Inspiration

Olympic Charity Challenges

August 13, 2012

The Olympics came to a close in spectacular fashion the other week, with Britain finishing in a historic third place in the medals table! Team GB have excelled in so many sports this year, and we are really pleased that lots of you out there have been inspired by the Olympics to not only take up a sport, but also to take on a challenge of a lifetime. So we’ve decided to put together an Olympic guide to Charity Challenge’s biggest gold medals treks!

The Cycle Challenges

If the Olympics have taught us anything this year, it’s that the British sure know how to cycle! From Bradley Wiggins’s victory in the Tour de France to eight gold medals in road and track cycling from the likes off Chris Hoy, Jason Kenny and Laura Trot and Victoria Pendleton, cycling has swept the board this Olympics! If you are one of the many people to have caught cycling fever, and have been inspired to take on an epic cycling challenge, then you’ll be glad to hear that we have a whole range of cycling challenges all over the world. Check them out below.

Atlas Mountain Bike challenge – a high altitude bike ride through the dramatic Atlas Mountains, comprising of over 200kms of mountain passes

Aztec Volcanoes Bike Ride – Bike more than 365kms up to 4,000m above sea level through tropical jungles and volcanic slopes

Cuban Revolution Cycle – Cover 350kms from Havana to Trinidad in this 10 day challenge

Cycle Machu Picchu to the Amazon – Cycle through rural Andean communities in this gruelling 11 day challenge

Cycle Vietnam – Bike 450kms off the beaten track across Vietnam

Great Wall Cycle Challenge – Cycle over 400kms in the shadow of the Great Wall of China

London to Paris Bike Ride – Cycle 234 miles over one long weekend

Rajasthan Tiger Challenge – Bike 430kms through Rajasthan, Land of the Kings

The Endurance Challenges 

An undoubted highlight of GB’s Olympic campaign has to be Mo Farrah and his double gold medals on the respective Super Saturdays! Historically, these sports are dominated by Ethiopian or Kenyan athletes and don’t get a huge amount of coverage in this country. So we were so happy to see Mo do such an amazing job and put the limelight on endurance sports. Finding the strength to keep going through that last extra mile, as Mo so amazing did, is a huge part of all our challenges. The feeling of conquering not only the terrain, but also your own inhibitions, and overcoming what seemed impossible is what our challenges are all about and what has made them so life-changing to so many of our participants.

There’s an element of endurance on all our treks, but the below are our real heavyweight endurance challenges.

Avenue of Volcanoes – Trek at high altitude in the Ecuadorian Andes and Climb Cotopaxi, the world’s highest active volcano, using the Crampons & ropes for the final gruelling glacier summit

Everest Base Camp – An 18 day trek to base camp of the world’s highest mountain!

Kilimanjaro Summit Climb – At 5,895m, Mt. Kilimanjaro is one of the largest volcanoes ever to break through the Earth’s crust. Your challenge is to reach its summit.

The Water Sports Challenges

There sure is something in the water this year, as another area where team GB really excelled at in the Olympics was Watersports, with Ben Ainslie, Ed Mckeever and Heather Stanning and Helen Glover to name but a few athletes who have brought home gold on the waterfront. If you’ve been in inspired to dip your toes into water sports at an exotic levels, then take a look at the below challenges!

Brazilian Trek and Kayak Challenge – Swim in spectacular waterfalls, sea kayak around the islands of the Bay of Paraty

Sumatra Jungle Challenge – This spectacular trek contains several river crossings and an exhilarating river tubing journey.

The Equestrian Animal Challenge

OK, we admit we’re stretching this one a bit, as our Dog Sledding Challenge certainly does not entail riding husky dogs over fences or training them in an elongated trot. But what this challenge is all about is working with and bonding with your animal allies to navigate across the challenging terrain of snow covered forests and glorious Lapland mountains.

So if you’ve been inspired by our “Big Star”, “Triple X” and their team GB Riders (including royal Zara Phillips!) to take on a challenge of a lifetime with animal team mates, then our Dog Sledding Challenge is the one for you.

Dog Sledding Challenge – Drive your own team of huskies, mushing over 200kms through beautiful, frozen landscapes

You can find out more information about all our challenges on our website at www.charitychallenge.com. To keep up to date on all our challenge news, please subscribe to this blog. You can also enter your email address into the adjacent box to subscribe to our mailing list.

Challenges

Difference between the Rongai and Lemosho routes to Mt Kilimanjaro

August 8, 2012

There are several routes that you can take to the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro each offering different views, experiences and challenges to overcome. Charity Challenge has selected two of these Kilimanjaro routes:- Lemosho from the West side and Rongai from the East.

These are two of the less frequently used routes. They each offer some stunning views of the mountain and surrounding countryside. This article will help you to decide which one is correct for you when signing up to your Kilimanjaro summit climb.

Rongai Route

Our trek up this route gives 7 days and 6 nights on the mountain. You will take 5 ½ days to go up and only 1 ½ to come down! The route comes in from the East and follows the Rongai route via the Mawenzi Tarn, which is located in the foothills of the majestic Mawenzi – a secondary peak on Kilimanjaro. Here you spend a day acclimatising before continuing on to the summit. The extra day at Mawenzi includes trekking around an area of awe-inspiring scenery; and this day really helps to increase success rates on the route. On summit night you join the famous Kilimanjaro crater rim at a point known as Gilmans Point (5685m) before setting off

for the 2 ½ to 3 hour return trip to the summit, Uhuru Peak.

On the descent from the mountain you will pick up the busy Marangu route back down the mountain and experience the different terrain that this trek offers.

Rongai is a trekking route and there will be no areas where you will be required to use your hands to ascend.

Lemosho Route

This trek comes in from the West and you spend 8 days and 7 nights on the mountain. This will involve 6 ½ days of ascent and 1 ½ of descent. This route is more undulating that Rongai and more time is spent acclimatising as you cross the impressive Shira Plateau. The extra day means that Lemosho8 has a slightly higher summit success rate than Rongai7. This is the route that was chosen by the celebrity Comic Relief trek that we ran for Chris Moyles, Cheryl Cole and Gary Barlow. It passes through a real mix of terrain from rainforest to desert to glacier. There is one section of the route which may require you to use your hands to ascend – the Barranco Wall. This is not a technical climb but is the only slightly steeper ground on the trek. Those with a real fear of heights may prefer Rongai. However it is only short, not severe, and the guide will be there to assist you all the way. We have never had a trekker fail on the Barranco Wall.

Continue Reading…

Challenges, Responsible Tourism

Getaway to a greener challenge!

July 31, 2012

So you want to raise money for a Charity that is close to your heart? But you are also very aware of Global issues and are determined to make a difference worldwide?

Then our newly launched Cambodia Jungle Trek, aimed at directly ‘giving back’ to the communities and Rainforest of the Cardamom Mountains, might be the challenge for you, as we looked at putting this challenge together with Community Eco Tourism especially in mind.

The Cambodia Jungle Trek starts and ends in the village of Chi Phat, located in the heart of the Southern Cardamoms Protected Forest, it is a location that has been severely affected by warfare, commercial logging and hunting.  Chi Phat is also known as the birthplace of the Community-Based Ecotourism Site (CBAT), an organisation that has set the standard in the country, providing a wide array of green activities

Preservation of the Cardamom Mountains requires working in close partnership with the communities living in the region. Decades of instability have left many families hovering around the poverty line. However, in providing for their families, many have engaged in activities that have actually put the region’s wildlife and forests at risk.

By participating in one of our Charity Challenges, it is not only your chosen charity that benefits, Charity Challenge also donates on your behalf to a project that directly benefits the local area of the trek. In the case of the Cambodia Jungle Trek,  we donate to the work of Wildlife Alliance.

Wildlife Alliance is the leader in direct protection to forests and wildlife in the Southeast Asian tropical belt.  Their mission is to combat deforestation, wildlife extinction, climate change, and poverty by partnering with local communities and governments.

So how do they do this?

Wildlife Alliance’s focus is directly on the people of the Cardamom Area performing everyday duties to sustain a living without destroying the rainforest, instead of training a few teachers to return to these communities to convey our ideas. On example of their good work can be foundhere  – After 18 months of campaigning, Wildlife Alliance has finally obtained the cancellation of a banana plantation that would have cut the Southern Cardamom Rainforest in half.

To check out their mission statement and find out more, follow the below link.  http://www.wildlifealliance.org/mission-strategy/

So what made Charity Challenge choose Cambodia and Wildlife Alliance?

The idea of raising awareness and helping our participants to experience firsthand the direct results of the work locally of Wildlife Alliance is an opportunity of a lifetime. If the experience of trekking in Prime Rainforests and sleeping amongst wildlife in their home territory is not enough we wanted to give you the opportunity to meet the beautiful people of Cambodia and help raise awareness of the effects of deforestation that is caused not just to the wildlife within the rainforests and the villagers surrounding the area but how cutting down the vital rainforests has an effect globally.

When you join the Cambodia Jungle Trek you will have the opportunity to visit two field sites of Wildlife Alliance and witness their good work first hand. You will stay in Homestays in Chi Phat and experience the local communities around the Cardamom Mountains but also on returning to Phnom Penh visit Phnom Tamao Wildlife Rescue Center.

If you’ve been inspired to take on the challenge of a lifetime with our Cambodia Jungle Trek and change the world for the better, you can learn more about and book onto the challenge here.

To learn more about all our charity challenges, and find out how else we get involved with responsible tourism. Please visit our website at www.charitychallenge.com, and to keep up to date on all our challenge news, subscribe to this blog by clicking on the orange RSS button, you can also enter your email address into the adjacent box to subscribe to our mailing list.

Challenges, Inspiration

Cuba Carnival – Trevor Gibbs writes about the biggest fiesta going down in Cuba

July 23, 2012

The ‘Pearl of the Antilles’, Cuba pulsates to the rhythms of its Latin and African origins. The land of the rumba and the salsa, this Caribbean jewel has been partying for centuries; since black slaves began holding dances to commemorate the festivals of Corpus Christi and Epiphany. Indeed, Carnival can justifiably be considered one of the island’s oldest traditions.

Until the late 1990s, Carnival was always held earlier in the year to coincide with its religious roots, a time when the Spanish overlords allowed their slaves a few days off to reproduce the songs and dances of their African homeland. For the past few years though the festival has moved to the summer months, when the streets of Havana and Santiago de Cuba explode in a riot of colour and comparsas (performing groups). The largest and most traditional of the carnival celebrations take place in Santiago, whilst in Havana there is music, dancing, outrageous costumes and fireworks, with parades running the length of the Malécon, Havana’s broad waterfront.

As well as the faroleros dancers and the hypnotic blend of traditional and contemporary music, the parades also include allegorical floats and the imposing presence of the Muñecones, huge satirical caricatures of well-known politicians and other famous people. Many of the groups that take part in the festival are drawn from the neighbourhoods of the Cuban capital and much community pride goes into their performances. Each year one day is also set aside specifically for children, with clowns and magicians joining the thronging masses.

For anyone who has never experienced Carnival before, it is a dazzling kaleidoscope of Cuban rhythm, dance and colour and every year spectators are invited to join in with the fun. For those looking to immerse themselves fully into Cuban culture, this visual treat is also a great time to experience a rich range of Cuban cuisine, with roasted pig (puerco asado), tamales and chicharritas on offer…all washed down with some cold Cuban beer or some of the island’s famous rum.

Dates for this year’s Carnival are from the 21-29 July in Santiago de Cuba and from the 3-10 August in Havana.

To keep up to date on all Charity Challenge news and recieve our latest blogs, please subscribe to our RSS feed via clicking the orange button in the top right, and enter your email address into the adjacent box to subscribe to our mailing list. And for more of Trevor’s view on the world, check out his action packed blog at:http://alizardwandering.wordpress.com/

Challenges

Welcome to the Jungles!

July 20, 2012

Jungle trekking is a great way to explore the jungle and to get closer to the sounds and sights of such an amazing eco-system. For many, the Jungle represents the ultimate getaway from the mundanely of the office and urban living, but it’s important to remember that every jungle is different.

Here at Charity Challenge, we offer 3 tropical and totally unique jungle Challenges.  So if you know you want to take on a jungle but are not sure which, then the below guides will hopefully help you decide which challenge is for you!

 

THE SUMATRA JUNGLE TREK

 Challenge in a Nutshell: On this this unique 11 day jungle Challenge, you take on a challenging and truly exotic itinerary that entails 6 days of hardcore jungle trekking, camping in the rainforest, tracking wildlife, river walking, meeting local people, tubing down the rapids of the Bohorok river and a taking some time out to visit the Gunung Leuser National Park’s Orangutan feeding platform, where you can observe these beautiful creatures in their natural habitat. Continue Reading…