Challenges, Inspiration

Hippos, hippos everywhere…

February 1, 2013

Greg James updates his Radio 1 blog…

Good evening lovely people.

Wow.  What a da y.  Exhausting – so so tired, we are all so almost over this week of hell and high water.  One last big push tomorrow and we’ll be very happy campers.

Today was a long old slog – unending winding river with really dodgy bits full of hippos which, at times, were incredibly threatening.

I have learned so much this week – a real life changer. I’ve always seen this place like we all have on Comic Relief films, but being here I can report back (and you can trust me) that the money you raise is absolutely working.  It’s putting kids through school so THEY can shape a decent future for themselves.  The cause works – I’ve seen it for myself.  So if you’ve donated this week – thank you.

Bedtime.  Shattered.  ONE more day.  We’re ready.

UK ONLY: Support Greg by donating £1. Text Greg to 70011 (texts cost £1 + std msg charge). For terms and conditions go to http://bbc.co.uk/comicrelief

source – http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/gregjames/

To keep up to date on all things Hell and High water, you can follow us on

Facebook and Twitter, and subscribe to our Blog, YouTube account and mailing list. You can also find out all about the challenge and see the latest news here.

If you’ve been inspired and want to take on your own experience of a lifetime, then check out our amazing and global range of treks, bike rides and mountain climbs here. You can even take part in our exclusive Zambezi challenge. Click here to receive details once the challenge is complete.

Challenges, Inspiration

Last day of the Hell and High Water Comic Relief challenge!

February 1, 2013

And the Comic Relief team are taking on the tumultuous white water beneath Victoria Falls. So it’s Greg James, Mel C, Chelsee Healey, Phillips Idowu, Dara O’Briain and Jack Dee vs the rapids known as “gnashing jaws of death”, “Oblivion”, and the ‘Overland Truck Eater’! It’s going to be a long day…

To keep up to date on all things Hell and High water, you can follow us on Facebook and Twitter, and subscribe to our Blog, YouTube account and mailing list. You can also find out all about the challenge and see the latest news here.

If you’ve been inspired and want to take on your own experience of a lifetime, then check out our amazing and global range of treks, bike rides and mountain climbs here. You can even take part in our exclusive Zambezi challenge. Click here to receive details once the challenge is complete.

Challenges, Inspiration

Dara’s Zambezi Diary: Day Four

January 31, 2013

Dara O’Briain learns the etiquette of approaching a hippo on his Comic Relief canoe trip down the Zambezi.

There’s an etiquette to approaching a hippo in the water. You slow down, of course, and you beat the side of your kayak gently with your paddle to send a vibration through the water as a polite alert of your presence. Then you slip your kayaks into a single-line formation, cross to the other side of the river and slip quietly past. That’s the theory anyway. When you have six first-time kayakers like us, it’s not as easy as it sounds…

Firstly, every second stroke of my paddle tends to batter the side of the kayak, so that animals who have never even been in a river in their lives are aware of us. Even the monkeys have cleared the banks for miles.

Secondly, we still haven’t mastered the steering issues that me flung me out of the boat and left me clinging to a tree. Our single-file line tends to veer randomly from side to side – so randomly that Mel C said the only music that would fit over footage of us being attacked by a hippo would be the Benny Hill theme tune.

Nature watching at the same time as learning to kayak is like taking a driving lesson in Longleat Safari Park.

“Now, Mr Smith, depress the clutch and…Look! A monkey!”

“What!? Where? The clutch? Which one is that? A monkey? What?”

Last night we slept on an island with suspiciously large piles of relatively fresh dung scattered around. Still, they can’t eat us all. You can sponsor the BT Hell and High Water team now at rednoseday.com/Zambezi

 Source – The Daily Telegraph http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/activityandadventure/9840124/Dara-OBriains-Zambezi-diary-day-four.html

To keep up to date on all things Hell and High water, you can follow us on Facebook and Twitter, and subscribe to our Blog, YouTube account and mailing list. You can also find out all about the challenge and see the latest news here.

If you’ve been inspired and want to take on your own experience of a lifetime, then check out our amazing and global range of treks, bike rides and mountain climbs here. You can even take part in our exclusive Zambezi challenge. Click here to receive details once the challenge is complete.