On 25 July 2008, the 4 intrepid explorers will set off to climb Africa’s highest mountain to raise money for the Ciaran Buckley Trust.

This will be no easy up and down either. In order to make this more of a challenge, Team Kili have decided to approach the mountain from the western side up the Lemosho route. This is an 8 day route which will take in forest, moorland, lava ridges, desert and ice fields pushing the team to their limits. Although this is a tougher route, it should also provide the team with a greater chance of acclimatisation, which will hopefully ward off the biggest threat to the challenge: altitude sickness. Standing at 5,895 metres, Kilimanjaro is the world’s fourth tallest freestanding mountain and towers a full 1000 metres higher than the highest mountain previously tackled by some of the team, Mont Blanc.

This challenge will demand a high level of physical fitness, which the team are diligently working on!

The team have set themselves the tough challenge of raising £6000, so to help boost the morale of the team as they climb ever higher above Africa, please sponsor them by visiting the Justgiving page Don’t forget to claim GiftAid if possible.

If you would rather not use Justgiving, please click here for a GiftAid form and send any donations to the address on the contact page.

---- UPDATE ----

We have been in contact with Porters Progress UK which strives to improve the conditions of porters worldwide.

They were donated over 200kg of gortex outerclothes, fleeces, sunglasses and boots suitable for high altitude trekking by various companies.

We have also collected a significant amount of suitable quality second-hand clothing from friends and family and have a score of large bags from World Expeditions for the transport of the items.

Virgin Atlantic are carrrying the baggage free of charge.

We are taking these items to a charity in Tanzania (www.kiliporters.org) which loans porters equipment while the duffels will go to The African Walking Company which organises treks for World Expedition.