Me, a rather fetching balaclava and a frozen solid Snickers bar at 19,340 feet.

That has to be one of the single most unpleasant experiences I have been through in a long time, physically I didn't have a problem getting to the summit, and I know I suffered the effects of altitude considerably less than a couple of others in our party, but still the effect of 19,500ft on the body is not nice.

And then you turn around and see the sunrise, and realise that you are in the middle of Africa, near the equator, sat in 8 inches of snow and surrounded by glaciers. Experiences in life don't get much more rewarding than that.

Upon reaching the summit I vowed never to anything like this again, next time I would retrain my adventures slightly closer to sea level. Now, would I do it again, you bet I would!

A huge thank you to all my sponsors, not only from me, but from Richard Kech and all the rangers in Tsavo East National Park who, thanks to your generosity, will be able to continue their invaluable work on the Rhino Monitoring Programme which has had such a positive impact on eradicating poaching from the park, to safeguard their small but healthy population of Black Rhino's. You'll be able to read more about my time with the Kenya Wildlife Service rangers soon.

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STOP PRESS

The Fourth Douglas Adams Memorial Lecture:
"Is the Human an Endangered Species?" by Professor Robert Winston

Thursday 23 March 2006, the Royal Geographic Society, London SW7

Save the Rhino International and the Environmental Investigation Agency are co-hosting the Fourth Douglas Adams Memorial Lecture with a talk by Professor Robert Winston, on 23rd March at the Royal Geographic Society in London SW7. In this talk, he will combine some of the apparently threatening aspects of technology and the trust, or lack of it, in science.

Lord Winston is one of the country's best-known scientists. As Professor of Fertility Studies at Imperial College, University of London, and Director of NHS Research and Development and Consultant Obstetrician and Gynaecologist at Hammersmith Hospital, he has made advances in fertility medicine and been a leading voice in the debate on genetic engineering. His television series, including Your Life in Their Hands, Making Babies, The Human Body and The Human Mind and have made him a household name across Britain. He became a life peer in 1995.

The lecture is in aid of Save the Rhino International and the Environmental Investigation Agency, two charities supported by Douglas Adams. Douglas developed his deep-seated interest in wildlife conservation during a 1985 visit to Madagascar, which eventually resulted in a book (Last Chance to See) about the plight of species facing extinction. Douglas Adams died unexpectedly in 2001 at the age of 49. These Memorial Lectures continue to explore the themes in which Douglas was so interested.

Click here to purchase your tickets.

11th February 2006

Getting a bit carried away now. I wanted to get away early this morning, so at 6.30am I set off on my usual morning hill climbing circuit. Finding that it was a comparatively mild -1ºC I ended up running the course, an action that I was sure would end with paramedics and blue flashing lights.

Fortunately, before I knew it I'd flown around and was back home in the bath. Maybe there is something to this running malarkey after all.

February 2006

FINAL PREPARATIONS

It is now under 3 weeks till I leave to fly to Nairobi on my way to Kilimanjaro, and the daunting task ahead is beginning to become a reality. Late preparations have been helped by the current raft of very cold weather that we have been experiencing in the UK, and I've made good use of some serious sub zero mornings to test both myself and some of the kit I'll be taking.

One slight area of concern that has arisen is my nose. While it is a very impressive facial adornment, much like Douglas', it has always fallen well below expectations as an organ for the efficient passage of oxygen. To now discover that hiking uphill in sub zero temperatures is the perfect conditions for it to cease working completely is somewhat irksome. Quite what it will do at minus10ºC and 19,000 feet where oxygen is somewhat scarce is yet to be seen.

News update.

I can announce that sadly my sister Jane will not now be joining me on this jaunt up Kilimanjaro, being as she is fantastically pregnant. The 12 week scan was yesterday, and I can report that Mother and bump are doing well.

The lengths that some people will go to getting out of climbing a mountain!!

James

Some years ago Douglas Adams wrote The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, a story about the world being unexpectedly demolished by hideous creatures from another planet. It was meant as a joke... Now, animal by animal, tree by tree, the world is being demolished around us; not by Vogons, or people from other planets, but by us.

Douglas decided it was time to think about the absurdities of life on Earth, and what we are doing to it, and so wrote "Last Chance to See," a book chronicling his journey around the world looking for animals on the brink of extinction.

Then in 1994 Douglas Adams, with his sister Jane, joined Save the Rhino International on their first Kilimanjaro Challenge to help raise money and awareness of the plight of the worlds few remaining rhinos. A founder Patron of the charity, Douglas continued actively supporting their work until his untimely death in 2001.

Now in Douglas' memory his sister and brother, Jane and James Thrift are preparing to take on the challenge of Africa's highest peak, and Climb Mount Kilimanjaro, all 19,340 feet of it. The aim of the expedition is to carry on Douglas' work in raising money and awareness for Save the Rhinos crucial projects in Africa.

Fact: The Northern White Rhino population in the wild now stands at approximately 5 animals. It will most probably be extinct in the wild before Jane & James reach the summit.

Douglas had many interests, and like everything in his life, he never did things by halves. His passion for music led to him owning 26 left handed guitars, and a place on stage with Pink Floyd for his 42nd birthday, for computers saw him become an Applemaster and inveterate authority on ways in which technology should be integrated into our lives, and on conservation to be described by Mark Carwardine, world renowned zoologist and co-author of "Last Chance to See" as " the person who has done more for wildlife conservation than anyone else I know."

James Thrift said "Douglas' passion for things was infectious, and I suppose that is why I can no longer sit by and watch the wholesale destruction of such a magnificient species as the Rhino that has been around for 45 million years. For them to be virtually wiped out in under a century is unforgivable, and for what, to make Yemeni dagger handles. This isn't animal cruelty, it's animal genocide."

"In the last year we've appeared in the movie of Hitchhikers, walked the red carpet at the premiere, so climbing Kilimanjaro was the logical next step!" James said, adding "It's going to be a tough climb, the effects of altitude sickness at that height can be very unpleasant, but if it helps raise awareness of the real effort going on in Africa to save the rhinos then it will have been worth it."

Please show your support to Jane and James in their adventure by being as generous as possible in your donations.

Click here to find out what Douglas had to say about Rhinos.