Goodbye Rongai, Hello Lemosho

"Hi everyone,

I just wanted to provide you a brief update on a few things that have been happening behind the scenes over the past week or two, and also let you know of some actions that you will be required to take over the course of the next few days.

As you will be aware from previous comms, to make the trek worthwhile and affordable there is a minimum level of participation required, which we haven’t managed to yet meet. At the moment there are a number of places still open, meaning that costs would be prohibitive if we went ahead.

The result is that we have been asked to consider moving those already signed up to this trek onto another open trek a couple of weeks earlier. This would bring both treks up to the numbers required to allow everyone signed up to take part.

What Changes?

Aside from the dates of the trek nothing else changes. You will still travel the same amazing group of people on the same fantastic route. You will still get to visit one of VSO’s projects. You will still get very, very tired and grumpy as you get closer to the summit.

Some Details

The trek we propose to merge with runs from the 26^th August to the 5^th September. There is no change in costs."

So begins an email I got just over a week ago. That's the email that tells me that the trek I was going to go on isn't going to happen. That if I want to go on a similar trek, I would have to miss my sister's wedding (the one she moved the date of so I could attend the original one). That email was the beginning to what turned out to be a hellish week for related and unrelated reasons, and, as you might imagine, a lot of stress. I wanted to take on Kilimanjaro as an all-consuming personal challenge - the fundraising, the mental and physical preparation. I wanted to take it on as the major focus of this year - of something I could be proud of having the guts to take on. And here was me being told actually, it might not happen. I felt like I'd been punched in the gut. I did not want to post here until I knew what was going to happen. A weeks worth of frantic emails back and forth later, I finally stand on somewhat solid ground again.

The good news is I AM STILL TREKKING UP KILIMANJARO.

The good news is also ALL THE MONEY I RAISED IS STILL GOING TO VSO.

The may be good may be bad news is that I am now taking a different route up. The open dates I could find are for a trek following the Lemosho route, not the Rongai route. Since I haven't been up either I can't really say if this is good or bad. Lemosho is supposed to be very beautiful, and it takes a day longer so allows greater time for acclimitization. I think it's overall longer, more arduous, and possibly more crowded. But as I won't know the difference I'll call it a draw.

The bad news is that I will no longer be doing a VSO site visit. While the money is still going to VSO, I cannot make the VSO specific trek dates. So while previously I would have been hiking with my colleagues from around the world, all in support of the same cause and having the chance to see where the money is going, now I will be hiking with whoever else from where-ever else happened to sign up for this date. And since this trek is not for any particular charity, there's no site visit associated with it.

The bad news is also that it's also more expensive. It's longer and thus has greater costs, and the deposit is a whopping 340 gbp more, more or less. That's over $500 USD more to go on the trek I didn't really choose. That's not from money I'm raising, that is all out of pocket. I think I'll get some of it back since I'm not actually using the flight from the UK that's part of that cost.

I also believe the fundraising targets are very slightly different. When I have confirmation of all the numbers, I'll update my targets and re-assess where I am in fundraising.

But again, the important thing is that this is just one more challenge on the way. One that can be overcome. I'm still doing the trek, damnit.