Bold and intrepid Carnival UK sherpas Giles Hawke and Bob Dixon report that training for the Three Peaks Challenge (Ben Nevis, Scafell and Mt. Snowdon within 24 hours) is going well. Giles has purchased some walking shorts with a guaranteed anti-cshafing mechanism and Bob has moved down to low tar cigarettes. Ever wise after the event, we realised that the restaurants and cocktail lounges of Ventura, were possibly not the best venue for pre-season training. However, a recent 23 mile preparatory walk over the South Downs lead to some important learnings for the team. Learning 1: Don't have a curry the night before. Learning 2: Boots which aren't broken-in, cause blisters. All valuable intelligence in our preparation. Otherwise the day was a success. Deciding that oxygen cylinders and crampons were a tad OTT, we left them at base camp (carpark in Winchester) before advancing carefully up the northern face of Twyford Down. Here, with the aid of a complicated system of ropes and pulleys, we liberated the potato salad from Giles' rucksack. After this restorative, we proceeded with the technical assent of Old Winchester Hill, pausing at the trig points at the summit to admire the view, salute the Queen and eat a muesli bar. Our final assault on the lofty peak of Butser Hill (270m) was a supreme test of will and equipment. With iPod batteries spent, no bars of service on our mobile phones, and suffering from the twin scourges of the high altitude mountaineer (sore feet and boredom of each other's jokes), we opted for the eastern traverse before ducking down the craggy gully to the base of the mountain. This got us to our goal of the QE2 Country Park where we enjoyed a manly ice cream.
Meanwhile, team anchorman and IT Director Hayden Williams is boning up on how to work a Sat Nav and learning the curves and bends of the road between the three peaks so he will be able to drive it in his sleep. This will be a salutary competence since that is almost exactly what he will be doing come July 5th.
Our colleagues at Thomas Cook who will be joining us on the day are preparing with equal vigour, though as with their mergers, they prefer to keep tight-lipped about their training. We will be meeting up with them for one more practise, this time on 22nd June, when we'll all get our first sight of a real hill - Mt. Snowdon.
If you would like to sponsor the team 'Carnival Cooks' for the 3 Peaks Challenge in aid of Action Medical Research, please go to www.action.org.uk/~gileshawke & sign up!
Many thanks in anticipation of your sponsorship.
After 4 nights of hosting our top travel agent partners onboard Ventura I was very lucky to attend the naming ceremony.
