The Kilimanjaro climb....

I cried buckets when they reached the summit, It looked so stunning visually with dawnbreak and the dark sky at the same time. They looked so happy and relieved to of made it.

They should be very proud of the money that they raised. It was one hell of an acheivement.

I really admire them for doing it but I do have to giggle when I think of the sherpas who climb whilst carrying a porta potty ? Plus the camera crew who have to do it with with heavy camera equipment, you never hear what a great job they did and I'd imagine the climb is much harder for them. I'm not knocking their achievement though, bloody hell I break out into a sweat walking to the shops ?

Yeah true, the focus was all on the 8 that did it (or was it 9?), as is to be expected. But it made me feel quite bad for undermining their achievement. I was especially surprised by Cheryl, I thought the strong winds would blow her across Tanzania ?

I cried when I watched it and last night at comic relief, it's just amazing what they have done.

i could never do something like that. When they had climbed near the summit and all you could see was a bit of ground and then thick clouds, it was scary.

The amount that they raised was fantastic.

I know - I may have shouted "Eat some pies FFS!" several times at the telly when I was watching this ?

A friend of mines brother did this a couple of weeks before. Apparently they have 4 helpers for each person going up.

I had a laugh at Chris Moyles' Sherpa posse getting to the summit singing chants they;d made up.

You're right that the camera crew and Sherpas haven't been the focus, but I guess they would have been hard pressed to raise as much sponsorship money as the slebs. Good on them all.

Who helps the helpers then? do they have 4 people each to help them? ?

I have been most impressed with the celebs who have done this. Most of these people could easily of just thrown the cash at the charity, and would of been a damn sight easier thing to do, but they chose to climb a mountain instead.

Did anyone think the documentary made Cheryl and Kimberley look a little isolated? Apart from a brief bit with Moyles, Cheryl hardly had a look in. Kimberley was non-existent. The rest of the footage showed the other 7 having a grand old time together.

I thought exactly the same. I didn't even realise Kimberly was doing it until the end. They also didn't do a "visit" Africa video or seem involved the the preperation everyone else did as a group, but thats probably because they had less flexible schedules than the others.

We sky plussed this the other night and I watched the start. but then my mum rang so I missed the rest of the programme. I'm planning on watching it properly tomorrow afternoon.

I thought they did very well and it must have been very hard. What they did for charity was wonderful, but I think she should have also made it clear how lucky they were to have such an opportunity as well. It wasn't quite as selfless as they led us to believe (hearltless icon!)

Did anyone else spot Jason Donovan in the Altitude Chamber. He was obviously there but there has been no mention of him at all.

I was wondering who on earth the cling-on random blonde was! She didn't get a mention and just seemed to be trying hard to be kissy kissy with the bigger stars. I have just had to look at the website to see who the hell she was. I didn't recognise her from GA (well, i am 34) How come it was so unballanced?? Good job though! Was v impressed with them all. Not a tantrum to be seen (shown?)

Did anyone else notice how awful the boys toilet was in comparison to the girls? I know girls sit more than boys but the boys still have to sit at some point.

The random blonde? Could either have been the doctor who was on the climb with them or Rachel Jones who is the producer for the chris moyles show, she went up a week before with radio 1's boss Andy Parfitt to set up for the satelitte link up work back to radio 1.

jason donovan pulled out as it clashed with his rehearsals for the musical he's doing......

and the GA twosome did a lot of radio work, no doubt the documentary couldnt show everything filmed but the two girls were def a big part of it all right from the start.

Hope that answered a few questions

No, the random blonde i was referring to was "kimberley" from GA. I could tell she was supposed to be part of the walkers as she wasn't doing anything else useful! She didn't get any air time or interview, or visit to a gut wrenchingly horrific malaria clinic - so i can only assume she's fit (in both senses) but thick or somehting and therefore not worth interviewing or using for awareness /fund raising promo!

You can't talk about Kimberley like that, she's my favourite (in a non lezzer way) of the GA girls. I didn't see Chris, Ronan, Cheryl or Gary visit a clinic either. Did I miss them?

Actually, I didn't see Ben go to one either

My FIL did this climb a few years ago, for a Tanzanian medical training school. He spent this afternoon bee-atching to me about what a big deal they were making about it, when he did it aged 60 and 'they're all in their 20s' ? He also had a moan about 'Gordon Brown giving £2m to Comic Relief out of UK coffers, and it should be spent at home'. I asked why he hadn't felt the same when he did his charity climb there. Oh, the joy that it actually stumped him for a minute! ?

Well done to them all - yes they had a lot of support - but it's still hardly easy.

i was baffled as to why they were given those toilets to use at all tbh. its a mountain, not a park. i was quite disappointed with the programme really, i dont think it captured the spirit of it until the summit shots, but at that point they hadnt told the story well at all, there wasnt really any depth shown to any of the people there. in fact i thought it was crap.

oh and my other (somewhat controversial) issue with all this malaria related business is if 1 million children a year die in africa, and the goal is to wipe it out totally, then what effect does that have on the worlds population over say, 100 years? those million children live, who go on to either father or give birth to how many more? and theirs how many more etc etc etc.

I don't think there's MUCH of an argument for saying 'don't stop malaria because we don't need these people' . That argument could be applied to any disease - don't have the mmr because the country is already overpopulated, we could do with bringing the numbers down?

L
xx

Indeed.

And it's pretty much the pattern that when your children survive to adulthood, you don't have such large families - you only need a large family if you will lose most children to disease or other poverty-related factors and you need someone to take care of you in your old age/work on your farm etc.

Of course, now Bush is out of power and African aid won't be restricted to abstinence rather than condom protection, we might have a reduction in family sizes anyway. Or at least we would if the Catholic church butted out of the region.

I think people probably greatly underestimate how difficult a mountain K is to climb - so many people go up Everest now as a "holiday" that the great mountains are seen as not a big deal but that's really not the case.