing year when we facilitated the raising of more than £560,000 for different charities across the UK and overseas.

Each year, we choose a different charity to support with a percentage of any profit that we make as a company.  Last year, it was AfriKids (working with children on the street in Ghama); this year we have chosen to support Maranatha Gateway, working in Uganda.

They are working to set up a Vocational Training Centre in Sozi, Kalangala on the Ssese Islands on Lake Victoria in Uganda. Sozi (Luganda for a rocky hill) is a small peninsula of jungle and oil palm plantations on the east coast of Bugala Island, Uganda. This is one of the beautiful Ssese Islands in Lake Victoria – just 40 miles off the mainland.

Maranatha Gateway intends to train people in the following skills:

·       Brick making, Building and Carpentry to help them build better homes

·       Crop Growing for better eating and also potentially for selling

·       Animal Husbandry (Goats) to help a sustained income

·       Tilapia Breeding (a local fish) again for eating and selling

·       Basic Engine Maintenance mainly for motor bikes and outboard motors

·       Basic Numeracy as many locals have never learnt counting and measuring

·       Basic English as this is the country’s main official language

We want to thank all of you who have taken part in any challenge, pre-expedition training weekend, medical first aid course, or other event with us this year as you have helped support this charity

.

We have specifically bought a jeep for the charity and are looking at supporting other innovations such as solar power, wind power and building projects.

Our Newsletter Gets A Facelift!!

We’ve been busy here at HQ changing our newsletter in the hope that it is a friendlier and more interesting read for our Clients. Please take a look and do let us know what you think – and of course, come along and join us on one of our challenges; either as a group or an individual. We can tailor make any of our trips to suit your particular requirements, so please do give us a call to discuss your ideas! Click on the link below to view.

Check out our new E-Zine!

Being Wise on Expedition.........The first 18 months....

One of our hard working freelancers read this poem out at our Christmas *Doo* in December - it is a great explanation of what it is to work for Expedition Wise!

It started by chance in 2011

One Caledonian Challenge was the event

My baptism of fire in the Highlands

The first experience with Expedition Wise was Heaven sent

Treating blisters by the dozen int' Ice Factor

Racer’s feet weren’t always in good shape

Teams of 4 in theory, sometimes 3,2 ,1

Not everyone abided by the red tape

Out of Kinlochleven on the staircase

Riding on a quad was brilliant fun

Walking through the night over Rannoch

And dancing at the finish at Tyndrum

Brian's 2011 party was a great one

Rocking on up to Rock House in Rock Place

There's also lots of rocks sculpted in the garden

And fab views to other crags with a rock face!

Steph had made vatt loads of piping chilli

Ang introduced me to alcoholic ginger beer

Wine and laughter flowed there all evening

And the video of the year was full of cheer

In 2012 the season was first about the 3 peaks

Ben Nevis, Sca Fell Pike and Snowdon in a line

Up and down we went in all the weathers

Slow, fast, snowy, midgy and sunny fine

With KPG's event we had a biblical deluge

Wasdale was evacuated from the valley not least

We slept in Tescos car park with croissants

The Llanberis Royal Victoria provided a feast

Then came Brave the Beacons in September

Based at Dolygaer in the trees

Alcohol arrived there by the carload

We all thought the challengers would be on their knees..

But no, the vino just spurred them on to do more

To kayak, bike and navigate with much glee

The weather and team spirit was fantastic

And they raised an amazing 50 grand for TCT

And so to the Brutal in Llanberis

A new event organised this year

3 levels of triathlon for competitors

The extreme filled the rest of us with fear

Ann and I ‘womaned’ a bike medic station

Brian said it was like the WI

Yet several mugs of tea later.....he left

And a cyclist emerged for a rubbing on his thigh

All through the night they whizzed past us

The extreme cyclists with their support crews in tow

Asking us how we were seemed the wrong way around

Some amazing professionalism they did show

And then the finish at 1am on Monday morning

Strong winds and driving rain for the finale

11 guys with stamina to die for

Who had all in 40 hours climbed their own Dinali

We have to don coordinated camouflage

Black, grey and orange with some high viz gear

The baseball caps are a perpetual challenge

My Masaai dangly earrings have become corporate wear

So being wise on expedition is essential

To keep healthy and stay safe on this journey

We look forward to 2013 with hope and optimism

For excitement and adventure are a successful life's key.

Mount Elbrus - Part Twelve and Final

Going Home

BJ's obviously been awake and pulled the balcony door to, it's about 6am and I just have to open it as I'm starting to melt again. Pytaigorsk starts to wake up beneath us, but the cockrel is a bit on the slow side, it's well after dawn and the stupid bird has only just started crowing. We start slowly as it's going to be a very long day. At breakfast we ponder who ever would put cabbage in a brioche? Or for that matter potato? Unfortunately they only have green tea, oh for a proper cup of tea, starting the longing just to be home now, to put it all back as it was. After a couple of visits to the buffet we give up and collect our bags from our timber clad box, look finally out across the city to the mountain that brought us here, below us is Andrei and his dodgy jeep that'll be taking us to the airport.

The weirdness that is Russia begins again. At the airport check-in desk is a group of Russian school kids who are either completely intrigued by us or are busy ripping the piss out of us without us realising. The best we can come up with is to return the compliment, we take the piss out of the children, ah! the joy of innocence due to the lack of an understanding of each others’ language. We step up next. BJ's bag just makes 20kg, then a guy steps across and demands that he put his day sack on as well!!! Muzafuka! It now goes 24kgs, "You pay excess for 4kgs - 60R/kg" we argue the toss that it's only what we arrived with, but he won't budge. He hands BJ a coupon and sends him to a desk in the front corner of the hall to pay. Then it's my turn, big bag on, 18kgs!! Wooohooo! Noooo, I have to put my pack on too! Shit!! 26kgs. I turn to him and say "OK I'll change into my big boots" and start to pull them out of my bag, as I do so he relents and says that he'll only charge me 4kgs too, just to get rid of me and the ever impatiently growing queue behind me. HAHA! The downside is that we can't dodge paying as he has kept our passports, he's been here before. After some fruitless wandering we eventually find the correct desk to pay. The girl there speaks no English and attempts to charge BJ 1140r, we guess that she's trying to charge him as 24kgs over. Another round of bartering ensues, we write down 60R x 4kgs = 240R but she counters with 390R, BJ takes it and figures she's just made and easy 150R, about three quid. Before she has chance to pull the same stroke with me I point out the difference on my ticket, ARSE! she's charged me 390R too! Back across to the ticket desk to retrieve our passports, indignantly he returns them and points us around to the customs desk. BJ goes through one desk and I dodge round to another, the race is on. Trouble with ticket, that's checked and is ok, then through the scanner, it goes off, crap! but I get patted down by a rather hot looking lady official (not all bad) but there's a problem with my bag!  What? She says that something's wrong, "Is it the flask?" No? Another, sterner looking lady points to the image of a knife on the banned items poster. BJ figures it must be my Leatherman, f**k! I don't want to lose that. I start pulling all the crap out of my bag, big boots, fleece, ooops skanky boxers, shorts and . . . they tell me to go, but are, according to BJ, laughing at all the kit I have dragged out. Still we're through.  In to a waiting area and in the corner a small snack stand, so it's caviar and Earl Grey while we wait for the flight. Not too shabby! The flight is steaming, no AC on this plane either.

We're in Moscow again before we know it, no traumas. Hunt the bags, grab a trolley and dive through to International Departures, a quick stop at instant tickets and straight to the check-in desk, hhmmm the bags?, again no traumas! Upstairs and through more searches, what are they expecting to happen around here? A quick dive through duty free, a bite to eat and then down to the gate (which they seem to change with great frequency). Next door is a Fosters bar so we grab our last Russian beer and try to get a discount because of my surname, which causes laughs with the staff but alas not a saving. Through the gate and out on to the plane, now this is a classy craft, leather seats, loads of space and we're getting fed, can't be bad, oh! and DVD screens on the back of the seats (am I missing the Tupolevs? Nah).  The front page of the English news papers show the devastation of riots throughout the UK? What has been happening since we've been away, it hasn't been that long. The food's good, we're having fun with the stewardesses and we're going home! But Elbrus hasn’t seen the last of us, that mountain owes us a summit picture so we'll see you back here in 2012.

E-Bob signs off!

Oh and BJ says "seeya!"