Metro

Welcome to AF! Hope you have a fantastic time here!

I remember thinking I responded to this topic but obviously not. I have a pretty strong opinion when it comes to all things vaping, smoking, alcohol consumption and drugs. Maybe it's partly to do with religious views but even so I feel like without the inclusion of faith I would hold the same values and belief as I've just always been this way but anyway yes, I think vaping is pretty silly. I honestly feel like I'm most cases it's done the opposite of what it was made to do. I never saw that many teens smoking cigarettes while I was in school but as soon as vapes became mainstream absolutely everyone from the ages of 12 to 18 was puffing on the silly little highlighter in my local town. And on the note of peer pressure. Addiction can start at any point and I've never known anyone to say they're glad they gave into peer pressure and started. Stick to your gut and moral values.

Feeling super overwhelmed but always just trying to stay positive!

Welcome to AF! Hope you have a great time here!

Yeah I've heard that due to a lot of protests about the guides in Machu Picchu that it's gotten hard to get up and also the crazy weather. Unfortunely the same is happening with Mnt Blanc due to the changes in weather and terrain so before we know it, the mountain may no longer be climable

Hello everyone! Wow, well, I think this blog entry is very much overdue, I apologise greatly for not making a post sooner or ever making that post about the gear or training (if you're interested, feel free to DM me) So firstly thank you to everyone for the support! The goal was reached, and all the money was given to MRF!!!! (huge thank you to @Animedragonfor the donations) As for the journey, well, I'll do my best to talk about it while also keeping it short. I'm afraid I don't remember the dates or times, but I'll do my best! So firstly me and my fiancee did this together along with a group of around 25 other students from Ireland. We arrived at Dublin airport early, where we met the whole group for the first time (some of us had met at fundraisers but didn't get to know each other until that moment) From there we flew to Doha and then flew into Dar Es Salaam. After a 7-hour bus trip through Tanzania, we arrived at Moshi (a small town near the base of Kilimanjaro), where we would stay the night. Waking up early, we headed for Kili, this was a beautiful trip, and honestly, seeing Africa was just honestly one of the most beautiful things in the world, a real eye-opener. Arriving at Kili, we were greeted by some really adorable monkeys at the gate and had to wait a couple of hours for our gear to be unloaded and sorted among the porters. we took the Machame route which is a total of 7 days, 5 up, 2 down. We started day 1 through the rainforest which was definitely a very difficult day, we arrived at camp much later than expected and had to use our head torches (Machame Camp) Within the first day my fiancee became very sick but managed to push through day 2 towards Shira Camp, which I found quite a pleasant and beautiful walk. Shira Camp was definitely breathtaking. The next day was when the altitude started to get to me, we went up to the Lava Tower for lunch and back down to the Barranco Camp where we would stay the night before tackling the amazing Barranco wall. At this point I was getting sick and suffering from some crazy migraines. We woke up nice and early and did the Barranco wall which was for sure the best way to start the day, absolutely love climbing and scrambling up the wall! but I didn't expect the very long walk after towards Barafu camp. At Barafu camp we prepared to summit and left at around 1am at night if I remember correctly, this was the most painful and exhausting day of my life, our noses were pumping blood and our brains were foggy, I swear I sleep walked half of it, at every break you just wanted to close your eyes and give up, every step was heavy and painful and it just never ended, there was a sea of headlamps slowly making their way up the mountain and it was dreadful, but finally at around 7am we made it to the top!, at that moment all the pain just vanished, it was a fresh of life, we got our pictures and within 15 minutes were heading down. Now if you thought getting up there was hard, coming down was just as bad, it was like a slip and slide of ash! absolutely dreadful experience, me and my fiancee swore to each other that we wouldn't do something like it again (that's a lie now) but we did it, and we were exhausted. the two days down was dreadful but we were all looking forward to a shower and a cold Coca-Cola at the bottom, it kept our spirits up. And that's it in summary! Now I know there is so much more detail and trust me I will give it, so many stories to tell and so many pictures to share, but I will save that for the next blog post! I just felt I needed to share that it was completed. So next post I will share some photos (at least one from each day) and then also some stories and what happened after we got down! Buuuut I wanted to make this post because What's next? Well We are thinking either Machu Picchu or Mont Blanc!!!!!!! And this time I will do a way better job documenting them with videos!!!

pretty cold and wet, but looking forward to the summer months!

Been considering playing through the Witcher 3 again on steam deck or RDR 2. Just don't really have much time

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Welcome to AF! Hope you have a great time here!

Hello and welcome to AF! Absolutely love classic rock as well, two very good bands you have there!