Visit to India for the Grand Opening!

Well folks it has been almost 18 months - but finally all the hard work has paid off! Jack and Anna have recently returned from India, having been in Guwahati for the official opening of the children's facilities there - as sponsored by all of you!

This was a great visit and Anna was thrilled every minute of it. Jack and Anna went together and spent 5 days there, at the schools, orphanages and also the new centre for Juvenile Justice - opened in her honour.

She can be pictured here by the official plaque in her name. This was a great "Daddy Moment". On arriving for the official opening, the lights were out. Jack noticed the fuse had blown (the fuse box was open) so he got a chair and flicked the switch. Then the entire building was thrown into darkness, and 500 people started to scream.... another embarrassing moment for Anna.....

Part of the trip was a visit to the slums. This really hammered home just how hard some people have it. We were amazed at how the families could live in such squalor and yet the mothers still get the kids to school clean every day.

It was quite desperate. These people have more or less nothing. No sanitation or fresh water, little food, no space - families of 6 crowded into a space of 10ft by 8ft. Incredibly bad. Anna had some balloons with her which she gave to the kids and we had a bit of fun but this was a really grim part of the trip. The smell will stay with us forever. The people were very intrigued to see us there and for sure Anna was equally bewildered. She finally realised why it was so important that she had raised funds for them and made a difference.
The kids that live in this slum get picked up by a school bus every day and taken to the local (Childaid Network sponsored) school where they get basic education and are fed and cared for while they are there.

Indeed this little girl here goes to the school every day. Her brother does not go although is 8 years old. Martin Kasper and Jack tried to persuade the father that the son ought to go to school as well but the father just looked at them as if they were mad - how could this be of any help?
However, Anna did join the kids at school and they played a bit and she had some gifts for them (Crayons, hair bands, toy cars etc) and they were very happy to have them. It was amazing how clean this little girl was compared to where she lived, her mother deserves a medal.

Anna's favourite place was one of the orphanages which took care of the kids when they were not at school. The teachers were very sweet and the kids seemed very happy. They were wild and boisterous like all kids, but what was amazing was how they took care of each other. One little girl had Downs Syndrome and every time we saw her the older kids were carrying her, or kissing and cuddling her. They were a great team, and very very happy. It really made sense to us that all the money that had been raised had gone to very good use and was making a big impact with a lasting benefit. The kids are getting proper education, food, clothing, love and attention, and above all, sound medical care and education to prepare them for the real world. There were also kids there who were not setting up their own tailoring business, or hiring out rickshaws etc.
Anna was sad to leave. Indeed she was insisting on staying longer but all good things have to come to an end. Fortunately the good work of Childaid Network and the Don Bosco mission continue - and they looked after Jack and Anna like a couple of VIPs while they were there.
Anna hopes to get back sometime next year and follow up with her new friends.
In the meantime, from all of us, thanks to all of you for your fantastic support, both financial support for the charity as well as moral support for Anna - you have all made a huge impact in many many ways.

Hectic weeks after the trip

Donations: 121.128€
We were expecting some publicity on the arrival, but certainly not this. We had a TV crew waiting for us at the airport, who then came with us home and did a very nice shot for the HR Hessenschau program. In the course of next two weeks Anna gave interviews to 3 journalists, so we are looking forward to see some reports coming out soon.

The most exciting thing though was the live interview on the radio. To be able to see how it all works and be part of it was really great and Anna enjoyed it very much (as well as being able to skip the school). But now the time has come to get some well deserved rest (well apart of some more hiking in Slovakia, maybe Ben Nevis again and a week in Austrian Alps - no we did not have enough yet). We are packing to leave for our summer holidays and think about next adventures for Anna (Katie, Bobby & Sam).

THANKS TO ALL FOR YOUR MANY ENCOURAGING MESSAGES AND DONATIONS. Anna was worried after the climb that people will think she has failed. She has received many many mails saying quite the opposite. What an achievement for a 9 year old girl! Even the fact that we made the right decisions and turned her back so close to the top has been accepted very positively and we appreciate all your wonderful messages (now my task is to print them all out for Anna´s memory box, so I am not so happy to have to sit at the printer for such a long time, oh well...).

The final climb!

Ever tried to sleep at 3200m? We just did, and you cannot! The heart pumps so hard you have no chance to doze off. So rather tired, we started off at 6:00am (see photo) and set off with around 100 other people. Anna and our group were amongst the first on the mountain path and very quickly it became obvious that most people would not be making it to the top. We seemed on track to be at the top in around 3-4 hours, and Anna was walking well, the gap between Anna and the others growing as we went. The conditions were not too bad, but there was rain, snow and hailstones in small measure.
We reached the ridge around 09:15am, at a height of around 3,990m or so, and we could see the Sahara desert on the other side as we looked south.

Then, with just 15 minutes to go, at 4069m (98m from the top, or 2% - see photo, yes it could be anyone in there, not just Anna), Anna quickly changed and declared extreme tiredness and cold, and the guide was very quick to take off her ski goggles and look at her eyes and recognized she was clearly suffering from altitude sickness – and that she needs to go down, go down right now and fast. Anna was distraught. Her first question was “What about the money for the kids in India” and the guide said that in such conditions her Daddy was allowed to complete the climb for her, and he picked her up and literally ran down with her on his shoulders to 3400m or so. Sonia did her best to keep up. Anna stated constantly on the way down she was cold and needed her bed, and according to our guide, she was slumped over him, barely awake. Although later Anna recalled that he was running downhill “like a crazy madman”! Then suddenly, at 3400m she suddenly said that she wanted to carry on walking. This time however, Mohamed insisted it needed to be downhill….

So Jack and Andrea (our former au pair) duly got to the top with the second guide a few minutes later.
We all reconvened back at the refuge and Anna was her old self again, but still worried about whether or not this counted as a climb of the mountain or not. Everyone at the refuge was quite clear that of course it counts - she could see the Sahara! - and the guide pointed out that this is the highest a girl of her age has ever made it. Boys have made it to this height, but not to the top.
We then walked back down to the base camp/village at 1740m. Anna had been expected to take the mules down but instead walked almost all of it on her own – which was around 15kms or so downhill. This was a huge amount of walking, around ten hours in one day. Jack recorded 3400 calories on his polar watch, 2250 of which were for the 3200-4167 ascent and back, 1150 being for the three and a half hour descent. This is the biggest workout any of the adults have had in a day, and Anna more or less matched it!

When we had dinner, Mohamed, our main guide, presented Anna with a signed scroll that acknowledged her as “the 9 year old girl to get to the highest point on Mount Toubkal, unassisted” having walked all the way there from Imlil. She was very happy to receive this. We all slept 11 hours last night and Anna was of course the first one up in the morning! We will now head to Marrakech and spend the next 2 days there. Anna wants to go shopping in the grand Souk…. So anyone thinking she wants to be a “tough boy” is widely mistaken, she still clearly has some female characteristics…..
And Sona and Jack will be having a celebratory beer there…..because alcohol is not allowed in this area of Morocco….

Anna has already agreed a five day tour with the guide for next year which he is sure will better acclimatize her for the climb. We got to know Mohamed quite well during our tour and he wasd a super guide. Very fond of Anna (who he found no end of amusement in referring to as "Banana"), he spent a lot of time with her and was very impressed with how hard she always tried and how strong she was. So he has defined a very good plan for her for next year, and we are all excited to go back.

If anyone wants an excellent trip to the Atlas mountains, you can find a very friendly and well informed guide at http://www.trekkinginmorocco.com/.

In the meantime, he has promised to look after the stray kittens that Anna befriended during her stay...

Reached the refuge

Today has been very hard!

We got up well rested at 0730 and Anna was still tired after her very long day yesterday.
We started the ascent at 0830 (delayed as the guide had to vote today!) and we got off to a flying start.

We recognised that despite the sunny weather, a storm was brewing so we decided to skip lunch and head direct to the refuge.
This meant climbing from 1750m to 3200m non stop, but Anna did this brilliantly and we arrived 1900 calories later around 1:30pm.
Starving!


Anna is wrestling with the local food, knocked up by our travelling cook but the rest of us are loving it.

Twenty minutes after we arrived at the refuge, a thunderstorm broke out along with snow and then rain. This has lasted four hours so far.
Hopefully it clears up because at 0500 we are off to the peak.
That is a mere 1000m ascent but at least Jack and Sonia are feeling the lack of oxygen, it is quite a difference, with even slight inclines causing a bit more effort than normal.

We expect tomorrow to be tough.
Our guide climbs here 3 times a week and has said he has never seen a 9 year old reach the top before. But then he does not know wee Anna!
All going well, we will reach the peak at 1100 or so.

Thanks again for all the support.

Arrival in base camp, Imlil

We have safely arrived at the Base Camp!
Against all odds, in a 25 year old Mercedes with just over 1 million kms on the clock, we made it safely to the base camp at 1740 metres.

Anna has been more interested than normal to look out of the car window on the way – Camels, Mules, Goats and Sheep all over the place! We have met the mountain guide who has advised us of a new plan, having assessed Anna.

We shall now proceed at 0800 tomorrow directly to the refuge at 3200m (so a 1500m climb in one go), where we will rest for the night. We expect this will take 7 hours of hard climbing.

We will spend the night in the refuge but have to get up at 0500 for the trek to the top of the mountain (this will be Jack’s fourth rise at 0500 or sooner this week so hopefully he will not snore) and we hope to be there by 1200.

We will try and catch the sunrise over the Sahara on the ascent, but will only stay at the top for 20 minutes or so. It is expect to be around 0°C at the top.

The good news is that we are told the weather is likely to be better than reported in the newspapers. The bad news is he has told us that 1 in 3 people get sick and they as a policy do not discuss continuing with you, and you are immediately brought down. So we will have two guides, in case one or two people get sick, to give Anna a better chance of making it to the top should she prove to be made of the toughest stuff!

Keep watching, we will provide an update tomorrow from the Refuge.

Thanks to Andrea Meister for managing the blog in our absence. We will just have mobile phones some snaps to relay from now on.

Thanks for all the best wishes for the climb

This amazing bouquet of flowers has just arrived for Anna with the best wishes for the climb. Thanks to all of you for the great support (and donations 114.307€ today) and good wishes for the trip (we will need all our luck to get the weather we need).

All ready to go

All packed, healthy and very very excited (well not quite that much about having to get up at 4am to catch the flight). We have been checking the weather forecast for several days and every time we check it says something different on the scale between cloudy and heavy rain. How this is possible in sunny Morocco is not quite clear so we have contacted our mountain guide, and his response is "About the weather ,here in the mountains they don't give right information,so please don't think about it,just bring your water proof cloths.we wish that the weather is good" which one can only translate as "yes, the weather forecast is right and you will be soaked". Having read that (and still suffering from post Ben Nevis weather trauma ) I bought Anna proper gore-tex jacket. Which of course means it will be nice and sunny (if the Murphy`s laws work down there) now.


So this is how it goes:

Friday12/06/2009
26° Rain. Light air, 1 m/s from south-southeast. 2 mm precipitation per 24 hours.

Saturday13/06/2009
19° Rain. Light air, 1 m/s from southwest. 4 mm precipitation per 24 hours.

Sunday14/06/2009
23° Partly cloudy. Light breeze, 3 m/s from west-northwest. 0 mm precipitation per 24 hours.

We have asked our good friend Andrea Meister to update the blog while we are gone (THANKS !!!). We will send her the report every day and she will put it here for you to see.