10km Run thwarted!

I am sad to report that injury has dealt a blow to my fund-raising efforts after I had to pull out of the Asics London 10km run. I have developed pains in my right ankle after increasing my distance up to 7km. Despite purchasing new trainers, it has now become painful to put pressure on my right ankle. I went to see the physiotherapist in Haslemere who was most amused with my "hyper mobile" ankle. It seems that my right foot is flat causing me to pronate the foot as I walk/run and further twisting my toes in the opposite direction. This has over time set up a weakness in my ankle and put pressure on my knee and hip. My right hip isslightly lower than my left and my left leg muscles have less range of movement due to over-compensation for the weakness in the right. So its orthotic inserts for me at a whopping cost of £300! However that doesn't solve the problem in ankle, and running is out for now :-( I will however be running a 10km race at some point in the future. Running has become a complete joy for me, especially through the woods here at Haslemere onto Gibbet Hill. Watch this space....

Dr. Wayne joins Team Kili!

A hearty welcome to Wayne Dawson on board for the Kilimanjaro Tea Party! Wayne and I were both undergraduates at the University of Plymouth studying ecology when we spent many a happy hour getting to know the special places of Devon- the tors, moors and stone circles- and learning to climb (not very well). Wayne knows Tanzania well after spending much of his PhD on invasive plants there, and has knows his way around the local dialect. A very useful man to have on board.Wayne is now an eminent doctor of plant ecologist working in Switzerland although at heart he will always be the chap that gets really really excited about our very green, very still friends. I cant wait to see his response to Kilimanjaro's flora. He is already gushing about the giant Senecios!

Welcome to Team Kili Dr Wayne!

WILD THINGS

There have been some big changes in the Kilimanjaro Tea Party HQ recently. After careful exploration and with the good advice of a friend (thanks Sam Ross!) I have found a new operator to take me to the snow-capped summit. WILD THINGS SAFARIS are a locally based outfit (in Tanzania that is), and have cheaper rates thena Charity Challenge, although all-importantly this doesn't mean they reduce the amount they are paying to the guide and porters on the trek. Wild Things are just the tour operator however, so there is no Minimum Sponsorship amount anymore.

With this change of operator, I have decided that I will foot the entire bill for the trip meaning that ALL MONEY RAISED WILL GO DIRECTLY TO PTES. I have felt uncomfortable for some time with the Charity Challenge approach and realise that it might have put you off sponsoring if you thought your money might just be going to send me to Africa. Well no more!!!! So please do sponsor me- funds are tight during this global recession but your money is never better directed than going towards the fight to save endangered species worldwide.

British 10km Run 11th July 2010

You may have been wondering where on Earth I have been and when this Kilimanjaro expedition is going to happen. Well, setting up and managing the Hedgerows for Dormice project has occupied all my time leaving little headspace or energy for being creative about fund-raising. And creatvity is whats needed in the current purse-tightening environment with people showing a genuine caution with their cash- and frankly who can blame them.

But I'm half-way to the goal now having raised £2000.00, so i can't (and won't) stop and I am here to anounce my next fund-raising venture. On July 11th I will be running the British 10km London Run in, er, London. This will be my first run at this distance-I'm happily doing 5km at the moment but this will be a step up, a good challenge on my way to Meet the Mountain.

So I hope you might consider sponsoring me on this run. Sponsorship raised above the trip costs will go to PTES and help with all the good work we do for Endangered Species around the world.

Please go to http://www.ptes.org/index.php?page=82 and click the link DONATE ONLINE NOW to make a donation but please email me on jim@ptes.org to let me know you have otherwise I will never trace the funds!! Alternatively you can post something to me at:

Jim Jones
Hedgerows for Dormice
People's Trust for Endangered Species
15 Cloisters House, 8 Battersea Park Road
London, SW8 4BG


I need £2000.00 to reach my target- thats £20 off 100 people. Could you be one of The 100....


Jim

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

Donate Online 2

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