The idea of a joint fund-raising trek in support of Prostate
Cancer UK (formerly Prostate Action) and Well-Being of Women (WoW)
dates back to 2005, when almost 100 trekkers joined us to walk
across the desert to Petra in Jordan to raise more than £600,000
for these two noble causes. Neither Marcus Setchell nor I thought
then that subsequently we would go on to trek in Kenya, Sinai,
Kerala, and most recently Morocco, to raise an eventual cumulative
sum of £1.3 million.
The fifth and final Hike for Hope started inauspiciously with
dark clouds and pouring rain, even though we were in Morocco in
September, just a couple of hundred miles North of the Sahara
desert. They told us it hadn't rained for the whole year before we
got there! Undaunted, but with little in the way of rain-gear,
rather, an excess of redundant sunscreen products, we set off
across the Ante-Atlas mountains in the direction of Marrakesh.
This time, there were 27 intrepid trekkers, including the
redoubtable Andrew Etherington, Felicity Hoare and Rex Willoughby,
veterans who had each accompanied us on all the previous four Hikes
for Hope, as well as Rosemary Macaire. Unfortunately on day one the
rain became steadily heavier, with the result that the beds of the
mountain streams, usually dry, became minor torrents, which were
more and more difficult to cross. We made the decision to abandon
the last hour's walking to the camp and instead managed to persuade
some of the local people to let us shelter in two of their mountain
huts for that night.
Days two and three were tough trekking, but in fine dry weather.
We got to the very highest point of the mountain before holding a
minute's silence for those relatives and friends who had succumbed
to prostate or pelvic cancer, the cures for which we were raising
money. Perhaps as the result of our efforts, we are a little closer
to that goal.
On day four the rain returned, this time with even greater
intensity, and accompanied by a bitterly cold wind. With little in
the way of protective clothing, hypothermia became an issue. Again
the amazing hospitality of the local Berber goat herders came to
our rescue. Cold, wet and shivering, packed in again like sardines,
we managed to get some sleep, occasionally interrupted by a goat or
two, who seemed justifiably irritated to be displaced from their
usual place of nocturnal shelter! To the credit of the guides, the
trek doctor and the trekkers themselves, morale and good humour
were maintained.
On the final day the weather improved sufficiently for us to
trek down the mountain to join the first road we had encountered
for five days. A drive through the Atlas Mountains took us to the
wonderful city of Marrakesh, where a well-deserved celebratory
dinner and award ceremony took place. The trials and tribulations
of our mountain trek had brought us all much closer together, so it
was with a tinge of sadness that the Hikers for Hope disbanded and
headed for home. The final sum of money raised and the camaraderie
and bonding that occurred during the trek made the whole experience
so very worthwhile.