Donate a book for Endangered Species

What with the credit crunch and the world teetering on the edge of financial meltdown, its probably not the best time for asking people to contribute to the plight of endangered species throughout the world, but then again with everything else going down the pan, why not offer what you do have in a truly altruistic gesture!

This fund-raising lark is proving hard, I will admit. SO hard that the finances aren't moving foward very far. It hasn't helped that I have been enormously busy of late, work which has come to flower in the new Hedgerows for Dormice Project at PTES for which I have been appointed Project Officer.

But excuses won't help me scale the heights of Kili and get much-needed funds into the coffers of PTES and out again to deserving projects around the world.

Right now I need your help. Got any good books sitting on your shelf that you mean to get off to the charity shop. Well don't, send them to me! I will sell them on Amazon! I'm looking for natural history books, text books, self-help books or instruction manuals. No novels thanks. And if you are an author, even better-send me a signed copy and I will put it in my auction pot for a future All-Star Celebrity Charity Book Auction. Watch this space!

Send books to Jim Jones, PTES, 15 Cloisters House, 8 Battersea Park Road, London SW8 4BG.

Don't forget to check out the PTES website at http://www.ptes.org/index.php?cat=102 to read portraits (penned by our own Hannah Stockwell) about some of those excellent projects.

Thankyou!

Jim

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The on-line donation site has moved to http://ptes.org/index.php?news=22

The Loneliness of The Long Distance Runner

Well okay running around Battersea Park in your lunch hour isn't exactly long-distance, nor is it that lonely. In fact I even have Dave for company on odd occasions. Anita gave up not long after I started. She did however buy rollerskates in an effort to keep up after I started running in a zig-zag, and then backwards a bit as well for every step she took. Its a shame Team Kilimanjaro (i.e. me) lost her but I know in spirit she is with me every step of the way .

The running is going well. I'm up to 2 laps, about 5km, running for a good half an hour at least on 3 lunchtimes a week. I also cycle to work, half an hour there and back, which is a really nice experience especially across Clapham Common However my gear shift has busted now so I can't move in to high gear. Coming down Queenstown Road to work my little legs are going hell-for-leather to get any speed at all. Ah well its all good for the heart.

The Sunday just passed I restarted my attempt to walk the North Downs Way by doing the section from Guildford to Dorking- 21 km in all which I accomplished, with pauses for lunch, coffee at Newlands Corner and a multitude of pauses for the appreciation of all nature's wonders in 7 hours. Highlights included chalk grassland, greater spotted woodpeckers, a pin-cushion gall, WW2 pillboxes and lots of wonderful old trees. I'd forgotten how beautiful Surrey is.

At one point while I was scratching my head over a strange looking concrete dish burried by the side of the road, when two girls arrived and we began chatting. Would you believe they were also in training for a Kilimanjaro trek this September. What a small world! Good luck to you both if you are reading this!

I wonder what it will be like trekking in Tanzania? After recently returning from an ascent of Snowdon, I do hope it won't be as busy. There were so many people on the top of Wales' highest peak it was hard to find room to stand. It seems that Kilimanjaro may have become a focus for people looking for a personal challenge like myself. I wonder if completing this walk will change me. The Englishman that went up a mountain and came down a...well something else!

What an adventure...!

Jim

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By donating to my charity challenge you will be helping Endangered Species Worldwide. The first £1500.00 covers the cost of my trip, but anything on top of this goes to PTES.

Go to www.ptes.org and follow the links to donate.