Not long now

About three months to go and a few changes to the group. Four have dropped out and we've been joined by Gary, a 61 year old railway engineer from West Virginia. That's me officially not the daddy of the team. Gary has a wealth of experience having climbed Aconcagua amongst other mountains.

So now we're:

Me

Jay

Sean

Karl

Eric

Gary

and hopefully that's how we'll stay.

As for me. I've lost a lot of weight (24 pounds in 17 weeks) and I'm seeing real gains in my fitness. On the ship I've been focussing on jogging and hitting the stairs. Luckily we have a helideck and a large pool area to train on. Jogging is my least favorite activity. I've always struggled to get into any kind of breathing rhythm, but I surprised myself yesterday by jogging across the Humber Bridge without being out of breath.

....still hate it though.

Bad news..

Just had two guys, Steve and Bob, drop out on health grounds. I haven't met Bob, but I know how much Steve wanted to go, and I feel really bad for him as this was a bolt out of the blue. It brings us to six, so I'm still looking for two more.

.....as if

I wasn't already nervous enough, Mark Chisholm (the one with the Union Flag and the ludicrous rugby onion hat) just got back to the ship with graphic tales of steep precipices, feeling like you're breathing through a pillow, rapid temperature drops and that the mountain is incredibly big when you see it first hand.

Thanks Mark.

By the way. Just under a year to go now.

The team's complete

That's it folks. I finally convinced Eric 'Catfish' Atwood, and Steve Chambers has a mate called Bob Shuter. This brings us to eight which Team Kilimanjaro consider the optimum number.
It's all starting to seem very real now. I know Mark Chisholm was getting nervous a few weeks ago before his climb this year, and he's quite a fitness freak. He tells me that it wasn't so much the legs as the lungs which make it so hard.

This year's bunch

Three of my friends have just got back from doing the same route we'll be taking (apart from the Crater day which is reserved for real men).
Mark Chisholm, Scott Thomson and JJ Pretorius are three shipmates I met on the Express, my previous ship. Mark is now on the Endeavour with me. I'm really proud of them, and Mark says it's the toughest thing he's ever done in his life.
Given that Mark is the super competitive type this puts even more pressure on me. So I've decided that even if they have to restart my heart at the summit I'm still going to come down and say it was easy. This is our secret blogmates.

I'm really under no illusions. A couple of weeks back I did a hike in Yosemite which I have to admit I found quite tough. So I know that the training has to intensify from this point on. I'm not blessed with much gym equipment or much space on my present ship, but I'm going up and down the helideck stairs with a heavy pack on. It doesn't really simulate a slope, but it's all I've got.

Number 6

One more party member joined today. Steve Chambers is an engineer I worked with several years ago. Steve's a bit of a fitness freak (much unlike myself). In his younger days he was a member of one of the Royal Navy's field gun teams, those guys who strip down a field gun, race it across a stadium, assemble it and fire it. Ludicrously fit people.

Milestone

Great news. I've cracked 50% today on the donations. With more than a year to go I'm really hopeful I can beat the £2000. More people showing interest in coming along so here's hoping.