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Metro

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Blog Entries posted by Metro

  1. Metro
    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!!! 
     
  2. Metro

    Charity
    Hi everyone! 
    So I have been very inactive on here both on the forum side and updating this blog, with working in Spain for the last 4 months and then my father passing away unexpectedly everything has been very chaotic but the grind to the top of Africa never stopped. 
    With our vaccines got last week (Hep B, Diptheria, and Yellow Fever) luckily my Tetanus was still in date! as someone who has very bad anxiety around needles hearing that we will be going through Kenya meant we'd need yellow fever vaccines quiet unfortunate but hey I managed to get through the 3 without fainting (cant say the same thing about straight after 🫢) 
    We've also been slowly getting the gear needed, I might do a post about that at some point. Really breaking through the bank account though.
    Anyway as the main focus of this trek as some of you might have known from the last post is raising money for MRF with 100% of the money donated going to them, 
    We are currently 855 euro away from the final goal of 5490!!!!!!!
    So with a final grind and push (think I've emailed over 100 businesses and not one has responded) LETS HIT THIS GOALLL WOOOOH
    (Donation page has been removed since goal has been reached) 
    (Any support is very much appreciated, whether its donation or spreading the word! <3) 
  3. Metro
    Hey everyone!
    I was debating whether or not to make this post here as it's a big window into my personal life, but as I soon realised this journey takes a leap of faith into the hands of people who I know very little about other then our shared interest in anime, as a long time member of this community I want to reach out and open this up to everyone to support as it is a global problem, I completely understand that in this current day and age money is short, but even to support and spread the word to as many people as you can then it will hopefully really boost this fundraising and help this amazing charity reach their goal, Thank you The AF family 
    "I'll be trekking to the summit of Kilimanjaro for charity on the 22nd of August 2023!
    The charity I am doing this with is the Meningitis Research Foundation aka the MRF. MRF's goal is to work alongside WHO to defeat Meningitis by 2030!
    Meningitis still affects more than 5 million people per year and is one of the leading causes of death in children under 5. It is also young adults who have a high risk of Meningitis.
    That's why I need your help, by donating/supporting this cause you are helping MRF reach its goal while also helping spread awareness through the Kilimanjaro trek. I would greatly appreciate any support whether that's a donation of any amount or spreading the word around with this link!
    All it takes is the kindness of 500 strangers to make a donation of 10 euros to reach our goal but any little bit helps a lot, and please spread the word!
    Thank you so much!
    Ross"
    (Donation page has been removed since goal has been reached) 
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