Tips & Advice

Assorted Tips on How to Pack Light

April 2, 2012

Charity Challenge has been in the business of organising treks for over 10 years, and in this time we’ve acquired a smorgasbord of tips and tricks on how survive a charity challenge; So I thought why not share some of best!?

For the first tip, I’ve decided to focus on a skill that all trekkers will need – whether they’re spending a long weekend on the Etna Volcanic Adventure or trekking to Everest Base camp on a mammoth two week long challenge  – the ability to pack light, and more importantly pack precise, is a must have!

So I’ve compiled 5 rules on how to not pack the kitchen sink and stay successfully under your flight weight limit, whilst packing everything you need to take on a charity challenge and have the adventure of the lifetime! Continue Reading…

Inspiration

100 Year Anniversary of Captain Scott’s last diary entry

March 29, 2012

“Last entry. For God’s sake look after our people” –

100 years ago today Captain Robert Falcon Scott, with frost bitten fingers, wrote these final words as he, Edward Wilson and Henry Bowers were stranded in an Antarctic blizzard, just 11 miles away from One Ton Depot, which contained supplies that would have seen the whole team home safely.

Despite the fact that Scott’s ‘Terra Nova’ Expedition to the geographic south pole didn’t get there first  – to his dismay, Norwegian Roald Amundsen had already staked his nation’s flag there a couple of weeks earlier, Scott’s anguish is indicated in his diary: “The worst has happened”; “All the day dreams must go”; “Great God! This is an awful place” – The story of Captain Scott and his ill-fated journey home captured the world’s imagination and inspired generations of explorers and pioneers.

The infamous homeward journey began when, disappointed and dejected, Scott and his remaining companions turned away from the South Pole on January 19th 1912.  Trouble began almost immediately as Edgar Evans, one member of the 5 man final team, began to suffer severely as a result of a fall. He boldly struggled on for several more weeks, but on February 17th he fell once again, this time he did not get up. A month later, in one of the most self-less and noble acts recorded in history, Captain Lawrence Oates, spoke the now immortal line “I am just going outside and may be some time”, stepped out into the cold and was never seen again.

Despite Oate’s sacrifice, supplies were dwindling at a horrifying rate and on March 20th, Scott and his two remaining companions, Edward Wilson and Henry Bowers were caught up in a polar blizzard, leaving them stranded. The storm proved one obstacle too many, and the men were forced to come to terms with the fact that they were never going to make it home.

During these last few days, Scott recorded a series of notes for the people back home, among the most famous include his “Message To The Public”, where Scott made it clear that he did not regret the mission that he and his team chose to undertake;

“We took risks, we knew we took them; things have come out against us, and therefore we have no cause for complaint, but bow to the will of Providence, determined still to do our best to the last … Had we lived, I should have had a tale to tell of the hardihood, endurance, and courage of my companions which would have stirred the heart of every Englishman. These rough notes and our dead bodies must tell the tale, but surely, surely, a great rich country like ours will see that those who are dependent on us are properly provided for.”

Scott is presumed to have died on 29 March 1912, on this very day 100 years ago. The positions of the bodies in the tent when it was discovered eight months later suggested that Scott was the last of the three to die.

His ambition and adventurous spirit, as well as the bravery in the face of crisis that Scott displayed in penning what he must have known to be the last thing he’ll ever write, has inspired generations of explorers, and cemented his place as a hero and inspirational spirit in popular culture!

Our Polar guide, Alan Chambers MBE heads off today to the top of the World as he leads a Charity Challenge group to the North Pole. Later this year, he will be retracing the journey that Captain Scott took just over 100 years ago making the first ever attempt to retrace and complete The Terra Nova route. Antarctica remains the same perilous wilderness that it was in Scott’s days. But thankfully the innovation and durability of equipment, storage facilities and protective clothing has improved sevenfold! So we can ensure that the ordeal and tragedy that met with the Terra Nova team will never again be repeated!

If you’d like to learn more about our South Pole Expedition, please click here. You can also click here to watch a short video of Alan Chambers and our expedition Medic Ed Coats talking about their upcoming challenge and the legacy of Captain Scott.

Inspiration

The Charity Challenge Epic Cross-Train-A-Thon Challenge! We made it!

March 28, 2012

We’re pleased to announce that the final numbers are in from our epic office challenge!! We pushed ourselves to cross-train, between us, the equivalent of the 60 nautical miles to the North Pole, which in actual fact translates to a whopping 111.12km. The cross-trainer was going from 9 – 5.30 yesterday, and despite a minor setback caused by a totally unexpected fire alarm drill, we still managed to cross the finish line at around 17.10pm and hit a final distance of 113.2km!!

A big mention to our soon-to-depart Operations Manager, Emma, who did the most work on the day with 65 minutes on the machine, and 15.1km travelled. Great performances by the rest of the team as well, giving us an average of 13.31 km travelling time an hour. But more importantly than our humble efforts, is the astounding £820 raised by our friends, colleagues, families and well wishes,  all of which is being donated to Sport Relief. These donations will touch the lives of so many, and we are so proud and humbled by the generosity of those we know… so THANK YOU!!! Also, if you were moved by our efforts, ITS NOT TOO LATE to donate, please visit our justgiving page at http://www.justgiving.com/charitychallengeskitonorthpole, every little makes a massive difference!

But don’t let our small attempt let you underestimate the severity and challenging nature of our North Pole Challenge. While we were sweltering under a surprisingly hot sunny day, our North Pole explorers are camping out in -30° temperatures, under pressure from the harsh winds and pulling tons of equipment and food along behind them, all strapped around their waists. While we were working to a timetable and distance target, the moving ice packs in the North Pole can mean that our challengers can wake in the morning and find themselves with a few hours walking just to get to where they were before. This is not for the faint-hearted! If you fancy having a go at the real deal North Pole Challenge, Click here to find out more!

So, we are pleased to have made it… and I think we were all glad to get home to a hot bath last night. We would like to thank again Fitness Hire for their donation of our sporting equipment. It has proved an amazing way to not only get into shape but raise hundreds of pounds for a good cause. Here’s to many more office challenges in the future!

To learn more about all our charity challenges please visit our website at www.charitychallenge.com, and to keep up to date on all our challenge news and office shenanigans, 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.

Inspiration

The Charity Challenge Epic Cross-Train-A-Thon Challenge! So it begins…

March 27, 2012

The Charity Challenge Epic Cross-Train-A-Thon!!

So, as our two groups of intrepid North Pole explorers set off within the next two weeks, we at Charity Challenge have decided to set ourselves a challenge of our own, in aid of the fantastic charity Sport Relief.

The distance that these Challengers travel in their quest to reach the northern-most tip of the world is roughly 68 miles. This includes pulling tons of food and equipment behind them on a sledge, battling the extreme conditions and taking their chances against the elements. Short of setting up a fan and a snow-machine in the office, there isn’t much we can do to replicate these circumstances. But we are going to try and make the 60 miles on our office Cross-Trainer, which is the closest thing we can get to actual skis!

Today is the big day, and already Sharmee has got us off to a great start. The cross-training machine has been kindly donated to us by our Hire Fitness, who also supplied Denise Van Outen and Lydia Bright with their equipment for their recent “Essex2India” Rajasthan Cycle challenge!

We will be keeping you updated on our progress throughout the day on Facebook and Twitter, but if you want to donate to a really excellent cause and make a difference to thousands of families across UK and the rest of the world, then please find our JustGiving page at http://www.justgiving.com/charitychallengeskitonorthpole.

We going to try really hard to smash our target, cross-training non-stop from 9-5.30pm, but every donation keeps our morale up and spirits high. A massive THANK YOU to all those who have already donated and brought us up past the £500 mark!!

And if our humble attempt has inspired you to take on the real thing, you can find out more information on dates, costs and itinerary for the North Pole expedition here.

Challenges, Responsible Tourism

Responsible Tourism in Morocco With Charity Challenge

March 26, 2012

We currently run two challenges in Morocco, The High Atlas Summit Trek and the Sahara desert trek, and it’s a very rare challenger who doesn’t fall in love with the vibrant culture and panoramic landscapes of Morocco. So we wanted to give all our past, present and future Morocco challengers a bit more information as to on where their $20 local community donation goes and what a huge difference it makes.

In Morocco, we give your donations to the wonderful SOS Children’s villages, who help us to make sure the money is channelled to those that really need it; SOS Children cares for vulnerable children affected by poverty, disease, conflict, and natural disasters.  They provide orphans and abandoned children with a loving home and a family for life in their SOS Children’s Villages. They also provide support to families at risk of fragmentation in an effort to reduce instances of child abandonment and neglect.

In Morocco they have a village like this in Ait-Ourir, about 40km from Marrakesh at the foot of the Atlas Mountains, a place we actually drive past when on our way to High Atlas. The village was set up in 1985 to provide help for the communities living in the mountain villages and also from those living in the toughest areas of Marrakech. The village in Ait-Ourir has 14 family houses and provides protection for many orphaned and abandoned children from the area. It is a place where the children never need to fear that they will be thrown out and somewhere where they will receive continued support right the way into their adult lives. One of the most exciting things about the village is that, thanks to donations such as those from our participants, they can also provide the children with an education.

Education is a basic human right, but unfortunately there are still many places where access to education is a privilege – even though education is vital for breaking the vicious circle of poverty and goes hand in hand with development.

An SOS Nursery School and an SOS School also form part of the SOS Children’s Village in Ait Ourir, and are among the reasons why we are so proud of this project. The nursery, as with all SOS Children’s Villages, is also attended by children from the surrounding area, meaning, that those children growing up in the rural villages surrounding Ait Ourir are given a better start in life. In Marrakesh itself, there are also five SOS Youth Homes that are home to the older children, and aids them in making the transition from family life to independence, under the guidance of a youth leader.

We’re very proud to be supporting such a fantastic cause and making a real difference to the lives of many young people in the areas where we trek, and this is something that we couldn’t do without you, our fantastic participants, both past and present. So next time you are out training for your challenge in Morocco, reminiscing with your photo album, or thinking about the amazing funds you raised/are raising for your chosen charity, we hope you will also be proud of and  spare a thought for those in Morocco whose lives you have changed. A huge THANK YOU to you all!

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.

Inspiration, Responsible Tourism

World Water Day

March 22, 2012

We’ve heard about a very good cause that we thought we would post up on here for you all to get involved with – World Water Day. Which just happens to be today!

World Water day has been celebrated on the 22nd March ever since 1993 and is organised by the United Nations. It is the one day of the year when all UN member nations and NGO’s from around the world get together to discuss issues concerning world water resources and countries can speak frankly on water issues that specifically affect their regions and discuss how these can be resolved. On the 22nd March the day is entirely devoted to this subject.

The day is used by Charities and the World Water Council to highlight many problems around water we have at the moment. For example did you know that a billion people at the moment are living without access to any safe drinking water? The day aims to highlight these terrible facts to us all.

So what can we do to help – well the UN suggests the following;

  1. Stop wasting food and drink; did you know that 30% of the food we produce is wasted? That’s 1.3 billion tonnes a year of food and packaging that could have been put to a better use.
  2. Get a healthier diet; Did you know that an unhealthy diet is also a source of waste? Swapping to healthier, less processed and less packaged food you will be limiting waste packaging and reducing impacts on water.
  3. Try to eat and drink sustainably; a sustainable diet with organic or locally produced food will usually have a smaller water foot print and tends to lead to a healthier diet anyway.
  4. Get involved with protecting our forests; forests reduce the affects of flooding, droughts, prevent soil erosion, landslides and desertification. So if you know of a tree replanting project nearby or of a campaign to save a local forest – get involved!
  5. Try to reuse and recycle water at home; pop left over drinking water back in the kettle for tea, collect rain water to water your indoor plants and make sure taps are always fully turned off – there are many things you can do to make sure you are using water effectively.
  6. Don’t forget; there is also plenty you can do whilst you are away on a challenge, making sure that you don’t have your towels changed each day, keeping showers to a minimum in countries where you know water supply is a real issue etc.

In short there is lot that we can do and lots that we can learn, I know we here at Charity Challenge are open for picking up a few hints and tips and are looking forward to celebrating World Water Day!

For more information about how to get involved please go to; http://www.unwater.org/worldwaterday/

To learn more about all our charity challenges, and 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.