Mountain Edition #9: After Climb, After Chat Part 2

They did it! Picking up the conversation, Lucy continues her chat with the Kilimanjaro team - reflecting on the experience now they’ve had time to process it all.

In this episode, hear from the climbers as they continue to reflect on:

• Their time on the mountain
• The moments that challenged them most
• What kept them going
• And how it feels to have raised over £100,000 for Kidscape

Because this was never just about reaching the summit. It was about resilience, shared experience, and turning something incredibly tough into something that can help others.

Transcript

SPEAKER_04 0:04

Following on from our first episode, our After Climb After Chapter then. Let's hear some more stories from the fabulous climbers who took on Kilimanjaro and have collectively raised over a hundred thousand pounds. This is episode two.

SPEAKER_05 0:20

So you've met the wonderful Carol Sorby before. If you've watched the Bright I Am podcast, we had a lovely, lovely episode exploring Carol, her life, and the reason for being on the climb. Carol is now down from the mountain. She looks sensational, and we're going to capture some key takeaways. Carol, how are you feeling today?

SPEAKER_01 0:40

I'm actually okay. This today's a good day. Today's a good day. Energy is recovering.

unknown 0:45

Okay.

SPEAKER_05 0:46

So I think that energy is the thing that you really need on the mountain. Would you say that this trip was harder than you thought it was going to be?

SPEAKER_01 0:53

Oh my god, there was no amount of training that I could have prepared. I thought that my body was fit enough because you know I've always gone to the gym. For three months, I started doing the long treks which I'd never done. So I'm thinking, okay, 17, 20 kilometres, which were taking me four hours, five hours, that was the longest. On the mountain, they weren't four-hour walks, they were 10-hour walks.

SPEAKER_03 1:19

Whoa. 10 hours.

SPEAKER_01 1:20

And especially when you are in the slow group, which I rapidly realized from very maybe day two, I needed to do it at a slower pace, you know, because I, you know, and especially as we got up to the 4,000, I was one of those that did get the altitude sickness. And I remember Alison saying, We can't call it, you could be the fittest person, you could be, you know, whatever tiny, it doesn't matter. If it gets you, it gets you. And unfortunately, it got me. But I still every day absolutely went in it with okay, what's this day? What have we got to do?

SPEAKER_05 1:58

Oh, hold on a minute. Here comes Andrew Barton. Hello, my darling. Hello, Andrew.

SPEAKER_07 2:04

Hello.

SPEAKER_05 2:05

Oh, have you brought your we are at the Ever Flight Vineyard in Ditchlin, FII, which is what you can see happening in the background. Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 2:12

So I just brought that for Lady Carol.

SPEAKER_05 2:15

Oh.

SPEAKER_07 2:16

Thank you for everything you've done in terms of climbing that mountain, being you, being wonderful you, and with the spirit of your incredible husband, Trevor Sauby.

SPEAKER_01 2:32

Thank you. Appreciate that.

SPEAKER_05 2:33

So talking about Trevor, there was a flag of Trevor that did make it to the summit, carried by Kerry and Carl, is that correct?

SPEAKER_01 2:40

So on summit night, it was my, like I say, my full intention from day one was I was gonna summit. I was I saw myself there every day. I think I probably was one of the ones that found everything harder. I think I was the least experienced, maybe. Um you know, I'd never done anything, never slept in a tent, never camped, never done anything like that. Completely vulnerable. Um but yes, on summit night I set off at midnight. I think I walked for about two and a half hours. So it was about 3 a.m. So I was I still saw myself going. But I started walking, and Jacqueline, my lovely one-to-one guide, she turned around and she was going, Wake up, wake up. I didn't realise I was asleep when I was walking. Oh, that's the strangest thing. What is that about? You know, when you're walking so slow as well, but my my mind was saying go, but my body just wasn't allowing me, and because I'd been sick, nosebleeds, all the rest of it, couldn't hold anything down, sat on three Modium most days. Oh no, yeah, and then having anti-sickness pills from the lovely doctor, you try and do it as discreetly and with you know, that's a woman dignity, you know, like while you're doing your wild prouse or your wild wheeze, it's it's hilarious. But yeah, so uh three and a half hours into that, maybe three hours into that walk, Jonas the head guide, came over, he sat me down on a rock, did all this in front of my eyes, and they were rolling, my eyes were rolling back.

SPEAKER_05 4:19

Okay, so you there were real issues here, Carrie.

SPEAKER_01 4:21

Real, yeah. And he said, You've got to make the right decision, you need to go back. Okay, good. Of course, I cried like a baby, didn't want to do that. But he said, your mind wants to go, but your body won't allow you to, and I have to just go with his advice. And then we sat on that rock, you know, everybody went, and it was the eerie thing, and I remember thinking, oh my god, now I've got to get back down. And Jackie said to me, because we're going to the higher of the lower camps, and I remember her saying it's four hours. I'm thinking, how am I gonna and I don't remember one step from that point? I don't remember one step. I just remember the next day, because my tent was the first one, none of the other tents were put up, but because everybody else had gone. I remember waking up, a hand coming in my tent and pulling me out. And I woke up to the most torrential thunderstorm before most of the guys had come back, and I didn't realise I was soaked in my clothes. You were in the tent asleep, and they were pulling me out to get my wet clothes off.

SPEAKER_05 5:32

Wow, because what kind of temperature is it there then, isn't it?

SPEAKER_01 5:35

When it was cold, you know, it was you know, we're on the the next level down, and it was you know, you can't swim away. Yeah, we were you we just couldn't warm up at all.

SPEAKER_05 5:44

So this is after five, six days of trekking, and now you are days away from still getting off of this blooming mountain. Yeah, and not only that, you're in a flooded tent, freezing cold. Yeah, thank goodness for the grounds team.

SPEAKER_01 5:57

Uh-huh. Oh my god, wow, they were incredible, and you know, helped get the my clothes off Jackie again. She just was like an angel that appeared. I don't know where she came from. It was like you rub a genie lamp, and there she was, and there she was, getting my clothes off, going into my um backpack, getting me dry clothes, you know, treating me like a sister, uh, you know, a family member, and warming me up, rubbing my back, rubbing my hands. You know, I'm I'm and we're crying together, crying together.

SPEAKER_05 6:32

So it's like this closeness, and it's something I've heard a lot from a lot of different Czech participants, that you have this bond with the people you walk with, and they're obviously the people here in this room today.

SPEAKER_01 6:42

But the grounds team as well. They're people who are by your side and you're bonded to them. Yeah, I know that nothing was too much. You know, in the mess tent, when I came out, you have like a little headlight, but I still couldn't work out where my tent was, where the toilet was. One of them always again, a hand came from nowhere, guided me back to the tent. Thank goodness for them.

SPEAKER_05 7:05

So if there's one final message, a reflection, I mean I could talk to you about this for for hours, quite honestly, Caroline. I think we need a coffee to really debrief, and I want to hear more from you. But if somebody was looking towards doing an incredible challenge like what you've just undertaken, summit in or not, honey, this has been massive and you are awesome. What would you say to them?

SPEAKER_01 7:28

Oh, 100%. You've got to go outside your comfort zone and do something. For me, it was a lifeline in a time of crisis, actually, when Andrew came and said, Do you fancy doing this? Of course I didn't. It was like the my worst thing. But to absolute to to to have been part of this experience, um, I liken it to a little bit like with COVID, what we all went through in COVID. We were we didn't know, we didn't expect COVID, we didn't know how to deal with it, we didn't know how to handle it. All everything we were so vulnerable in that time. This was another experience, I liken it to that, where people came together out of something very, very unique, really unique, that we were all really realizing how vulnerable we all were, and all still doing it for this cause, that every step. And then when you hear Andrew, every time you I would hear, oh, he's just recording something again and kidscaping, we're doing it, and it hammered it home, it hammered it home that every step was before the reason why you're doing it.

SPEAKER_05 8:37

And that's the wonderful thing, isn't it? Is that you were all climbing for purpose for each other, supporting each other, but it was this key purpose of bullying prevention to share awareness, to take one step after another to make the change for individual reasons and the greater good. So listen, I salute you, Carol. We're in catching up, we're gonna have cocktails though, honey. We need them. Carol's been fantastic. Trevor Sorby's flag did make it to the summit, carried by Kerry and Carl, and Carol has done marvelously. Thank you so much. You're welcome. You will recognize the wonderful Kerry McDonald. So Kerry McDonald came onto the podcast with Rosie, and she has now climbed Kilimanjaro. How was it, Kerry? Well, that's a difficult one, Lucy.

SPEAKER_00 9:27

I think it's hard to sum it up, isn't it? And it's a lot. It's a lot to process, it's a couple of weeks later, but I would say there's this mixture of course it's amazing. You can hear the buzz in the room, it's amazing, but it was awful at the same time for different reasons, but all those low points amalgamated into something really, really special.

SPEAKER_05 9:57

And from talking to people, collecting um conversations, following the climb, a lot of that is about the people you were on that trek with, the family you made on the mountain.

SPEAKER_00 10:08

If there's one thing I've taken from the entire experience, is the people. The people is what carried you forward every single day. Um, the relationships were instant. You know, you meet you meet 27 strangers and a crew that are gonna help you get through it, and there's gonna be people you don't like or you don't connect with, but I can a hundred percent confirm and tell you I loved every single human I was on that mountain with. There's nobody that I didn't connect with at some point.

SPEAKER_05 10:42

I love them all, and that's rare, it's so rare, and I've had conversations obviously with Dell and other people, and I do know some of the Trek participants really well, and I have said, who was the asshole on the mountain? There weren't no assholes, and this is what I've heard. How unusual in this group of people, and we're talking the um so just under 30 Trek participants, but the grounds team as well, over a hundred people, and there wasn't anybody who grated or drove you mad.

SPEAKER_00 11:11

If this was reality TV, it would be shit. Yeah, because there's no drama. There was drama because we all had our own situations, but we all genuinely had a care and a kindness and like a respect and protection for each other that was real, it was genuine, and I've never experienced that before with people, you know, it was so special, and I couldn't wait to come down here tonight to see everyone again because it's been hard to process the enormity of what we've been through together, and I was feeling like I needed tonight to reconnect, see them because these are the only people that really get it, they were the ones that helped you through each day. So, but yeah, tonight's been amazing.

SPEAKER_05 12:02

Yeah, it's lovely to get together after such an epic challenge, and like you say, challenges within the challenges, and then just tell us because it's so hard, because as you know, I didn't climb the mountain, and most people listening to this haven't. What's it like on that summit night when you're climbing up vertically through the night? How did you cope with that? And how did it feel when you reached that summit?

SPEAKER_00 12:25

So I had done so much training for Kilimanjaro, mentally and physically, and I was super ready. But the mountain has got a plan for you. And my my experience was I was pretty poorly, as you know, but summit night I was determined, that's all I can say. My emotion was I'm so close, I'm not giving up now. However, that is a severe experience, and for me, my coping mechanism was I detached myself from the situation. I I actually was sleepwalking a lot of the time, and it's it is that way for your body, your body's dealing with it, but your brain's helping you to get there too. So that was what it did for me. But it's it's brutal, it's minus 10 degrees, it is pitch black, the terrain is rough in places, so you're scrambling and climbing, and it's frosty, and you're tired, you've climbed for five days up you know, 4,000 meters, and so the body's exhausted already, it's through the night, and you're very disorientated. But again, why did I get to the top? It's because I climbed with the people that I'd walked with all through the week already, and we got each other there. We helped each other, and there were moments where we did feel like we can't do this, we're gonna have to go. But we reached certain points that I just said, I will regret this for the rest of my life if I don't keep going. I we're gonna keep going, and then you just help each other through. When you have a low moment, they get you there, and then when you have a low moment, you get them there, and that is what it's like the whole time you're there.

SPEAKER_05 14:22

It's such a beautiful thing, and again, going back to this family and the climbers. I know I've seen a wonderful picture of you and our participant Carl on the summit of Kilimanjaro. Tell me, how did you bond with Carl? How did it feel having him by your side?

SPEAKER_00 14:36

Carl's a special man. Um, we actually connected quite early on, so we had spent some time in the hotel together before we went on the mountain, and we just clicked, you know, you just click with people, don't you? So I knew I was gonna have a friend there, and then as we were climbing, we just had a similar rhythm, like a similar pace, and we both had said, you know, this isn't a race, this isn't about getting to the top first, it's just about getting there, and so we were quite comfortable in each other's company the whole week, just getting to know each other, taking our time, acclimatizing, and that's really what we did. And then on summit night, we basically looked at each other and we'd we'd well, we we knew we have to do this together. We had our little core group that we had climbed with, and we were gonna do it together, and that's exactly what we did. We just we just stuck together because it you become you're like a comfort to one another, and if Carl wasn't there, I'd have found that very difficult, probably. And then you know, we had people that were in our core group that actually didn't make it to the summit, and that was really hard, very emotional to see people having to go back down. And Carl and I are crying and emotional and thinking, how are how are we but we'll we'll do it for them, we'll keep going, we're gonna keep going, and that's what you do, and that's beautiful.

SPEAKER_05 16:08

And I know that you took a flag of Carol's to the summit in memory of her late husband, Trevor Sorby, which is amazing.

SPEAKER_00 16:17

That was I remember when Carol was told that she needed to go back down because she was struggling and it was the right decision, and she did, she hugged. We we all hugged, we cried, and she said, You guys are gonna do it, I need you to do something for me. And we we were broken. But when we got to Stellar Point, which is about an hour from summit, there was a moment where we were questioning, will we keep going? And for me, I was like, I will regret it if I don't, but I also was like, I've we have to get this flag up for Carol, we're gonna hung Trevor's flag, so let's just keep going, Carl. We're gonna do it. And the pain of us just yeah, we just hugged it. We said, We're going, we're doing it.

SPEAKER_05 17:02

So it wasn't even about you reaching that summit at that point, it was about taking that flag up. You had a responsibility to deliver that to one of your new family members. We're gonna do it.

SPEAKER_00 17:13

And I remember getting off the mountain and seeing Carl for the first time, and we were emotional again. There's a lot of tears on the mountain. And I said to her, you know, we captured it for you, we've got pictures, and and she says, I'm not ready, Kerry, I can't look at that just now. And I says, You just tell me when you're ready, and I will send it to you. And it I think it took a couple of days before she was ready, and of course we did, and yeah, it's special, very special.

SPEAKER_05 17:44

It's just an amazing adventure with an amazing bunch of people, passion, people, and purpose that's raised this mad amount of money. And I know your business, your marketing business, Prospect 13, have got on board as a big sponsor for our upcoming documentary. Are you looking forward to seeing yourself in action in that documentary on the big screen?

SPEAKER_00 18:06

Do you know what? I've just not thought about it like that yet. I haven't. I need to get myself there, Lucy. You're gonna have to help.

SPEAKER_05 18:13

I just cannot wait to see everybody in their absolute finery looking at themselves, looking rough and struggling on the mountain, but actually reliving that journey, that perseverance, that resilience, and then to be there with your glass of champagne and your beautiful dress, like by George, we did it. I just think it's sensational.

SPEAKER_00 18:36

It really is. I mean, even when I look through my phone now, and it was my guide that took most of my content. Oh, John a minute, here comes Andrew Bond! It was my guide, he did.

SPEAKER_07 18:48

You were amazing, you were like such a star on that mountain. Even when you were throwing up, you you were still like shining bright. Off we go, we're gonna do this, we've got this, one dream, one dream, one dream, kill a mandato, Amana.

SPEAKER_05 19:12

Here he goes. So, on that note, Kerry, you've been absolutely fantastic. What you've done, fundraising, what you've bought for your business, but your individual journey, fighting, walking, striving forward. Is there a message that you would like to give to anybody considering doing something as epic as this adventure you've just taken part in?

SPEAKER_00 19:34

I mean, for it it's it's life-changing, it is, and that that sounds like a massive cliche, and it is a massive cliche. I still haven't properly processed what that mountain's done for me yet, and I think it's profound, whatever it is. So if you've got that itch and you want to do something special, Kilimanjaro is gonna get you there, it's gonna test you in ways that nobody can train you for, prepare you for, and the emotions and the experience and the people you're gonna meet along the way. Why wouldn't you just do it? You know what I mean? Change is possible, just do it.

SPEAKER_05 20:19

I think it's beautiful. I couldn't put it about it myself. So bless you and thank you for all you've done. Have a lovely rest and get ready for that premiere. Can't we? Thank you, darling. So we're still at the Everflight Vineyard, and we are having a wonderful time. I'm joined by a man known as the Captain. So it's Andrew Barton, the ambassador of Kidscapes, fabulous husband, Phil. Phil, thanks for having a chat, love.

SPEAKER_08 20:44

Thank you very much. Thanks for having me here.

SPEAKER_05 20:46

So we've heard about you several times, we've spoken about you and Andrew um on the podcast. And something that Andrew's always said to me is he came home a little bit giddy after meeting me um at Olga Thompson's book launch. And he said, you said to him, Oh, you've had a couple too many bubbles. And he said, Don't worry, mate, you're climbing Kilimancharo. So tell me, now you are down from Kilimancharo. Are you pleased that you made that climb?

SPEAKER_08 21:15

Yeah, absolutely. Um, first of all, I mean, him coming home giddy is an understatement.

SPEAKER_05 21:20

And if it's an understatement of the century.

SPEAKER_08 21:23

For those of us that know and love Andrew, um, yeah, he he comes home and he has a an incredible way of telling you you're doing something by asking you first. Um so yeah, the question was, honey, what do you think about climbing Kilimanjaro? And that was it. I mean, he didn't really tell me anything else in the in the scope of it. So I said, yeah, why not? Let's climb Kilimanjaro. And then came the later bit. So we're doing we're doing this with a bunch of people, and we're gonna raise uh over a hundred thousand pounds for for Kidscape. So, I mean, then it was it was a bit of a no brainer. It was far tougher than than I Imagined it to be. And it it takes you to a place that's um emotionally, physically, spiritually, I think is the way I would put it.

SPEAKER_05 22:13

Okay, so that's quite an interesting one. That's spiritually point. Because I've kind of got in my mind that if I was to climb a mountain, I'd be all like Zen and I want to reach the summit and be like, oh, look at that lovely view. But actually, it feels like everyone was so depleted by the time they get there.

SPEAKER_08 22:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 22:30

What was it like summiting for you?

SPEAKER_08 22:34

I mean, the summit was incredible. But the build-up to that was was such a sense of um task orientation, you had to do it. There were there was no there was no room for failure in this. Because not only that, um I as you you know, I I I had a lot of people behind me at work supporting me. Um so and when and when you have an awful lot of people supporting you, you've got to get it done. There is no room for failure. So the actual climb, um, whilst it was difficult, you weren't doing it just for yourself, you were doing it for a much, much greater cause, and that's when the spirituality came into it. And the summit itself, um, everybody talks about oh, the summit you start climbing midnight and you go all through the night. You don't actually know what that's like, it's very difficult to put into words. Even having done it, could I really put into words what it truly feels like? Probably not, and I think that's where you just have to trust in the spirituality of it.

SPEAKER_05 23:36

Okay, so that's quite beautiful, and we know that Andrew meditates and that that spirituality is something that runs through his life. But something I hadn't really thought about is how if I was to imagine getting up and climbing any hill mountain at midnight, I'd be imagining it from a point of, oh, I've had a couple of days off work, I've had an afternoon kip, I had a lay-in the day before. But we're talking about five days into this trip with not so much food as you would usually eat, different food, sleeping intense. So it's almost like you're starting that depleted. How did you get through it? What were you telling yourself as you were pushing to that summit?

SPEAKER_08 24:17

Yeah, you you might be depleted in terms of your sleep, and you might be depleted in terms of all of the nutrients in your body, but one thing that you're not depleted on, and that is camaraderie. So when you're when you're when you're climbing with with a group of people like that, and when you're climbing for a particular cause, then you may be depleted in one, but you have massive reserves of the other, and the massive reserves of the other was people, and this amazing, rather noisy team behind me right now. Uh, but this amazing team that everybody had their own challenge, every single person, and yet every single person found a reservoir of something. I don't quite know what it is, but they found a reservoir of something that got them to the top.

SPEAKER_05 25:05

And it's that community, it's almost that bond that's been made, this family that's been united on this journey on this mountain, locked into the purpose of creating change for young people to support. Sensational. So just finally, I've asked a few of our check participants today. If there was somebody whose husband, wife, friend bounces home half kiddy, and says, Kill a Manjaro, what advice would you give them if they decided to take it on?

SPEAKER_08 25:34

Uh don't even think about it. It's it's a given. You you have to do it, it's it's certainly life-changing. Um and it it I don't know, I I've come back down from the mountain. I have a fairly stressful job. Um, I'm a bit nonchalant over things at the moment, going, yeah, well, it's not that big a deal. If if I can do Kilimanjaro, what else can I do? And and really the conversation amongst most of us now is what's next.

SPEAKER_05 26:01

Ah, now we suspected this, and I actually really like the idea that no problems too big, not when you've just scaled a 5,000 meter mountain. Take that, keep that fail. It's important. Okay, bless you. Thank you so much.

SPEAKER_08 26:16

Thanks so much, Lucy. Thanks.

SPEAKER_05 26:18

So now it's time to catch up with the Queen of Killy. It's Mama Simba, as she was named, our wonderful Rosie Elliott from the mountain. Rosie, how are you feeling this side of Kilimanjaro?

SPEAKER_02 26:32

Well then, so after I jumped out of a plane and somebody said to me when I got to the bottom, did you enjoy it? And my answer was, Well, I'm down. Well, guess what? My answer to having done Kilimanjaro is, well, I'm down.

SPEAKER_05 26:54

She's back down, and I did say to you previously, is there anything this woman cannot do? And you have taken on this momentous challenge. Rosie, you are an icon. You have been named Mama Simba by not only the team of Trek participants here at the vineyard at the Art of Climb After Chat event today, but by strangers on the mountain. Tell me about that. What is that about?

SPEAKER_02 27:18

So, the first afternoon that we were walking, and we were walking through the rainforest, and some of the local female guides were asking about my hair. And I said, Well, yes, it's naturally, this is me, absolutely. And they said, Can I ask you how old you are? I said, Of course you can ask how old I am. I'm 75. Oh, you can't be 75, you can't be 75, maybe 57. I went, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. 75. Ah, Mama Simba. And that is where it started, and it just rippled around the mountain. And I would every now and again, so it got into camp, and all my lovely trekking friends started calling me Mama Simba. But I met strangers on the mountain and they would go, Mama Simba. And I must tell you a story. So I bumped into a group of French people and they went, Mama Simba. And I went, um, well, yes. And one of the guys, a very handsome young Frenchman, said, Um, can I take a photo? I said, Yes, you can take a photo. Took a photo, and then he said, Can we take a photo together? I said, if you want to take a photo together, absolutely. And then he went, Can I can I follow you on social media? I went, you can follow me wherever you like. Oh my goodness, you're like a celebrity. But the best bit was we were coming back down after we had done our wonderful, wonderful challenge. We're standing in Kilimanjaro Airport, and I've just walked through um uh security, and a guy points at me, and I'm thinking, oh, it can't be me. So I turn around and there's nobody behind me. And he goes, Mama Simba. Oh, a lovely Rosie. So, yeah, so that's where it all came from, and um I cherish that name. I cherish it for what it means, I cherish it for how it was given and the love with which it was given.

SPEAKER_05 29:31

And so tell us, um, Mama Simba, what does it mean? It's mum and it's lioness. Ah, Mama Lion. Mama Lion. Now, I can feel, I don't know, I don't want to inspire you too much, but I feel like a tattoo moment coming on here, Rosie. I feel like the next thing you need is a tattoo. I'm sorry, it's just come to me. Rosie will come back on and show you her tattoo next time. Lucy, stop it. I know, I keep stitching you up. So tell us, because we haven't got much time here today. What was the hardest challenge on that mountain, Rosie?

SPEAKER_02 30:08

So the hardest challenge for me, Lucy, was making that decision at 4,900 metres. I was not going to the top. Okay, that was very high still. That's very high. I had a very my knee had given out. And I woke up on the afternoon prior to them summiting, and I thought this knee is not going up another thousand meters. I would be a danger to myself, I would be a danger to my guide, I would be a danger to the group. 4,900 meters is my summit. That's it. That is what I've done. That I'm proud of what I've done. I don't need, I don't almost need to put myself into a failing situation. I'm there. So I remember Amber. I I went into the mess tent and I sat down, and Amber said to me, Are you ready, Rosie? I said, No, I'm not going. And she remembers that. Yeah, yeah. And I said, and that was my decision. It was my decision about me. And that actually came, I think, from my sky jump when I realized that um I wasn't really scared of heights. What I was did not like was not being in control. And so for me, I took control of that situation and I made the decision that was best for me.

SPEAKER_05 31:39

So tell me, Rosie, because I find that so interesting and so inspiring, do you think that that is something that can only come with age? To actually not feel the pressure of the amount and the peak and the this, but to be woman and strong enough in your power to say, hey, this is my line, this is where I'm at.

SPEAKER_02 31:59

Correct. I think it does. I think it I think as we come through the different ages and stages, so for example, our teenagers just want to be one of the tribe, and that's very difficult for them to come away from that. They go to university and they want to explore lots of different things, and they do, but they're still not confident enough to do it with commitment. They then get into families, jobs, whatever. I think when you get overwhen, I don't know overwhen, Lucy. I think that when I hit 70, I decided, excuse me, we live in an ageist society in the UK, and I'm having none of it. She's having none of it. I'm having none of it. And I think that what I've done over the last two years, I want to prove to my age group, please, please, please, please, please, don't get old.

SPEAKER_05 33:01

Don't get old, don't accept the status quo. Challenge yourself. And why the hell not? Because tell me, if Mama Simba can do it, she's jumped out of a plane, she has climbed Kilamanjaro, she's getting a tattoo next. She's releasing her second book. This is Rosie Elliott. And if you are not inspired, you're absolutely mad. This woman is wonderful. Thank you so, so much. Thank thank you for getting me up there. Thank you, Lucy. So I'm joined here by the wonderful Joe Crouch and one of our other trek participants, Sai. And they're down from Kilimanjaro. We're still at the Arter Climb After Chat event, and we're going to capture some interesting questions and reflections from the mountain. Joe, what was the biggest highlight from Kilimanjaro?

SPEAKER_03 33:55

Oh wow, gosh, there were so many highlights. Um, I mean, it was personally, and I think for me and Sai was we're quite fit. So climbing the mountain up to the summit camp was fairly straightforward, and there were challenges, and every day got a little bit more difficult, but um nothing that we couldn't handle. And of course, the the rising altitude was definitely took its toll. But um, wow, summit night was something else, but um the highlight without question is everybody, everybody doing as a team, working together. Um, and uh my motto coming out of it has been 100% it's the journey, not the destination. It's all about working together, enjoying the joys, the laughter, and coming out with a lot of stories and a lot of funny stories, because that is what powers you through 100%.

SPEAKER_05 34:56

And coming through this side with what feels like here this evening, a whole family, a whole family, like you guys are so bonded, it's beautiful. Um and soy, I think we need to just have a little catch-up here. So, yeah, how did you uh meet Joe and tell us the story there so far?

SPEAKER_09 35:16

Uh well, I met Joe, well, Joe, I met Joe because of the mountain, and um so Jo invited me to her 50th birthday, uh and um and we got on really well there, and um so then we decided shall we shall we share a hotel, should we share a hotel room on the first night? Uh foolishly or not foolishly, we decided to do that, and then shall we share a tent?

SPEAKER_05 35:42

So hold on a minute, hold on. Back it up, back it up for the viewers. So I was at Joe's wonderful 50th birthday party and it was a blast, and we had a boogie. But you're telling me that that hotel sharing and that tent sharing, are we saying that we found love on Kilimanjaro?

SPEAKER_03 36:04

I think we did. Oh, love stories.

SPEAKER_09 36:08

Yeah, and well, actually, I we do love each other, so there we go. Oh my god, I said it.

SPEAKER_03 36:16

I said it. You got it on campus.

SPEAKER_05 36:17

I said it's sharing a tent with somebody I mean and you're I mean, there's you're carrying, there's no makeup, like it. I just cannot. Look at me, I'm all like pruned. I can't get my head around it.

SPEAKER_03 36:33

I mean close. I mean, I definitely, you know, makeup and fru-fu tonight, right, for sure. And that was seven days of the basics. You get your washi washi, your little bowls of water every morning, and they come with the coffee, and then your washy washy bowls, and you're like, okay, I'm washing, turn around, and uh, and you do what you do what you can, right? You gotta you make do.

SPEAKER_09 37:01

Because I did actually turn around. I was very respectful.

SPEAKER_05 37:04

Okay, okay. You mate do, you mate do. I've heard of poly poly, I've heard of sippy sippy, now I've heard about washi washy, and I'm feeling I'm feeling the lovey lovey here, guys. So on our podcast, you were telling us that you're a single mum, you know, you've taken on this epic adventure, trying something new. Who knew Sai was gonna be part of that?

SPEAKER_03 37:28

I know. Well, we didn't, and then and then we did, and we just went with it. You know, it's one of those things. It's uh you just dive head first. Well, you know, on the podcast I said just lean in, just go for it. It's uh don't overthink it, don't just put silly boundaries or barriers or whatever is in the way, just because there's an adventure ahead, right? There's an adventure, there's fun to be had, and that's a hundred percent. You know what? That that you heard about the comments from other people is uh 4 a.m. Sorry, I don't sleep very well, and so I had to unfortunately experience that. But 4 a.m. what you'd hear from our ten is keffering laughter, and it was just that's how our day started. It started with big guffouring laughter about either what had happened the day before, what was about to happen the day ahead, and just getting on with it, and and that's how our and that that is the best start to any day. Bring joy into your everyday, into your into everything that you do, and the rest will just unfold as it has to. And when you're on the mountain, you are relinquished of all of your responsibilities, of all your burdens, of all the other stuff that's going on. So you really a hundred percent get to live in the moment. So you're living every single day, and that whole poly poly, slowly, slowly, one step at a time. It's so slow and considered. You're not overthinking anything, you're just a hundred percent there, having your crazy chats with whoever it is, breaking off from the group, coming together, sign and having a moment, and then finding our people, whoever need a little lift or whatever joy that they need, and doing it. And and that's how we all got through our day. It it wasn't about what I thought the mountain was gonna give was this moment of overthinking or like really philosophizing about life. It wasn't, it was the absolute what life is about. It was being 100% in the moment and we all were in the presentation. Absolutely in the present.

SPEAKER_05 39:38

It's the most beautiful thing. So Joe climbed a mountain and came back down with a man. I like her style, that's why we're friends. There we go. Watch the rest of this. There'll be special exhibits in the documentary.

SPEAKER_03 39:53

If you want any lessons, you know, you can look me up.

SPEAKER_05 39:57

I love it too much.