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It is probably fair to say that the vision for this enterprise was Gary's and that Barbara wasn't going to let him go alone! One might think it was inspired by this Monty Python video clip but as Gary describes below it all came about from the awakening of an old dream to climb this very large hill.
For as long as I can remember I have been inspired by and felt driven to climb mountains. Why? Who knows? I guess it’s in the blood or in the genes but either way there’s not a lot I can do about it. I have been to, or in, the mountains for as long as I can remember, starting with small hikes in the Austrian Alps aged 6, moving through the UK mountains as a student and on to hiking and climbing in the Alps and other European ranges as a fully fledged member of the working population based in mainland Europe. Indeed, during the 1980s Kilimanjaro ranked alongside dreams of climbing in the Himalaya or the Andes but work commitments, lack of money, and a general lack of accessibility to such activities in those days, meant those dreams remained just that, dreams. Later, of course, we did our bit for the continuance of the species resulting in even less money and less time, so during our children's informative years dreams of climbing Kilimanjaro or any other significant hill faded into obscurity. This year I hit the big “five O” and seemingly everyone asked what I would be doing to mark that questionably momentous occasion. Initially I just brushed the issue to one side but one day late in 2008 over breakfast, a pint in the local hostelry, or wherever, that old dream suddenly popped up and sort of smacked me firmly between the eyes. Was this really the reawakening of a dream or just some warped manifestation of the good old midlife crisis? I have no idea and having in general decided not to join the crisis club could not possibly put it down to that. The idea swished and swirled around in my head for a while but kept bashing against the edges of my inner self trying to get out, trying to become public knowledge, trying to become a reality! There was nothing for it: I simply had to broach the issue with the family. Initially, and although reasonably polite, Barbara thought I had lost my marbles but our kids of 16 and 18 were more vocal and less polite. Sure they had endured the Alps since being carried on daddy’s back up some long and winding path and more recently had pointed long, hard and vocally at the signs warning visitors not to attempt the Grand Canyon rim-to-river-to-rim in a day only to see their father pointing downwards, suggesting they plunge into a very dark abyss at 4:30am on a cold August morning but this time they just thought the cuckoos had flown the roost and that dad was now certifiable! Perhaps they were right, who knows? Be that as it may, and shortly before all thoughts of dreams or adventure got lost in the festivities of Christmas, there we were with this enthusiastic father, somewhat stunned and bemused family and that dream, out of the box, sitting smack, bang, in the middle of the table, where it stayed until the bird had been roasted, the waistline stretched and goodbye said to 2008. Well, actually I think it got brushed off the table and into the bin from the family’s perspective but for me it was somehow sitting there, glaring at me, every time I passed by that spot! As this site has now been created, the dream has become a reality and the rest, as they say, is history.
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