Heading for the Hills

I got an interesting email from a friend a couple days ago, asking for help for her friend. She needed donations from people willing to sponsor her climb of the three tallest peaks in Great Britain–Snowdon (in Wales and 1085m tall), Scafell Pike (in England and 978m tall), and Ben Nevis (in Scotland and 1344m tall). This is a challenge done by the Meningitis Trust three times a year to help support those that are currently fighting meningitis and those that have been affected by it. Many other groups do this climb as well–apparently thousands make the trek every year–but this one involves raising money directly for the charity and importantly, doesn’t require you to organize teams or transportation, since the mountains are a good 500 miles apart by road. The Three Peaks Challenge is done in the span of 36 hours, starting on Snowdon and ending on Ben Nevis the next day.

This email not only inspired me to give money, but also to consider doing the climb myself. I will be in England during the first climb (May 18-20), and I think it would be an amazing experience. I loved climbing the mini-mountains of the Glass House Mountains in Queensland, Australia, and doing the Tongariro Crossing (an 11-mile hike around the three volcanoes south of Lake Taupo in NZ), and this would be just a step further. I’m already working on my fitness as it is, and it’s always easier to stay in shape when you have a goal to work towards. Plus, I’d be raising money for a good cause, so I would not only be accomplishing all this for myself, but for those I’ve helped with the money I’ve raised.

Of course, one of the issues is time. It’s January and I’m just now considering doing the walk, but I figure that I can raise the money in that amount of time, as long as I make a decision soon. The only main problem is the idea of asking my grandparents. They are the reason for my visit to England; I haven’t visited them there since 2004 because I’ve been hopping over to Australia every chance I get, so it’ll be great to spend time with them. The challenge will only be a couple days, and I will be able to catch the train to the starting point and back; the only thing my parents and I worry about is worrying them. I don’t want to stress them out and make them feel they have to drive me all over the country and make sure that I don’t fall off any mountains. After all, I am rather clumsy and ended up in the hospital on my last visit to England…after falling into a parked car…but, all of my accidents have been stupid, while doing mundane activities. I’ve been fine on all of the adventure activities I’ve done in NZ and Australia (knock on wood). I’ll have to see–as much as I would thoroughly enjoy this opportunity (as much as I may not claim that while making my way to the final peak), I do not want to inconvenience my grandparents or give them any undue stress. All I can do is ask and listen to their reaction.

We’ll see what happens, but I can hope.

Also, James (my boyfriend) has just bought his ticket to visit me! He’ll be arriving on Australia Day–January 26th–just in time to celebrate the holiday with lots of my favorite Bundaberg Rum and Tim Tams. Maybe we’ll even have a BBQ with plenty of lamb–as long as the weather isn’t as bloody freezing as it is right now (we’re hovering around freezing and might be covered in ice by tomorrow morning!). Can’t wait til he gets here, since it’s been nearly 5 months since I left Oz.

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This entry was posted on Monday, January 15th, 2007 at 11:28 pm and is filed under Australia, England, Three Peaks Challenge. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.