Borneo For This » challenge http://www.borneoforthis.com/blog Just another WordPress weblog Wed, 20 Jan 2010 12:08:10 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8 en hourly 1 £10,000 reached! Thank you to everyone who helped!! http://www.borneoforthis.com/blog/2010/01/20/10000-reached-thank-you-to-everyone-who-helped/ http://www.borneoforthis.com/blog/2010/01/20/10000-reached-thank-you-to-everyone-who-helped/#comments Wed, 20 Jan 2010 12:08:10 +0000 Dan http://www.borneoforthis.com/blog/?p=97 Fantastic news – last week we succeeded in hitting our target of raising £10,000 for Raleigh and the Prince’s Trust.

We’d like to say a massive thank you to every single one of you who helped us get there!

It’s been an incredibly challenging journey so far, so thank you all so much for your donations, encouragement, enthusiasm and participation in our events.

Now we’re about to embark on the Kinabalu Challenge itself – a 6-day expedition in the Malaysian Borneo – running, mountain biking, kayaking, rafting and hiking our way, in hot and humid conditions, to the 4100m summit of Mt Kinabalu.

The money we’ve raised will give young people selected by the Prince’s Trust from disadvantaged backgrounds the life-changing opportunity to go on a 10 week Raleigh expedition, where they will work on valuable community and environmental projects around the world (for example, in Borneo, building Gravity Water Feeds for remote communities, or building new enclosures for Sun Bears at a Jungle Conservation Centre). Raleigh creates diverse teams of young people, encouraging them all to challenge their preconceptions and expand their ambitions.

Thanks to both Dan Maggs and Debra Hay from Raleigh for supporting our fundraising effort!

We’d also like to say a special thanks to our various managers at Capgemini who’ve given us the flexibility and support to fit fundraising around our day jobs.

A massive, massive thanks to John Gillard, Liz Benison and Julie Fisher for supporting us as the Capgemini Kinabalu Challenge team, believing we could do it and pushing us when we needed it.

And finally, thanks to Ali for being there for the first half of the journey.

Right, enough of that – time to go to Borneo!!

If there’s any mobile coverage at all, we’ll try and tweet from the Challenge whenever we can at www.twitter.com/borneoforthis

THANK YOU!!

- Amy, Andy, Dan and Oli
Team “Borneo for this”

]]> http://www.borneoforthis.com/blog/2010/01/20/10000-reached-thank-you-to-everyone-who-helped/feed/ 0 26 days to go until the toughest challenge of our lives! http://www.borneoforthis.com/blog/2009/12/28/26-days-to-go-until-the-toughest-challenge-of-our-lives/ http://www.borneoforthis.com/blog/2009/12/28/26-days-to-go-until-the-toughest-challenge-of-our-lives/#comments Sun, 27 Dec 2009 23:59:57 +0000 Dan http://www.borneoforthis.com/blog/?p=82 Every now and then, I am reminded that this challenge is going to be bloody difficult.

You’ll notice a few people in that video look just slightly tired and worn out. Well, this is why:

The Kinabalu Challenge – 9 stages over 6 days

1. (Mon 22 January 2010 – a.m.) 4km running race

After just two days of acclimatisation to the extreme heat and humidity of Borneo, the challenge kicks off with a 4k race into the jungle. I guess Lonely Planet’s advice “do not do anything too physically demanding and avoid strenuous activity when you arrive in a hot climate” is kind of out of the window then!

2. (Mon – p.m.) Setting up camp

A nice hotel maybe? OK, a camp site? Tents even? Nope, this is proper Bear Grylls extreme survival stuff – building our own hammocks, shelter, fire – right out there in the jungle amidst all the mud, insects, cobras, scorpions and tropical rainfall.

3. (Tue – a.m.) Mountain bike / relay run – 6k – very hilly

After a trek out into the heart of the jungle, this stage involves taking it in turns biking and running on 6k of muddy off-road terrain, Camelbak’s most definitely required!

4. (still Tue – p.m.) White Water Rafting

Then, in the afternoon, white water rafting back to camp. Time to get those upper body muscles engaged.

5. (Wed – a.m.) Bamboo Rafting

Yesterday too easy? OK, this time we have to build our own rafts and race back up-river, remember all this time we’re competing against 7 other teams.

6. (Wed – still a.m.) 8.5k bike/run

Flatter terrain this time, so longer distance, not like we’ll be getting slightly knackered by this point or anything!

7. (Wed – p.m.) Kayak relay race

2-man kayaks now. Probably in torrential rain. This is a very tough day.

8. (Fri) Up the mountain!

Mt Kinabalu. The biggest one in South-East Asia. Described as the “Stair Master from HELL”, we will be ascending from 2000m to 3400m on this day – which should take us about 5-7 hours and really work those calf muscles.

9. (Sat) 2am start, to the 4100m peak

As if this isn’t hard enough already, let’s get up at 2am for the final stretch to the 4100m peak of Mt Kinabalu. This time we’re raising against the sun-rise. Steep, rocky, freezing cold and in the pitch dark.

Now, each of those activities on their own might not seem too difficult. But doing them one after the other on six consecutive days. And doing them in hot, humid, tropical conditions. And doing them not at a leisurely pace, but in a race for which we’ve been whisked half way across the world. That’s all going to make it hard.

But that is the challenge we’re embarking upon in 26 days time. That’s the crazy thing we’re doing for charity. That’s what we’re doing to persuade and inspire people to donate to Raleigh’s youth development programme: to help young people from disadvantaged backgrounds get out there, and to help Raleigh make an impact on community projects around the world. That’s what our £10,000 target is for.

We’ve got 26 days.

We’ve got £862.86 left to raise.

As we are about to embark on the toughest, craziest challenge of our lives, please help us out with £5, £10 or whatever you can manage – http://www.justgiving.com/borneoforthis

Thank you.

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