Challenge accepted - Melbourne, Australia
Melbourne, Australia
Those who have read my 'travelling' blog will know that I am living with Emma Lovell in Melbourne. Emma has completed a couple of charity challenges over the last few years and is now working with the company she did them through to help sign up new participants and guide them through signing up and creating fundraising plans. When I was unemployed and had nothing better to do I used to sit in the flat listening to her calling people who had expressed interest in joining a trip. It inspired me to start googling to see what challenges were offered by UK based companies and I found Charity Challenge. I was browsing on their website looking at various challenges thinking I may try to do one in Asia, preferably Cambodia so I could go to Angkor Wat, on my way home next year (to attend a wedding) to break up my journey a bit. I found the perfect trip. It was a cycle challenge from Saigon in Vietnam to Angkor Wat in Cambodia finishing 5 days before the wedding. Within 24 hours I had paid my deposit and was awaiting confirmation that my chosen charity, Macmillan cancer support, had accepted me. This was on 6th August and I was told it could take 3 weeks for the charity to accept me.
It was at this time I decided I would buy a bicycle so I could train and also make it easier to get around town. Now seeing as I was unemployed I bought a second hand bike from Gumtree for $60 including a stylish (?!) helmet. I got the tram up to the suburb I was collecting it from with every intention of cycling back to the flat. Unfortunately I didn't factor in that it would be dark when I collected the bike and I didn't have any lights. It was an epic fail to the start of my training but luckily the train station wasn't too far from the girl's house and bikes are allowed on trains at all times. I'll write a separate post about the real start to my training as the story of joining this challenge must continue now :)
On 21st August I received an email that threatened this trip as not enough people had signed up. We were told that we would need to wait until 18th September for the decision to be made depending on how many participants there were at that time. I waited eagerly on 18th September for news checking my emails every hour and felt so disappointed when by 5pm I had not received anything. My brain kicked into gear then and I realised it was only 8am in the UK! Confirmation arrived for me on 19th September that we now had 9 people willing and able to take on the challenge and it would definitely be going ahead. W'hoo!!!
Being the realist that I am I had decide not to send back the signed contract to Macmillan until I knew the trip was definitely going ahead. I now hastily get them scanned and emailed across. Today I received confirmation that everything is set up. After what seems like forever but in reality is just under 2 months I am ready to announce that I have taken on this challenge and ask very kindly for all my friends, family and anyone else who supports Macmillan to donate generously by following this link.
I have a sponsorship target of £5000 which sounds pretty scary to me. However if all of my Facebook friends donate just 5p per kilometre I'm cycling (£22.50 each) then I will hit my target not taking into account those of you that have resisted the lure of FB :)
I am so happy that I get to combine my love of exploring the world with raising money for a very deserving charity. The challenge I have taken on entails cycling 450kms past plantations, across waterways and through villages deep in the heart of the lush Mekong Delta in Vietnam, to the
dry lands and contrasting sights of ancient Cambodia. I just hope I'm fit enough by February to enjoy it!
Approximate conversion rates for ease of reference for those who don't operate in GBP: GBP22.50 =
AUD39
CAD38
USD36
NZD44
EUR27
THB1150
MRY120
ZAR360
KRW39,000
Apologies if I've missed any of your currencies or if xe.com has given me wrong conversions! x