Abseiling Fundraising Event

Jacquie and Gary organised an abseiling event with the Celtic Manor - Entrants had to raise at least £100's worth of sponsorship to enter! We had over 30 entrants and foolishly after Jacquie saying casually to me that all Kili ladies could do it for the cause so to speak and me being me thinking that if everyone else was doing it I was going to have to part take in it - I wasn't convinced it was the right thing to do as I'm very afraid of heights and drops! My husband however had decided on a drunken night out with the boys to do it and had raised £120 worth of sponsorship so I thought that if he could do it so could I - When Angie then rang me I told her I was doing it as all the Kili girls could do it she said that she'd do it too despite her being afraid of heights!  Well we got to the Celtic Manor and inspected where we were doing it which was on the roof garden at the Celtic Manor and Gary had set up scaffolding and a ladder - we looked at it and the drop it entailed and I said to Ang "I don't think I can do it"  She said that if she was doing it I was doing it and you don't argue with Ang!! We then found out from Jacquie that in fact it was only us and Cerys from the Kili group that were doing the abseil  - Gary and Liz who also were doing Kili had done it but were seasoned abseilers and had organised it so didn't count!!!  We raised approx £5K so it was an extremely worthwhile fundraiser - Well done Jac, Gary and Liz!

Walking in the Snow - Brecon Beacons - 29th December

Part of our Christmas Training Walk week that Jacquie had organised!  We drove to the Beacon Beacons in the snow - got to the Corn Du car park and it was snowing hard - had a team meeting should we go or should we return?  No we're warriors - we went - me, Angie, Jacquie, Jan, and Di - It was slippery and in blizzard conditions -it was cold, very very cold!  However there were surprising quite a few hardnened walkers doing it!  We were 3/4's up the pass to Corn Du/Pen-y-Fan almost being blown backwards and visability extremely poor when we were told by some walking coming back down that it was too treacherous to go any further as the weather conditions were too poor, so we decided to go back down the track and be sensible for a change.  We should have had a sledge as it would have been easier, we all slipped and fell a few times, but got back down safely!  Decided we deserved a drink at the hotel down the road and nearly stayed there!!! It was so picturesque!  Great experience for Kili due to the extreme weather conditions and we know we can do it now (I hope anyway).

Night Walk - 15th December

Gary Parker our leader for our trip decided we needed to do a night walk to get used to walking in the dark and therefore chose a night with no moon in particular - Our walk was us the Skirrid in Abergavenny and true to form it was an experience and one we need to do!  We all had our head torches on and up we went - it was dark, very dark and extemely foggy so we really couldn't see a thing.  We went slowly one behind another - we couldn't see a thing only our feet!!! We had a few fall/slips and eventually reached the top whereby Gary said it was a fabulous view normally and such a shame we couldn't see a thing! So we came back down again very very slowly - it was extremely slippery and again there were a few spectacular falls!!!  When we got the the bottom we all were relieved and went to have a well deserve drink at the Skirrid Arms - Spooky!!!!!

Monthly Walk - Black Mountains - 6th December

Our monthly walk for our Kili girls this month was to the Black Mountains, organised by our guide leader Gary Parker and always a treat for our girls we wondered what we were in for this time - Gary tends to under exagerate the difficulty and longditude of our walks so now we always ask him how long and how hard is it really going to be? (no naughty pun intended)!!!!  Well this month was no different it was extremely hard as the weather again wasn't kind - wind, rain and then the lovely driving hail - a fab exfoliator!!! We reached the ridge of the mountain we were climbing (don't know which one) and were nearly blown off - we were blown over several times, crawled along at points and the myself and Liz another fellow Welsh Walker and experience fell walker and superbly fit said the best way was to go down the other side to avoid the beating we were taking from the wind - the others I was with weren't convince and continued on, but I followed Liz and she was right!  Well we got to summit and Gary all of a sudden brought out what looked like a tent and I thought not a chance, but no it was just like a covering where we all had to catch hold of the edge and then crawl underneath for protection from the wind and to eat our lunch we had to sit on the edges of the material to stop it from flying away - yes that's right - I couln't believe that there were 10 of us underneath it, plus bags -absolutely hilarious although not at the time!!! I wasn't hungry, just exhausted, but your meant to eat so I had this disgusing lucozade jel - it was disgusting, but did the trick and gave me some energy!  Well after lunch which was delightful we started on our descent - quite an experience in the gales and hail that followed us along the ridge with massive drop to our left - very exciting - after falling a few times and hanging on to some barbed wire while trying to skirt a stream on a piece of wood to get across it we finally got back to our cars - another excellent training session!!

Fundraising Event - IoD Cocktail Evening

As the Divisonal Administrator for the Institute of Directors, I organise events for our members in Wales. My boss Robert Lloyd Griffiths authorised for me to have a raffle at this event and for all proceeds to go to our 2 charities, Ty Hafan and Breast Cancer Care Cymru.  I had previously spoken to Frank Ady with regard to Lee Byrne, Wales Rugby star attending as he is a keen Ty Hafan supporter - he agreed and boy with the ladies pleased!!!  We raised a total of £350 at the event which was fantastic.  I'd like to thank Sally Uphil who donated all proceeds from anyone purchasing photos taken on the night plus a wonderful raffle prize of a photographing sitting worthy over £100  thanks Sally!! I'd also like to thank Karen Dell Armi who donated a hand crafted silver bracelet designed and made by herself - thanks Karen!  We all had a fab evening with fantastic cocktails tasted and a fantastic venue at the Park House Club! Most of our Kili ladies attended - funny that and all had a great time.

Weekend Break, Newgale in West Wales 13th-15th November

Again, I certainly can pick them!! Organised a weekend in a caravan down in West Wales before the bad weather really came in or so I thought - this was the start of the torrential rain that we had in November!  From the start it was horrendous but me and my positive attitude I thought we'd be OK until we reached Haverfordwest and we just got through before the police closed the roads, and we were staying in a caravan!!! Opps - hubbie not pleased again with me, but we finally got the caravan and although pretty waterlogged wasn't closed - I went straight into the caravan to await Paul bringing everything in in the pouring rain and gales!!  He dropped the eggs, but only 2 smashed so salvaged the other 4 off the grass - well a bit of dirt didn't hurt anyone! Well the caravan rocked all night - it was the wind and the caravan also whistled a tune due to the gales outside! Wanted to go walking the next day to Solva - Cliff walk of approx 2-3 hours - I was optimistic, but my husband wasn't!!  By mid-day the next day the weather although still wet and windy and subsided somewhat so off we went - it was exhilirating!!!!  The following day after another bad night, i wanted to walk the other way to Noltan Haven - I think Paul had had enough by now, but still came - what a weekend but we made the most of it!!!

Brecon Weekend - Serious Training Session - 7 & 8th November

Well I don't quite know where to start with this one - started at 10am on the Saturday morning in the Brecon Beacons - first problem - down one guide leader as ill with the flu, already had weather warnings for the weekend, but seemed absolutely fine when we started as pic shows!!!!  Going to miss the rugby but had asked Gary our leader if he had a radio so we could listen to it when we got back, which was fine!(in the end missed half and listened to it on a wind up radio which was interesting!)  All was going well until approx 2pm when the weather turned bad although we did have a few incidents whereby shall i say someone who thought couldn't be seen spending a penny as they say could in fact be seen by those who were further behind her - Deb another lesson learnt!!Some of the group were going faster than others so we were now in 2 groups and only poor Gary to look after us which meant he had to keep running back and for checking on us. Anyway to cut a long story short 2 groups got separated and so the front group with Gary's advice on directions and with ordinance survey map went ahead and down to base camp as the weather was getting increasingly bad and Gary went back to bring the other group of ladies down - well let's just say I think we were all glad to get back safely to camp as it was howling with wind pouring with rain and pitch black - it was certainly an experience and I think we all learned a lot from it.  Then came the camping bit - what a laugh, when we had finally dried out set up our things in our tents we went to the communal tent to have a well deserve cup of tea and some soup, and then of course the wine was opened and everyone seemed to forget how hard the walk had been as after 8 hours of walking we were all quite tired!  The next hurdle were the toilets at camp which was a tent with hole in the ground and 2 planks of wood either side of the hole - interesting!  Next day hangovers and all we started again - this was only to be a 4 hour walk as the weather was extremely bad - anyway surfice is to say it was an experience whereby everyone learnt some lessons!!!!

Garth Walk - November 2009

Another training session this time going from the Lewis Arms in Pentyrch up the Garth Mountain - beautiful walk through a nature reserve, woods and the finally up the garth hill/mountain - approx 2 hours long and a great training session if you can remember the route correctly. Did this one with Janet Carey (the knowledgeable one of our trip), Jacquie Williams (Captain of our Trip) Jayne Kendall, Leanne Jones and Angie Smith (crazy one of our trip).

Fundraising Event - The Quiz Night - Wenvoe Community Centre!

Friend and partner on the trip - Angie Smith and myself organised a quiz night to take place on Friday 30th October at Wenvoe Community Centre - sold over 80 tickets and were in fact Sold Out!  even a bit worried we wouldn't fit everyone in - but did of course.  We raised over £1,000 on the night, with tickets sales, raffle and of course drink sales contributing to it!! Thanks to all those attending and donating - Excellent result!  The winners were my son's friends family - 'The Lloyd's'  Very clever they are and it wasn't really a surprise - well done to them!  My husband was the quiz master and my friend Sharon Lewis (although still insists were still aquaintances (after more than 15 years of friendship) designed the quiz although didn't want recognition!! Thanks Shaz!

Deb in training on her hols - Carvoeiro, Algarve

Good friends of my husband and mine Nick and Rob Foxwell have a villa in Carvoiero which is in the Algarve and theyt kindly invited us to take a holiday with them - so obviously we were delighted to accept but I warned them though I would need to keep my training up so would require them to take in in turns to come on walks with me!! My first partner was Rob (I think he wanted to get it over with)!Rob and I did the round the coast of Carvoeira. Next was Nick who kindly did 2 walks with me - we did Mexoria Grande where we saw beautiful pink flamingos - fantastic!! and then Loule which was an organised walk and was called "Lets walk to Espargol" - It was Alta Fica to Espargol - wonderful views and scenery, this was more strenuous so good training.  Paul, my hubbie did the walk to a beach and coastline around Centanes beach and Carvoiero (approx 2 hours) - good for Paul although had to keep stopping as he has a gammy hip and also a trip to the loo!!! A lot of my climbing training i did up a 100 steps at a place called Moule, near Feraguda! After all that felt a bit peckish so needed sustinance!!!!

Friday 18th September 2009

No training today, but fundraising instead for our charitites - hey ho!! Being the Divisional Adminstrator for the Institute of Directors in Wales my Director kindly agreed that at our Young Directors Working Lunch with guest speaker Ruth Badger from the 'Apprentice' that our nominated charity for it could be Ty-Hafan and Breast Cancer Care Cymru - Barclays Bank kindly agreed to match fund what we raised so double whammy!! Most of the Kili girls came to the lunch we had a photo session (see left Alan on the pull) plus one with Ruth who kindly donated £500 - many thanks Ruth! We made in all a total of £3,000 (including of course the match funding from Barclays)! This really gave us good start with regard to our fundraising target for Kilimanjaro!

Sunday 13th September

Angie managed to secure another recruit for our Welsh Women Walking - Lianne Jones from Wenvoe - she's great fun and if only we'd asked her a day earlier she'd have joined us walking Kilimanjaro, instead of which she agreed to go sking only the day before being asked! It's such a shame, as she continues to come walking with us and would have been a great addition to the team! Mind you she's pretty fit and is always ahead of me and Ang on our walks - puts us to shame a bit! Meryl came too and of course we took Lianne up Pen-y-Fan and Corn Du (still not sure if i'm spelling Corn Du right?) Lianne gave Meryl some dating advice (she's good at that) so it was educational as well! All in all had a fab walk, mist came in so views not great - but what the heck! Went home then to cook Sunday lunch and do the ironing - I'm so lucky!!

Sunday 6th September - Team Walk

Our monthly team walk is designed to be strenuous and hard in preparation for Kilimanjaro - our team leader - Gary Parker, certainly provided us with it this month. Our walk/climb was Fan Fawr and it all started very strangely as we had to climb a ladder to get over the wall which was at the Hirwaun layby in the Brecon Beacons by one of the reservoirs. Then 6 hours later our walk eventually finished, boy was that hard, I got in the car and didn't think I'd be able to get back out again - gosh were my little legs aching! - thanks Gary!

Saturday 29th August 2009 - Pen-y-Fan

This is getting to be quite a habit, but good for training purposes - this time managed to pursuade a friend of mine Dawn to come walking with me and Angie - Well we are trying to promote well being for women and Dawn said she wanted to get fit and had never been up Pen-Y-Fan! Dawn was a trooper and although struggled at the beginning really enjoyed herself and the views and felt very proud for achieveing reaching both Corn Du and Pen-y-Fan sumits! Well done Dawn!

Tuesday 25th August 2009 - Pen-y-Fan

My son plays for Merthyr Tydfil FC so thought I'd go and watch the game, didn't start til 7.45pm so thought it would be ideal for me and my hubbie to go on a little walk up Pen-y-Fan and show him the fab views!! Unfortunately he had a cold (or man flu should I say). Anyway what with the excuse of he needed petrol and had a cold anyway and didn't feel well, I went off in a huff and did it on my own after being told I had to be back down by 7.30pm because he didn't want to miss the game!! - It was already 6.30pm - Well I got up there and back in record time - running back down the mountain - my friend and partner for the trip Angie Smith was not impressed with me doing it on my own and told me so in no uncertain terms! Silly me!

17th August - 23rd August

Had a week in a caravan in Newgale West Wales, courtesy of a friend of mine - Marianne Pettifor (thanks Marianne) so thought it would be a great opportunity to do some more training!! First on the list was to walk from Newgale to Solva - approx 2 hours up and down andacross sime fab cliff tops - excellent training - not that my hubbie Paul thought, but to be fair he kept up and even wanted to walk back, but thought better of it and caught the bus back!!! Did many walks on my little break - Newgale to Nolton Haven (twice) was a great walk with superb views too. Fab walks along the beach which is over a mile long in the wind and rain too! Feel like I'm starting to get fitter - got to be good!

Saturday 15th August 2009 - Pen-y-Fan Ridge

Well what can I say - Angie and I thought we'd do a bit of training and it was very wet! Ang couldn't get a babysitter so we decided to take her 10 year old with us - she wasn't impressed and neither were we! It poured with rain, the wind howled and it was awful - Isaid to Ang this is child cruelty, but Ang said it would be good for her - Georgina kept asking "Are we nearly there yet" that terrible question all kids ask! We were just getting the ridge and the wind was really howling and blowing and one of the walkers coming back down warned us not to go any further than the ridge as it was too windy and we'd be blown over!! We didn't need anything more to stop us so when we reached the ridge we turned back, much to Georgie's delight and if i'm honest our's too!

I decided to join Welsh Women Walking

Monday 3rd August 2009 - Work

Emailed Jacquie the brain of Welsh Women Walking and agreed to join the team!!!!

Saturday 8th August 2009 - Pen-y-Fan

Met at the Plymouth Arms, St Fagans and went up to Brecon - Just hoped it would be easier than the week before! We were Jacquie, Jacquie's friend, Meryl, Angie, Karen and me! I had a bit of hangover and thought this is not good! Too much wine the before - but infact I was impressed with the walk, fab view and very scenic!! Angie, Me and Meryl reached the ridge first and as we were climbing up Corn Du a photographer from the National Geographic magazine asked if he could take a photo of us walking up the last bit of Corn Du and then preceeded to ask to take photos of our walking boots too for the magazine!

Welsh Women Walking Kilimanjaro - Debbie Trotman

Hi

My name is Debbie Trotman, Divisional Administrator for the Wales Division of the Institute of Directors. I am part of a team of 15 women called Welsh Women Walking who will be walking up Kilimanjaro in January 2010 in aid 2 Welsh charities - Ty Hafan a children's hopsice and Breast Cancer Care Cymru. I have decided to do a blog of all my training so far. It all started back in June 2009 when I attended the launch of Welsh Women Walking! I couldn't attend their first walk which was the first Sunday in July, but decided to go along to the 2nd walk on Sunday 2nd August which was a 4 hour walk in the Brecon Beacons - walking up Carn Pica (pics above)and boy what a walk, climb it was, but that's when I got hooked on walking!!

Sunday 2nd August
Well my walk what can I say - I started climbing and climbing and I was just so relieved that I hadn't signed up to walk Kilimanjaro, like my friend, Angie Smith - I thought they must be mad!!!!

I had asked a friend of mine Sharon to come with me on the walk and told her it would be fun! However the walk was far harder than Sharon or I had anticipated - our guide had to take another route up the mountain and boy was it tough - I crawled up the last part to the summit of Carn Pica and thought Oh my God!! I was exhausted - so much so that I didn't want my lunch as I felt sick! The walk back down was much easier and I began to enjoy myself and forget the ordeal of going up (bit like giving birth you soon forget)! After about 5 hours of walking we had eventually reached the bottom again and so we all decided to go to the pub for a glass of wine and after a glass I had forgotten how hard it had been and after some persuation from some of the team who had already committed agreed to think about joining the team! - Weird - I said I'd speak to my hubbie Paul and Kids and see what they thought, but I was very keen to join! My husband Paul was very supportive and said I should do it, but my daughter Jenna said 2"but that means you'll be away for my birthday" (29th Jan and she'll be 26) I said I think you'll be OK and will sing Happy Birthday to you when we reach the summit as that's the day we will get there (hopefully). My son Matt was very supportive and said - go for it - you'll do it Mum ! My other daughter Becky said "Your going to die!" - Typical just when I was so positive about it all!