Conquering Mt. Kilimanjaro for charity

A 16-strong team of British volunteers is planning to conquer Mount Kilmanjaro in Tanzania to raise money for The Flying Angel, a charity vessel providing home comforts to seafarers off the coast of the UAE.

The vessel is sponsored by the Angel Appeal charity – the UAE chapter of The Mission to Seafarers.

Alexi Trenouth, Inga Stevens, Teagan Rowlands and Kelly Seed are part of the expedition that will begin a six-day trek on August 7 climbing 5,891 metres to reach the top of the highest mountain in Africa.

School chums

Trenouth, 24, Stevens, 28, and Rowlands, 24, are long-time friends since they went to school together at Dubai College.

They've all grown up spending a great deal of their time at the Dubai Offshore Sailing Club, where Rowlands, a jewellery designer, met Seed last year.

Seed, a sailing instructor at the club, is the most experienced climber among the four, having conquered three peaks in England. The group will trek for about six hours on each of the first five days. On the sixth day, however they'll have to trek for 16 hours starting off at 1am to reach the snow-capped summit around 6am. They will then begin their descent soon as temperatures on the peak can go down to -25 degrees Celsius.

“It's more of a mental challenge,'' said Stevens, a freelance journalist, adding “the biggest problem will be altitude sickness.''

The group will have to brave every type of climate, as they start in the jungle where it's warm, then go through the desert before experiencing snow on the peak.

The trek will be led by five-time Kilimanjaro veteran Paul Oliver of Absolute Adventure, who has decided to take the Machame route, which is said to be the most beautiful and less travelled.

Porters will carry the gear and set up tents at night. Each team member will be in charge of carrying a pack of about 15k with including water, high-energy food, medicine and clothes.

The group has already begun a bi-weekly boot camp this week, which will go on through July. The camp consists of resistance training, cardio and legs, core and back training.

“We're really excited but apprehensive,'' Trenouth said.

In January, Trenouth came up with the Angel Appeal KilImanjaro Challenge and began recruiting volunteers.

Each individual is to raise Dh20,000, and the four adventurers are hoping to organise a African theme ball in mid May to raise more money. Two-thirds of the money raised will go towards the charity, while the rest will be used to pay for the actual trek, guides and porters. The team members will pay for their flight, visa and kit.

“We want to make Angel Appeal more widespread,'' said Trenouth, a fundraiser for the charity. “We would have nothing without the sacrifice of the seafarers, who spend sometimes up to eight weeks on boats without their family, as more than 99 per cent of all goods come by sea.''

For more information on the ball and the challenge, contact angelclimb09@gmail.com.

Bubble

The Flying Angel is a support boat which goes out to ships in the anchorage off the East Coast of the UAE since 2007 and provides a relaxing environment with phone and email access, a library, food and medical supplies.