Captain Hall Virgin Atlantic Mount Kenya

Chris in the Metro with Lucy Journeuax and Karina MGuire

Chris is a senior Captain with Virgin Atlantic and he's doing something that would make Mom and Dad proud. He's collecting funds for charities in Kenya.

I am sure that if Mom and Dad were alive today they would be 100% behind you Chris.

Good for Virgin that it puts its money where its heart is!

Mount Kenya is incredibly beautiful. I would love to go with Chris. I think Andy was thinking of filming it, but so many Virgin crew are up for a climb for charity that there were no places. Lucky that Anne does netball competitively too.

What I love about Mt Kenya is it is so dramatic. It looks sharp and unclimable, like the Matterhorn from certain angles. Of course it's much higher than the Matterhorn but there is an easier way up. How much easier, I wonder? How much easier it is to say "easier" from an armchair and not from a craggy slope thousands of metres up?

Mt Kilimanjaro is shared, but Mt Kenya really does belong to Kenya. You can see it clearly from the Kenyan uplands, the most luscious place I have ever been in with the exception of the coffee growing lands around Xalapa in Vera Cruz and some parts of Natal. But the Kenyan uplands and Mt Kenya have a spiritual weight all of their own at least on a par with any Mountain in the Himalayas. that of the Himalayas - and it has an older, much older vibe. Much closer to the source of life.

I see that Branson has paid to clear elephant paths from around the montain. So there is a history and a connection with Virgin and Mount Kenya.

When I travelled through the uplands with Dad on one of his many project tours as Information Officer for Oxfam, in 1974, when Chris and Andy were 14, we went to Kericho. That is as close as we got and visited a few Kenyan villages. They were well off and thriving because of the quality of the soil and the amount of rain. People had their own little plots of land and they had work in the tea plantations. We visited a little valley where Oxfam had helped pay for a flour mill to help tennant farmers mill their wheat. It was an old fashioned and joyful scene.

But in the North and the dryer parts of Kenya we visited it was a different scene altogether. There people were really suffering. They had not had a good harvest for a long time and there was no food and the reason was it had not rained. Morover there was a terrible lack of sanitation. Try keeping clean if there is no water and this helped spread disease.

Latest News from Chris's Virgin team climb (from a Virgin Atlantic bulletin)

"Captain Chris Hall and Jon Harding at Camp Moses

Hi Guys - the latest:

Just made it to Camp Old Moses at 3200 metres, everyone in good shape and making camp. Tea brewing, tent arrangements again a big discussion area! All in good spirits, a few with headaches from altitude. Views quite stunning as the light fades...

Thought you'd like to hear about our briefing yesterday, by Jodie and Jill from Free The Children. They gave an awe-inspiring, emotional talk on what Team Virgin is supporting. Shattering stats - 17 billion USD spent on pet food in US/Europe in 2000, as opposed to 13 billion USD on healthcare! The Masai village Steve R, Chris Hall and the crew visited to ground break a new classroom was shown thru photos and film footage which had many of us welling up...

Most sensible Virgins then retired for the evening, the hardy ones holding out a while as darkness set in.

Bizarrely and as yet unexplained, the late evening peace was broken by grunting and the sound of scurrying animal feet. To date, reports include a sighting of what looked like an emu (?), before Sandie and Bea saw a horrendous yeti like face appear in their tent doorway...terrified screams and flashlights everywhere, but no further sign of the beast. It is to be hoped whatever it was does not follow us up the mountain...

The night's only other interruption came with a thunderstorm at 0300, with an hour's heavy rain breaching some tents briefly. Otherwise, most slept til dawn before breakfast was called, bags packed and bused mounted as we bid farewell to Base camp...and the 'beast' - we hope..."

By Virgin Atlantic

They completed the climb I hear from Andy. A success.

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