In a bid to aid a local village in Tanzania, Launceston resident Nick Butler has rounded up 17 of his close mates for a seven-day hike of Africa’s highest mountain – Mount Kilimanjaro.
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Mr Butler said he had almost hit his fundraising target of $30,000, which will go towards the cost of a deep water well for a Tanzanian community forced to travel 10 kilometres just for fresh water.
“We walked to a village last year which had only a polluted cattle dam to drink their water out of,” he said.
The expedition involves a 70-kilometre climb of Mount Kilimanjaro’s Lemosho route.
He said friends of all ages were participating, ranging from 21 years of age to 83.
The group’s expedition is supporting the philanthropic Care for Africa Foundation – which provides financial aid to the Tarime District in Tanzania, East Africa.
The foundation donates all its proceeds towards assisting health, education and water programs in the Tarime District, and consists of a diverse group of people, including doctors, builders and teachers.
Mountain climber Coleman O’Flaherty, 83, joked that it would take a “lot of prayer” for him to complete the expedition.
“I think generally Care for Africa is a terrific organisation…they’re providing the means for the people in Tarime District to get better health,” he said.
“The objective is to help them (Tarime District) help themselves.”
Mr Butler said Mr O’Flaherty would no doubt be up to the task, having walked Mount Arthur and the Cataract Gorge extensively.
He said the team would slow walk the mountain to help them acclimatise, and the longest day involved a 12 kilometre hike.
“It’s the highest free standing mountain in the world that you can walk up,” Mr Butler said.
“The women who carry the water (in the Tarime District) will easily walk more than 12 kilometres a day with 20 litres of water on their head.
“So for us to walk 70 kilometres in 70 days, with backpacks on, really it’s a measure of what they do, but they do that every day to get water for their family.”
Mr Butler’s group departs for Dar es Salaam on September 27, and will arrive in Mount Kilimanjaro the following day.
To find out more about the Care for Africa Foundation, head to: http://careforafrica.org.au/
