To date I haven't put any fundraising appeals on my blog but this one definitely deserves a mention! My friend Linda is participating in Plymouth-Banjul Challenge. Anyone who has to dodge minefields and hire armed escorts in order to support charities has my support! And to top it off, she's getting married at the end.
Anyway the end result of this has been that both Dave and I adopted a "life's too short" philosophy and decided to get married. We didn't want to do anything conventional (one of my long-time friends said "Linda, when you get married there's no way it will ever be a normal ceremony"). So this is what we're planning:
We have been accepted to take part in the Plymouth-Banjul Challenge. This is a charity car race of more than 4000 miles, travelling from Plymouth, England to Banjul, The Gambia. On the way we have to navigate a large stretch of the Western Sahara, pass through a minefield in Mauritania and hire armed escorts in Senegal. It is a totally unsupported race - no break-down trucks, no back-up vehicles, no medical staff standing by.
Oh, and by the way, vehicles are not allowed to cost more than £100, with no more than £15 spent on preparing it. Anything else has to be begged, scrounged or borrowed.
On arrival in the Gambia, all vehicles and equipment are auctioned, with the proceeds going to various Gambian charities.
So we figured since we were going to be in the Gambia, we might as well get married there. My dress and Dave's suit will be made by a local tailor when we arrive. The eco-lodge we are staying in are baking us a local style cake. And the ceremony will be simple and short - down on the beach with whoever wants to watch as witnesses.
Linda has a goal to raise £2000 so please visit the
website to follow along on their process, and if you are so inspired, make a donation in support of the charities.
To date I haven't put any fundraising appeals on my blog but this one definitely deserves a mention! My friend Linda is participating in Plymouth-Banjul Challenge. Anyone who has to dodge minefields and hire armed escorts in order to support charities has my support! And to top it off, she's getting married at the end.
2 comments:
I have friends who did this a few years ago and they still talk about it.I'm trying to remember what the best currency was as they negotiated border posts, it was either cigarettes or tee-shirts. Needless to say when another friend, who is a cardiac anaesthetist, did it last year he couldn't bring himself to trade in cigarettes.
Wishing them every good fortune, it's a fantastic experience by all accounts and you make some lifelong friends along the way.
my son has just arrived in banjul having had a great adventure.he phoned us yesterday on a borrowed mobile to say that he and many others in his team had been robbed of vidoes,cameras,mobile phones,clothes the lot.it`s pissed us off and i for one won`t be participating as i thought i might.talk about biting off the hand that feeds you!!!!
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