Thursday 1st May 2014 - 9 Peaks

Thursday 1st May 2014
We had a scrumptious brunch at a local place and then made our way to our final peak, Toringingkop at 1913m the highest point in Gauteng found in the Suikersbosrand Nature Reserve. Sean Disney who had injured himself prior to the 9 Peaks was able to join us on Toringkop and I am looking forward to more adventures with him soon!! We arrived at 16h24 in time to watch the sunrise and take final team pictures as the light faded to be welcomed by family and friends and the end of the 9 peaks challenge for now. Great new friendships forged and one more mountain left, Mafadi in KwaZulu Natal still to climb. But for today it will have to wait. Today we celebrated 7 days of endurance, of pain, character building, finding and discovering an inner self, because the mountains will always show you the truth about yourself, your life and how you connect with the world. The mountains for me have such great soul, spirit and wonder. I never ever grow tired of the sheer majesty of the mountains and felt so very privileged to have shared this really tough and soul searching journey with my young 15 year old son who like me loves mountains. To have shared this journey with some very special and wonderful people who too love mountains, our beautiful country and most of all have a passion for people and love to serve needy rainbow communities. This was where passion, personal goals, dreams and the needs of a community collided to create the 9 peaks challenge 2014. Will I be the same after this – no once again the mountains teach me about life and about people.
 

 




Standby for our final peak Mafadi, at a majestic 3451m towering in KwaZulu Natal, the highest point in South Africa,  where the gang gets together to finish the final challenge and we will be joined by some of the support team.


A huge thank you to our amazing and incredible unsung heroes our support team – Mr G – Gershon Naidoo, Brendan Peckham,  Graison Moodley, Matthew Kirkwood, Mr “Zee”     that stayed with us from beginning to end. You were our shining light in a mostly dark world!!
To Shaun Gordon our awesome cameraman who braved the big mountains to take some breathtaking photographs.
To the climbing team Kobus Bresler, Rene Winter, Jordan Williams, Sean Disney, Pamela Buckle, Irene Rugheimer, Sane Nkabinde and of course me!. I would like to personally thank our mountain Heroes Kobus and Rene who kept it real on the big mountains and got us safely down to live another day and climb the next mountain, we would never have finished if it were not for all your help you guys are fantastic and thank you for taking Jordan under your wing and teaching him the ways of the mountain.


To all our amazing sponsors LandRover Pietermaritzburg, Peugeot Pinetown, First Ascent. Wintec Solutions, Powertraveller, Runtastic, Siliverston, Stat Medical, Ethkewini Banners and Signs, Kim Williams ALS Paramedic, Adventure Dynamics International, Backyard Productions, Go-pro, Uproar Communications, Blink Pictures,

To SA Mountain Rescue and ORRU, especially Simon McDonnell and Andrew Sheahan for being on standby if the pooh hit the fan.

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