What's more ridiculous than 7 middle aged professional men deciding to scale Mt Kilimanjaro - at 5895m, Africa's largest peak and the world's tallest free-standing mountain? Nothing really, except including a bloke with a heart that needs a machine to keep it going!
Like the seven dwarves, we will be trudging along carrying loads on our backs day in and day out and like the seven samurai, we may not all return at the end of our adventure...... Well, we probably will but none of us is likely to be the same again after seven days of stinking it up without showers and squeezing into shared tents every night. Man, I can smell us already...
Why the... ??
Well, why not? A dirty big mountain lurking in Tanzania, tall, ominous but accessible - one of the world's 'seven summits', screaming out to be conquered...okay, so only about 4,000 people have beaten us to it (last year alone!!) but nevertheless, it remains one of the truly remarkable things to achieve in life before kicking the bucket. It's a definite bucket-lister..... and the average punter will never accomplish it.
Yeah, so bucket-list, TICK, but why else would we travel half way round the world to attempt a seven day, 90km hike up a 6000m mountain in temperatures dropping below minus 10 and exposing ourselves to the risk of cerebral and/or pulmonary edema? Middle-age crisis I hear someone cry......yeah, well that too but for me there is also something else...
Christmas Eve, 2003 was either the luckiest or unluckiest day of my life. It all depends how you read it I suppose, but either way the lovely Mrs Orf got me to the hospital just as my heart reached the point of no return and I was saved by a bunch of cool headed emergency doctors pumping me full of drugs and zapping me back to life. Bit of a shock...boom, boom!
It makes you reflect on life and consider your mortality. At thirty-five, I wasn't much interested in thinking about my mortality, but there it was...a heart slowly degenerating into a useless mass of fibrous tissue, unable to conduct that magic spark that turns over the pump. So, now in my early forties and with time on my hands, I've decided to try and do a bit of good for some kids who are struggling....
October last year, I went to Zambia to teach some aids orphans to play rugby. I quickly found that before they could play rugby however, they needed to actually eat! Great kids with lots of enthusiasm and bugger-all else. So from my own pocket and with a few donations from friends following my blog, I fed the kids for a month and left them with stores to last a couple more.
With the help of some sponsors and donations from mad individuals, I plan to return to Livingston following the climb with some funds for the kids that I hope will contribute to making a permanent difference to their lives. Negotiations are looking good with one potential sponsor already!
Stay tuned, for updates on our adventures.......five months of torturous training lies ahead of the team who are scattered around the globe. And for me, there is some serious sponsor hunting to be done!!
Kilimanjaro....ni tu ya kilima!
Fantastic Orf....inspirational. Go get 'em dude!You guys are the new Incredibles! Best of Aussie luck. Dee xx
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