| Good morning. |
| I'm very pleased to have been invited along to your club to talk about our Charity Sponsored Walking Holiday for Education Aid. |
| I'll start by giving you a brief overview of what it entails. |
| First of all, let me explain what we mean by 'sponsored' here. |
| This is where people promise to donate money to the charity if you achieve your goal, |
| in this case, to walk a certain number of miles. |
| Basically we are organizing a ten-day holiday, |
| from the sixth to the sixteenth of November, |
| with eight days actual walking, trekking in the Semira Mountains. |
| Let's have a look at some of the details. |
| We require you to raise sponsorship money of at least $3,200, |
| paying $250 of it upfront as a deposit |
| and the rest in stages throughout the year. |
| Out of this about thirty-five percent will go on your expenses, |
| and that leaves sixty-five percent guaranteed to go to the charity. |
| Which brings me to the most important part. |
| This trek is being specifically organized to help education in the Semira region. |
| Last year we helped train teachers for the disabled, |
| and this year we're focusing on the pupils. |
| Each of the walkers' sponsorship money will go to help an individual special needs pupil in one of the mountain schools. |
| In the second part of the talk, I'll be giving you a lot more details, |
| but back to the basic information. |
| Age limits. |
| This is the second time we have run this kind of holiday and... |
| on the first we even had an eighty-year old, |
| but we found it was wise to establish limits this time. |
| You have to be at least eighteen and the top limit is now seventy, |
| though you need to obtain a health certificate from your doctor if you are over sixty years old. |
| Now, the Semira Mountains are among the highest in the world |
| but you mustn't be too daunted, |
| we will mainly be trekking in the foothills only, |
| although there will be spectacular views even in the foothills. |
| However, you will need to be extremely fit |
| if you aren't now and you're interested in coming with us. |
| You have plenty of time to get into shape. |
| You will be sleeping in tents so you must have quite a bit of equipment with you |
| but you will be helped by local assistants. |
| Your bedding and so forth will be carried by them. |
| We ask that you only walk with a small rucksack with needs for the day. |
| I don't think I've really said enough about the marvelous area you'll be walking in. |
| Let's have a look at some of the sights you'll be seeing. |
| Apart from these spectacular snow-covered peaks and valleys, |
| there are marvelous historic villages. |
| The area has been famous for centuries for making beautiful carpets, |
| although recently there has been a trend to move into weaving blankets and wood carving. |
| The people are extremely friendly and welcoming. |
| We deliberately keep the parties small in size to minimize disruption to people and landscape. |
| I hope that there are still some people interested. |
| I will be distributing leaflets at the end where you can find out more information, |
| but just for the moment I'll outline the itinerary, |
| the main high points of the holiday. |
| Obviously, you'll start by flying out to Kishba, the capital city, on Day One. |
| After a couple of days to acclimatize yourself, |
| you'll start the trek on Day Three walking through the enormous Katiba Forest |
| which will take the whole of the day. |
| Day Four takes us higher up, going through the foothills past a number of villages |
| and visiting a school for the disabled in Sohan. |
| Then you have a rest day, that's Day Five, |
| before going to the spectacular Kumi Temple |
| with twelfth-century carvings, set in a small forest by a lake |
| and that's Day Six, the highlight for many. |
| We stay near there for Day Seven because then comes the hardest day, |
| walking through very mountainous country, |
| but culminating in a swim in the Parteh Falls. |
| This is the highest waterfall in the region. |
| Day Nine is much easier, with part of the day spent in a village where they make some of the gorgeous red blankets. |
| Then back down to Kishba and the journey home. |
| So, you can see it's a pretty packed timetable... |