member of the human race

Saturday was spent climbing mount snowdon in wales, wooohoooo. i was really looking forward to it, for me it was a last minute thing, my friend had asked me to sponsor her as she was climbing mount snowdon to raise money for Africa via Islamic relief a charity company.

a group of girls where getting together to do this walk, and i showed an interest thinking that it was probably to late to join, so i was pleasantly surprised when she said that i could, i grabbed the chance, registered and began a 2 week collection of sponsors.

even the nhs patients at the surgery sponsored me aaaaw bless, elderly people pledging money, so nice of them walahi. we where the last group from Manchester around 24 of us, Bradford, Birmingham and London had already done it and already over 30,000 pounds was raised mashallah.

we had to be at the meeting point at the uni mosque at 4am, i had slept after midnight so i was lacking in sleep but i was full of energy because of all the excitement, dressed up in hiking boots, waterproof trousers, jumpers, jackets, rucksack the whole shebang.

we left just after fajer and arrived on time, 2 1/2 hours away, got of the coach and found a pretty lake, wales is simply beautiful subhannalah.

some of the girls had brought walking sticks with them that actually came in handy, i preferred jamming them into people, more fun :)
even the houses are so pretty
we where split into 2 groups and each group took a different path that eventually leads to the summit, there where natural steps leading up the mountain, but some of those steps where soooo high, you could feel the muscles at the back of the leg stretching, I'm sure at one point i heard mine scream.
it was really foggy, at points you couldn't see anything ahead or below, then it would clear up for a while, the higher up we went the more cloudy it got
the views where fantastic, and every so often you could hear a 'subhanallah' coming from different people, you cant help but wonder about the magnificence of nature, of what Allah has gifted us, and its times like these that i feel extreme gratitude for my eye sight as to witness such wonderful examples of creation is truly a gift in itself
the girls where doing so well, every so often we would stop to catch our breath, all the time complaining of how un-fit we where, some of us where good in that we trained before starting the climb, i on the other hand didn't train all that much but what did help me was the fact that i walk every where and that came in handy.
we came across a running stream
and after checking it out with our guide (who was fantastic) i jumped in and drank fresh spring water mmmm delicious
after the girls made sur the water was fine through me testing it and not dieing, every one had a drink, and we made wudu so as to pray duhir later, pretty cool.

we continued our walk, every so often taking snaps of beautiful scenery

we eventually stopped for lunch, we didn't realise how hungry we where until we took the food out to eat, after a brief rest we continued the rest of the climb, the last 10 minutes of the climb was a real test, it was a case of convincing your mind that you weren't tired and that your muscles are absolutely in tip top shape, when in fact all you want to do is lie down and catch your breath, but the human is an amazing creation, once we stick our mind to something then no matter what we can do it, and energy you though you never had somehow makes an appearance and drives you to move on, and the faith that you carry provided enough drive to take you where you want.

besides all that i couldn't face the fact that 70 year olds where walking past me looking like where going for a stroll :0)

we eventually got to the top, the summit and it felt great and was well worth the walk

it was time to go down, a different route to the one we came up, but it was sooo foggy, you could hardly see what was in front of you
and whilst we where walking, we heard a scream and then some of the girls shouting, when we got closer we saw one of the sisters had fallen quite badly and banged her head, and there seemed to be blood all over her, we where all shocked and completely in fear of what the outcome would be, the guides came running with the first aid kit, and it was a case of checking to see if she was aware of her surroundings, of who she was etc.. alhamdullilah she seemed to be aware but was in extreme pain and couldn't really move, eventually she had to go down by train, and we continued our journey down by foot. later we where told she was taken to the local hospital where they cleaned her wounds, and she had stitches, but alhamdullilah it was not anything more serious.

the guides told us that many people die from climbing this mountain, through falling, tripping etc.. so the sister was extremely lucky and fortunate, may Allah reward her for her wonderful efforts inshallah.

when we got half way down the mountain there was a service stop of some sort, toilets and a cafe, there was the most friendliest sheep i had ever seen this sheep seemed to love human contact, most sheep run away if you come a mile near them never mind an inch, this particular sheep was extremely fond of chocolate, no lie!! we fed him a whole mars bar

but for some reason it wasn't interested in me, i was convinced that it was a donkey dressed up as a sheep.

i spotted a lovely tree which reminded me of the bonsai trees

we eventually got to the bottom, by then i was so grateful to be on flat land, and it felt so cool to look up to the mountain and know that we had climbed it.

Africa may this small contribution make some difference