Mini Kili Preparation List

MINI KILI PACKING LIST: Not sure what to bring?

WHAT TO WEAR
Footwear: Ideally you should have hiking boots or shoes - the ground can be wet and mucky and it will be uneven in places so sturdy footwear is very important to protect your ankles - we don't want any of our star players getting injured!

Clothing: Weather on the mountain can be very mixed so its best to layer up. It's often very windy at the top so best so bring the following: lightweight top, fleece, windbreaker/rain jacket, gloves, sun hat, wooly cap. Think all-weather gear!

A note on weather: We are going on an adventure in the great outdoors therefore we are subject to the elements. There is always a chance that fog could descend over the Galtees and if that happens we will be unable to reach the summit. Each group will have a guide who will be keeping a close watch on the weather and will advise you if they believe there is any risk.

WHAT TO BRING:
Drinks: You'll be amazed what thirsty work climbing is! Make sure to bring at least 1 litre of water with you - if you can manage to borrow a Platypus from someone these are really handy but otherwise a good old fashioned bottle will do grand!

Food: And it's definitely hungry work! If you're planning to go to the summit of Galtee Mor you'll need to bring a packed lunch to celebrate getting to the top! It's also good to have a few treats with you to keep you going like fun size bars or if you prefer a healthier option - nuts or a banana. Sadly there is no shop at the summit (!) so please pack whatever you think you might need - you can always bring it home again if you don't.

Other items not to forget:
*Sun tan lotion
*Camera
*Sunglasses

So I know it looks like a long list but you'll enjoy the walk so much more if you come prepared. If you're a first timer and have any questions about the route, what to bring, start time etc please drop me a message.

CLIMB TIMES
In order to make the climb manageable and enjoyable for everyone we are going to set off at the following times:

10.00 - Experienced walkers
10.30 - Experienced stragglers
...11.00 - First timers I
11.30 - First timers II
12.00 - Family walk

Once you reach the midpoint of the Cairn which marks the end of the stoney path you can decide whether you feel up for an attempt at the summit or if you've had enough for one day it's very easy to return to the car park.

During the week we'll be announcing who is guiding which groups.

Ciara

Anyone for a bit of training???

Well it's now six weeks to go to Kilimanjaro and only 3 weeks to our Mini Kili Galtee Climb, so I thought I'll fill you in on our goings on over the last little while. It's been training, training, training... anyone see a theme?

We've been exploring the Galtees and also making new friends in the Dublin Mountains. I'm hoping that doesn't sound suspect.

Seriously, there we were driving around the Dublin mountains looking for a route for the day when we happened upon a walking group who offered their guiding services for the day- so off we went around Two Rock and Three Rock in the Dublin mountains, we got amazing views of the city and Dublin Bay, and ended up in Johnny Foxes. Great time had by all- thanks again to our guides!

(Ended up in Johnny Foxes, but it was tea and chocolate... we swear!)

But that's not just it... there was more exploring done closer to home! For anyone who hasn't seen the Galtee's "from the other side" it's defo worth a look. Muskery Lake hike was amazing and means we're well on our way to Kilimanjaro.

We'll be releasing details of our Mini Kili event over the next couple of days so stay tuned to find out more! Hope to see you all on the 28th... and it's not just the climb that's on, there's the food festival afterwards and we're also holding a BBQ in the Tavern that evening for anyone that's STILL hungry!!!

Lisa

Spring Into Summer

A huge, huge thank you to everyone who helped out at our car wash and clothes collection last Saturday, especially Amber and O'Donnell's garages!

We ended up with lots of soaked players from the various teams and a couple of exhausted supervisors too!

(Stephen and James hard at work!)

The weather was amazing and between donut breaks (thank you O'Callaghan's Deli!) and icecream breaks we even got a chance to clean a few cars! I even managed to get my hands dirty!

It was great to see all clubs coming together- Mitchelstown and Ballygiblin Juvenile Gaa, Mitchelstown Ladies Football Club and St.Fanahan's Camogie Club.

Our next event will be happening at the Indiependance Music Festival in a couple of weeks and we can't wait! Make sure you've got your ticket:

http://indiependencefestival.com/

Hope we see you there!
Lisa

Ah Lisa, for God’s sake...

Did you ever get up at 2am on a Sunday morning, after a curry dinner and about 3 hours sleep, put on a head torch, head up a mountain and spend 3 hours walking around a bog?

Training has definitely ramped up! We had a great weekend – met our guide Gerry, lots of the people we’ll be travelling to Kilimanjaro with and the famous Pat Falvey! We were treated like royalty for the weekend, bogs aside! If this is anything to go by the trip to Kilimanjaro is going to be fantastic!(Here we are with some of the group that will be coming with us- Gerry our guide (far left with the hat!) will have to put up with all our moaning and groaning, but he assures us he'll be able for us!)

Saturday morning we headed for the Gap of Dunloe, walking across Strickeen before scaling the heights of The Chimneys (see above!). After an afternoon of clambering around on The Chimneys we were feeling a bit more confident in our abilities. But I hadn’t quite realised the horror of getting up for a night walk and it was all recriminations at 2am when the alarm went off... It was definitely all Lisa’s idea! (The head torches complete the outfits I think- if anyone has a wedding they're going to and want to borrow them, just let us know!!!)

We marched along, like little ants, watching each other heels in the dark until the sun came up over the lakes around 5am and for a short while the soggy boots, the hunger and the exhaustion were forgotten! So now we’re totally prepared for summit night on Kili, allegedly.

(Still alive after the sun came up, with our guide Niall (far left) keeping us on the straight and narrow: only one fall each under our belts, Ciara's being slightly more spectacular landing her knee deep in a bog hole!)

So now there’s HEAPS of kit to buy, LOADS more training to do and a small matter of fundraising to keep us going on the side. Next stop the Wicklow Mountains on 9th/10th July – maybe we’ll see you there!

Ciara and Lisa

PS: See you all Saturday for "Spring Into Summer"!!!

Hurling Training

Went to see the little guys at hurling training last week- talking to them all about the "Spring Into Summer" event we're having this Saturday. Not surprisingly, they were slightly more interested in playing hurling than listen to me go on about Spring Cleaning in Summer!!!



It was a miserable drissly Friday night, but the trainers were out in force as usual wowing us with their dedication!

Everyone's looking forward to this Saturday when we'll be asking you to get into the Spring Cleaning spirit - even though it's Summer! Clean out your wardrobe and bring your old clothes to Amber or O'Donnells garages in Mitchelstown any time on Saturday and get your car washed while you're there!

All proceeds go to coaching in the local schools- hope to see you there!



Lisa

Football Training

Last Friday, Ciara and I went to see the U6, U8 and U10's train in the Mitchelstown Football Pitch- it was a gorgeous evening and perfect conditions for training, but we both forgot our football boots!!!

So we had to let the professionals at it, and try to keep out of the way while all the trainers and kids got down to work getting ready to be the stars of the future!

Trainers included Sean Keane (in the photo above) giving instruction and advice and it was great to see so many out on the field.

It was all action and a great chance for us to see the reason for all the climbing and fundraising.

We talked about what we're doing and explained why (but forgot to take photos of that!). And also talked to all the little warriors about the upcoming events, such as the Spring into Summer event happening on the 2nd of July, where you'll be able to get your car washed and clear out some wardrobe space by donating any old clothes to us. Stay tuned for more details.

Anyway, I think the lads teached us a few things about football (see James Flynn above) and hopefully when we visit the hurlers they'll be able to give us some more skills!

Lisa

A musical FEAST!

What a night - unlike any event I've ever been to, other than maybe a Scor competiton, it started and ended with a tin whistle...!

Our first official fundraising event, Mitchelstown Music Marathon kicked off at 8.30pm with little Michael Vincent on the tin whistle, who's obviously taking after his Dad. Then hurler, footballer and vocalist Killian Roche took to stage before Shout rocked An Bodhran.


We had a special treat - an acoustic performance from The Loaded Kings, which completely stole the show and women were swooning all over the place!!! Check out their facebook page where you can listen to their new single, recorded in UL. (http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Loaded-Kings/340195726947)


The McDarragh's rounded off the night in style, 'fresh' from another party in Ballygiblin and ended the night with a lively set. Everyone then danced the night away to DJ Justin Finn - I'm not sure how he managed to have a playlist that appealed to everyone from 9 to 90 - AMAZING! We were very privileged to have GAA legend Pat Fox in attendance - Pat was really supportive of the efforts the clubs have been making to develop training and coaching and he spoke to all the children on the night and gave them lots of advice so hopefully we'll see the benefits on the pitch all over the summer!


A very special mention to Dave from An Bodhran and DJ Justin Finn - total legends, meeting all our ridiculous demands and still being total gentlemen for the whole day and night.

Ciara

The Town Comes Together

I’m definitely running the risk of becoming a commi-teeeee girl... I don’t often describe meetings as excellent but last night we managed to get the Ballygiblin/Mitchelstown Juvenile GAA, St Fanahan’s Camogie Club and Ladies Football together to broaden the support base for the fundraising initiative and most importantly bring together all the people involved in training and coaching the children of the town! I’m told this doesn’t happen very often!!

Another exciting development was that our Mini Kili climb of the Galtees is coinciding with the Mitchelstown Food Festival on Sunday 28^th August (http://www.mitchelstownfoodfestival.com/) so now you can Climb & Dine in style that weekend in our little town.

I’ve got TWO hot dates this week – Thursday night I’m meeting the children and parents of St. Fanahan’s Camogie Club to tell them all about our adventure and on Friday night I’m meeting the U6s, U8s, and U10s footballers in Mitchelstown – can’t wait! Loads of cute pictures to follow...

Ciara

But what’s it all for?

Initially this was just a drunken idea between friends (well on my part anyway!) – something Lisa had always wanted to do; something big to mark my 30th birthday. Unfortunately we hadn’t really considered my Dad’s powers of persuasion at that stage...

The more he told us about the work of Mitchelstown/Ballygiblin Juvenile GAA club, the more we

felt it was something we’d love to get involved with. They’ve already done so much this year to put professional coaches in each of our 3 local primary schools and have HUGE plans for next year.

When we heard that our climb could potentially raise the funds required to fund that training for a WHOLE year we couldn’t believe it and signed up!

The club has almost 200 members aged 5-17 but of course the trainers in schools are for all the

children of the local area. We’re planning to trip to one of their training sessions soon to tell them

about the climb – should be fun!

Ciara

Planning the Launch

As the 11th of June draws nearer, the planning intensifies- so last night's meeting was full of talk about tickets, posters, and a few questions like "Lisa, what exactly is a blog?"...

Now while I'm not going to give away who asked me that, I will tell you that they're in these photo's here:You can see we're all hard at work! All's going well with the planning, thanks to the support of the whole Juvenile club along with the Junior clubs and also the Ladies Camogie Club. Posters are being distributed on Friday and Saturday so you can keep your eyes peeled for them. Anybody looking for tickets can get them in The Bodhran but you can just pay at the door on the night too!

Our inspection of The Bodhran was great last night- we have to give a shout out to Andrew in The Bodhran who's being hugely supportive of the event- so thanks Andrew!

See you all on the 11th in the Bodhran at 8pm!

Lisa

Training so far: Croagh Patrick, Mangerton and Galtee Mor

Although positivity will be important in trying to get us to the top of the mountain, wishful thinking won't get us the whole way. There's going to be some training involved. In preparation (and in fear of failure!!!) we've started out to climb as many of the Irish peaks as we can and so far we've managed to scale Croagh Patrick, The Devil's Punchbowl and Galtee Mor.

Croagh Patrick was the first trip, and although Ciara put loads of effort into planning the weekend she ended up sitting it out due to a horrible flu. I managed to make it to the top with the other girls we had roped into the weekend, I was last though. I'll post a few photos- if just to embarrass people!


Next up (literally!) was a trip to Kerry and an assault of Mangerton and The Devil's Punchbowl. The place was magnificent, and although it was our first training trip together we didn't make it to Mangerton summit and had to be content with a freezing cold picnic at the lake at The Devil's Punchbowl. Seriously, if anyone out there is looking for a walking holiday, make your way to Killarney and the surrounds- we spent the next day walking the Gap of Dunloe and it was pretty breathtaking.
So... we had to wait until our third training day to finally scale a mountain, and appropriately enough it was our very own Galtee Mor. Having said that it was our second attempt at Galtee Mor. The first day we went up we were invaded by a thick, dense, white fog that, 30 minutes from the top made us turn back for fear of ending up in God Only Knows Where, otherwise known as Anglesborough!!! Galtee Mor was a great boost for us- it's a great walk, with things only getting tricky at the end. There's a real sense of achievement from climbing a mountain, and we're so lucky to have this one on our door step. Anyone who wants to climb Galtee Mor, but who doesn't want to attempt it on your own (which of course we wouldn't recommend!) can come with us on our Mini Kili climb in August.



More details will follow in the coming months. With this training behind us, the three month countdown is nearly upon us and things will be stepping up from here on in. Any adventures will be detailed here, so you can keep an eye on us- if there are no training entries you can bully us- we'll appreciate it in September!

Lisa

You want to go where?!

The plan was hatched months and months, in fact over a year ago to
give Kilimanjaro a go. Why? As a lot of our friends have asked...
Well, why not?

At 5895 Kilimanjaro is often considered the most accessible of the 7
peaks. On the 15th of September Ciara and I will find out just how
accessible that is.

We both got the bug from different pursuits and backgrounds- Ciara
from sailing, marathons and a search for a challenge. And me an
amazing stroll around Spain on the Camino de Santiago.

The fundraising idea came later and so did the training- here we'll
attempt to keep you up-to-date with all training, fundraising plans
and events as time goes by. We'll let you know how close we're getting
to our two goals- to climb Mount Kilimanjaro and to raise €10,000 for
the Mitchelstown and Ballygiblin Juvenile GAA.

Lisa