G’day mates. I’m Mike and I am Thomas’ younger brother. By the intro most of you will guess that I live in Australia, Perth to be exact. I didn’t take the traditional route to get here (arrived in Australia in 1999), but went via the UK. I left South Africa in 1993, spent heaps of time traveling, got the career off the ground in the UK, married in 1999 and then left for greener pastures – there is only so much bad weather a person can take. Yes, I have done ‘THE SWITCH’ and I am just as proud to call myself Australian as you guys are to call yourselves South Africans. I don’t expect everyone to understand or agree with this and no doubt it will make for some interesting conversation as we make our way up and down Kilimanjaro.The two best aspects of this photo are the littlies. Our beautiful daughter is called Kyna (26 months) and the strapping little lad is called Keegan (5 months). Most people say that Keegan is the splitting image of me, but I’d like to think that I still have a bit more hair.
At this point I also need to mention my wonderful wife - Plum. I know that most of you will be thinking: “Why does he call her Plum?” Well, it’s quite simple…….COS THAT’S HER NAME!! Seriously though, it’s her official nickname and I’m happy to share the real story behind her name over a couple of ‘tinnies / frosties’ (read Australian for beers) when we complete our adventure January. Plum gets a medal of honour for immediately saying yes with a major stamp of approval when I floated the idea of embarking on this extremely exciting adventure. I have to do quite a bit of traveling due to business commitments (I run my own small Management Consulting Business) and without her full support I would certainly not be able to join the rest of you.
So why Kilimanjaro? Besides the age old cliché ‘because it’s there’, my reasons are very similar to those outlined by Thomas. Dad accomplished the feat many years ago and it did plant a seed. The fact that Thomas is at the centre of organising this trip makes it very logical for us to do it together.
Many thanks to Sandy for collating all the information and running the blog – really great stuff and very helpful.
Anyway, nuff of my dribble. I look forward to meeting all of you in January and for us to support each other safely up and down Kilimanjaro. It is going to be one fantastic experience.
