Community Groups
The Kilimanjaro Nine - Challenge for Charity
By
Sep 23, 2003, 17:00

Last Friday morning nine courageous Mayo men left Castlebar to scale the heights of Mount Kilimanjaro in Kenya.

Ready for the Off at Castlebar Station

The "Kilimanjaro Nine", led by Christy Loftus, Newport include Enda Kenny TD, Leader of Fine Gael, John Maughan, Mayo team Manager, Noel Howley, Dublin and Foxford, Paddy McGuinness, Castlebar, Larry McEllin, Kiltimagh, Martin Moran, Celbridge and Newport Vinny Wrynn, Leixlip and Fr. Pat Farragher, Castlebar.

The group flew from Dublin to Heathrow and then travelled on via Rome to Addis Ababa before finally arriving in Kilimanjaro airport late on Saturday evening.

On Monday morning the Mayo men struck out for the mountain to join the Rongai Trail, which is one of the more difficult and less travelled routes. By this Friday evening (26^thsept) the team will have reached the Kibo bass camp where they will tackle the main peak (Uruhu). Apart from the problems of altitude sickness, this will be the most difficult phase of the climb, complicated by the bitter cold and high wind chill factor with temperatures down as low as minus 20.

The assault on the peak will take eight hours. The team will begin this the steepest and most demanding, part of the climb by torchlight at around 1am Saturday morning. They will plod very slowly in darkness and cold on a switchback trail through loose volcanic scree to reach the summit after which they will beat a hasty retreat in order to get off the peak before sundown. This day will be extremely long and hard on the team with between 11-15 hours walking at high altitude.

Four of the group including Enda Kenny, John Maughan, Noel Howley and Paddy McGuinness will travel back to Ireland immediately arriving in Dublin on the morning of Monday 29^th September. The remainder of the group will arrive back at a later date.

The climb is being used to raise funds for three Mayo charities: Western Alzheimer’s Foundation, Western Care Association and St. Dominick’s Homes for the Elderly, Newport.

All members of the group are paying their own expenses so every euro raised will go directly to the three charities concerned.

Donations can be made directly to The Kilimanjaro ’03 Account, Bank of Ireland, Castlebar Account No. 87184147

Michael Donnelly's Mayopics.com website has more photographs of the group leaving from Castlebar Station on Friday.

© Copyright 2003 by www.castlebar.ie and the author