Flying doctors conquer highest mountain
 Norfolk-based doctors Craig and Rae Oranmore-Brown have just conquered Mount Kilimamjaro, the highest mountain in Africa to help raise £6,000 to kick-start their dream of building an aircraft to provide medical aid to poor people in rural Africa.
Friday, October 6
Craig writes: Sorry about the communication problems, but the best news is that we are writing this from our hotel in Moshi after a fantastic six days on the mountain. We had some wonderful hiking the first four days with our group who were great.
The afternoon of the 4th day we hiked a further two hours to the next camp (Barafu) whilst our friends (who had extended their stay for acclimatisation) stayed at Karanga Camp. We readied ourselves, had an evening meal and slept for about 2hrs before rising at 23h00 to tea and biscuits and set off for the final push at 24h15.
 It was a beautiful moonlit night and we switched off our head torches as there was sufficient moonlight to see by. Our guide, Jackobo, led the way, one slow step after the other, whilst his assistant Joshua brought up the rear. Hours of one step at a time, with the gradient changing from 60 deg to a final 75 deg slope. We passed a few groups along the way, some with their leaders singing to urge them along, others like us, in silence.
We reached Stella Point at 04h30 and Uhuru peak at 05h30, before sunrise. We watched the sun come up on the highest point in Africa and gave thanks to God for getting us there. Our camera froze on top and refused to work, but with stuffing it inside my ski-suit I managed to get a couple before it froze up again! We also have two impressive gold certificates to prove our efforts.
Final preparation, Friday September 29
Craig writes: Its the final countdown now!
 All packed (see picture on right) except the sheepskin boots for the nights which have been highly recommended as this is when your toes are likely to fall off! Rae is off to the shops now to get those for us, along with the essential duct tape for the DIY en-route.
We were skiing in the Swiss alps at -24'C last year, and survived that, so we decided to take our ski suits and mittens (including the all-important hand warmers - those things are amazing). I remember my eyelids freezing together so that I physically could not open them (not good while skiing!) I therefore bought a decent pair of skiing goggles and we will be taking these as well.
On the other hand we will have lightweight wicking shirts and shorts for the hot weather at the bottom. Thank goodness we will have porters!
We will have some high energy stack to give us boost up the last push. Water freezes in the bottle up there so we are using bladders which will be wrapped up in our clothes in our day packs - even the tube needs to be wrapped in socks!
Our day packs are designed to keep the pack away from your back which will help tremendously to keep cool at the bottom but may aid freezing at the top. We have water purifying tablets but also managed to find some tablets that are supposed to take the ghastly iodine taste away after the water is sanitised - I'll tell you if they work.
We'll be taking our running shoes to reduce the number of days we will be in our boots. I am hoping we will only need our boots for the top three days. Unfortunately we don't have a TV so we have not been able to watch the programme about Kili that has been showing this week, maybe that was actually a good thing. Some things are best not thought about for too long! We have face wipes for our evening bed-baths.
Then there's the first aid kit - the kit I have in my car weighs about 15kg so we thought we better cut back a bit, but a bunch of blister stuff and anti-mountain-sickness drugs are essential. There is also the strapping for the poor old knees for the trek back down the mountain.
Rae has managed to find this whizz thing that, well, sort of makes a man out of her - she can wee standing up!
No, believe it or not, we are not actually taking the kitchen sink! We have been given good advice from others who have done the climb.
Day One, Saturday September 30
We fly out to Tanzania for the start of the climb.
It is out of bed after just a few hours sleep and off to Norwich Airport for a very early 6.15am flight to Amsterdam and then six hours to Kilimanjaro’s own international airport at the foot of the mountain.
Tonight is a comfortable stay at the Springlands Hotel near Moshi on the southern slopes of Kilimanjaro.
Day Two, Sunday October 1
A drive to Machame Village at 4,900m for a pre-climb briefing and to meet our guide for the trek and then a five to six hour climb to Machame Camp at 9,800m.
If you would like to sponsor them and help start building the aircraft visit the website
www.mercyflyers.org or ring 0845 130 3683.
If you would like to contact Craig and Rae about the charity, email: craig@mercyflyer.com
| 