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"!!!