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