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Nikki up for African test

ROBERT BULLARD meets a woman who is joining a group on an intrepid journey to raise funds for charity.

Nikki Jones relishes a challenge. “When I was in Africa a while ago, I fell in love with the light and the wide open spaces,” she says. “I decided that one day I would return, and climb Mount Kilimanjaro.” Now, after six years in the planning, eight months of fundraising and four months working on her fitness, she is ready to conquer the 6,000-metre peak. (Shropshire Star – January 2005)

Later this month, she and a group of 49 others will be setting off to climb Africa’s highest mountain. Not for themselves, but for SCOPE. Each of them will be raising up to £3000 for the organisation, which helps people with cerebral palsy.

As we talk over coffee on a grey and grisly Saturday morning in Shrewsbury it is clear Nikki has planned her trip down to the last detail – even timing it so that she will be on the summit for her 40th birthday.

“I have never liked Britain’s dark and wet winters”, she says, nodding at the weather outside, “so what better place to celebrate my 40th?”

Bazars

Nikki’s life started pretty conventionally. She was born and brought up on a farm in Westbury, where she first developed her love for the countryside and natural landscapes, and went to Priory School in Shrewsbury, followed by college in Manchester. But, aged 21, she set her eyes on horizons further a field, and left Britain for a job in Cairo.

Shrewsbury Shoppers will know and recognise her if they ever visited ‘The Mud Factory’ on the Wyle Cop, which Nikki set up on her return to the UK in 1994. It was an Aladdin’s cave of things she brought back from return trips she made to Egypt’s bazaars - muddy red earthenware, shimmering brass pots and turquoise glass.

Safari

Although she still sells through the television-shopping channel, QVC and via the internet (www.egyptiancollectables.com), she closed the shop itself in 2002 - keen to move on to a new challenge.

This month’s African adventure starts with a brief safari through the Tanzanian bush, with opportunities to view zebra and giraffe and a couple of nights in a hotel. But the luxuries will soon disappear.

From then on the accommodation will be in mud huts, toilet and washing facilities will be basic, and there will be no showers – although at least everyone will be in the same boat.

Nikki has already plotted the climb in her mind and is well aware of the challenges – physical and mental - she will face.

“The six-day trek will involve walking all day, every day”, she says. “It begins in a hot and humid jungle, where there’s lots of heavy rain. Altitude sickness kicks in from half way up – affecting those who try and climb too fast.

“And towards the top the path gets really steep and it gets really cold – but the high altitude prevents you from walking faster in an attempt to stay warm.”

“There is no let out on the final day”, she adds, which she anticipates to be the worst of all. “We have been told that it is a gruelling 14-hour climb”, she says “and that last year only 35% made it to the top.”

But Nikki has taken the challenge she has set herself seriously. For the last few months she has been making regular visits to the gym – even engaging a personal trainer. And while most of us were sitting back digesting our Christmas lunch, her preparation was continuing by joining friends to climb The Glyders, in Wales.

What will she get out the trip, I wonder.

“The satisfaction of achieving my six-year long goal, and of doing it for a worthy cause”, she answers, confidently. “It will be a lot more rewarding than if I had just planned and done it all on my own – other people are going to benefit.”

Has she set her next challenge, I ask, speculatively.

“Everest Base Camp”, she says, “seventeen thousand feet”, reciting her goal and the statistics without hesitation, grabbing her things and taking off.

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