Every Cloud Has a Silver Lining.....

Been a strange, but amazingly rewarding 24 hours.

Yesterday, at about this time I was on the end of the phone to Action Challenge, who advised that unfortunately due to a group of seven participants dropping out that my adventure on the 17th March had had to be cancelled....... (I'm allowing this bombshell to drop...)

Of course, this news was just about the last thing I wanted to hear.  There are so many reasons why this trip has taken over my life, for everyone who has donated, everyone who has been good enough to offer encouragement, and practical support it would be completely devastating not to go...never mind the hours in the gym, the 22lbs in weight that I'll never get back,  the climbs up Snowdon, and Ben Nevis in preparation, the chocolate that I could have eaten, and the Guinness I could have enjoyed without moderation... the £1200 I've spent on equipment, ruck sacks, boots, thermals, coat, sleeping bag...you name it, I've been and got it....ready for this...wasted??

So last night was very flat....and then my silver lining to decorate my cloud appeared....

At 10:00 this morning, I received a phone call confirming that I could get onto the trip departing for the same route, a month earlier, on 17th February!!!   OMG??  Just 23 days....not even time to get nervous left!!

Fantastic, for many reasons....firstly, I wrote in an earlier Blog of the coincedence that another person from the same village was doing Kilimanjaro.....well...maybe these coincedences happen for a reason, for now we will be enjoying the slopes together.  What a fantastic bonus....we will not, (shame) be enjoying the same flight home together, however....regretably Action Challenge cannot get me back on a flight from Tanzania until March 1st, meaning that I will "forced" to spend an extra 2 days on the beach, gazing a zebras, or avoiding lions and market traders....it's tough, but I guess thats a price and a hardship I will have to bear for the team!!

What a 24 hours.... 23 days now and counting down quick... I guess as I am in France just now, there is only one way to celebrate.... Fantastique, Magnifique, encore!! encore!....

Kilimanjaro waits...but was clearly impatient that we should become acquainted.  I'm now about as exciting as a dog in a butchers shop.  bring it on!!

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