A Short Walk in The Gambian Bush – Photostories by Jason Florio & Helen Jones

check list: tent, walking boots, mosquito net, cameras.............

Its now 6 days before we leave for The Gambia and 15 days before we actually put one foot in front of the other – to begin our 700 mile walk around the country. It seems that the time has taken legs and is running off, way ahead of us, and we still have so much to do!!

Its been weeks of sourcing the right walking boots for the expedition team, sleeping mets, finding another tent and everything else that entails walking and sleeping in the bush for 8 weeks! The two items that we knew would be paramount, and the most expensive, to helping us through the expedition would be connected  to walking and sleeping (quelle surprise!). So, after hours of (often frustrating) research, the boots we decided on were Merrell (Siren Vent) for me, Meindl (Desert Fox) for Florio and Hi-Tec (V-Lite Scamania) for Abdouli and Mohammed. As for the mats, we decided on Therm-a-Rest ‘Trail Lite’.

During all of this, Florio had to make a flying visit back to New York but he returned armed with expedition goodies – galore – including the above mentioned sleeping mats (thanks to Eastern Mountain Sports, NYC, for the discount).

Everyone has been amazingly generous with advice, support, discounting and/or donating equipment and those people deserve monumental thanks from the whole team:

Donations: Flights (the Gambia Experience); Makasutu Culture Forest (pre & post-walk accommodation and friendship) Addict Clothing (tents); Terra Plana (walking shoes);  Fra-Angelica (mosquito net); Robert Young Pelton (expedition knives); the Eden Project (cameras).

Discount: LifeVenture (camping essentials); Blacks (tent); Eastern Mountain Sports (sleeping mats); Millets (walking boots).

A BIG shout goes out for continuous support, passion for the expedition, invaluable advice and very generous donations : The Eden Project team; Jenny/Gambia Experience; Lawrence and James/Makasutu; Wendy and Rodger; Zac/Caught In The Cross Fire; Matt.

We’ve had some amazing press and blog plugs too that have been vital in spreading the word: The Eden Project; Gambia Experience; StellaZine; Whats The Jackanory; Addict Clothing; War Diaries; School Library Journal.

Upcoming – Tune into: we have been invited onto Florio’s local town BBC radio station to talk about the expedition. We’ll be on air live at 9.30am GMT, Monday 19th October

http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/surrey/hi/

We are still on the hunt for the rest of the gear that we need and that may well involve a lot of begging, borrowing and stealing! However, we’ll get there!

Lastly, for anyone that wants to help us get at least one of the Gambian kids Gardens For Life up and running whilst we are out there, please see the previous posting, below, on ‘how you can help……’

to be continued……….

Jones & Florio xx

Image: Florio2009

Related posts:

1. Meeting The Eden Project and The Gambia Experience Teams, In the Tropical Biome at The Eden Project, Cornwall, UK Our first official (and very exciting!) meeting with Eden Project...
2. The Expedition Route Here’s where we begin and end Starting on 1st...
3. How you can help build ‘Gardens for Life’ for West African school kids through the Just Giving registered charity We have had the most amazing response to our fund-raising...

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