{BAR}
 
       
       
     
  BACKGROUND

My chance to climb to the summit of Kilimanjaro's Uhuru Peak, the highest point on the continent of Africa at 5895 metres began in December 1998. I managed to obtain a last minute place on a privately funded climbing expedition called "Hot Rock ‘99". The expedition aimed to travel 10000km across Africa from Cape Town to Nairobi, with a team of climbers from all over the world, climbing established routes and putting up new ones, to enable the publication of a climbing guide. The expedition would take a total of five months, but I unfortunately only managed two months. These two months would take me from Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe to Nairobi in Kenya, across six African countries.

Because I only found out about the expedition in December and was lucky enough to get a place on the trip, which was leaving the following February, I had a lot of fund raising to do. Although my financial situation was against me,I was determined to go on this trip because I had always wanted to travel to wild places, and although I'm not a climber, this seemed the ideal opportunity to see the wild side of Africa and to travel with people from all over the world with the same interests as me, and the same taste for adventure.

So, I found myself writing hundreds of begging letters to unsuspecting companies both locally and throughout the UK. I even had to arrange for my second year exams to be moved at Uni, because basically I wouldn't be here to sit them. This caused some serious head rubbing at the college of knowledge, but most things are possible, with a persuasive letter from your employer. After all he was paying the fees!

Initially I had no joy on the fund raising front, until one company agreed to pay for the summit fees to climb Kilimanjaro in return for advertising the company logo on the side of the expedition truck, and photographs on the summit holding their logo.

They were even good enough to throw in a down jacket to keep me warm on summit day. To climb Kilimanjaro has always been an ambition of mine, so to be given the chance to climb it for free as part of this expedition was a total bonus, I decided to use this opportunity as a theme to raise money for a local charity - The Roy Castle Foundation. From this point of securing my first sponsor, and re draughting my letters to even more companies, my efforts were not in vein. I managed to secure further sponsorship from three other companies, offering either cash or equipment. The fund raising for the Roy Castle Foundation was further boosted from a fund raising rock night at a local venue which proved to be a success raising £1200. Now everything was in place all that was left to do, was to get to "Vic Falls" to meet the expedition, and go exploring!!!!!


READ THE INTRODUCTION 		 

Jason's Account
BACKGROUND
INTRODUCTION
PART 1
PART 2
PART 3
PART 4


DOWNLOADS
Word File - 7.3Mb
Text File -
Zip File - 4.3Mb
Photographs

       
       
     
COPYRIGHT 1999 INFINITEZERO LTD
THIS PAGE WAS UPDATED: 18/02//2000
FOR QUESTIONS ABOUT THIS WEB SITE,
CONTACT US AT info@infinitezero.co.uk