After facing temperatures of well below zero and an altitude of 5 643 metres, Angie Rawlinson is finally back from her two-week-long hike, in aid of Hospice White River, White River SPCA and the Uplands CANSA debs, to Everest Base Camp. Read more here
Angie is a well-known member of the community in her hometown of Maun in Botswana and has been actively involved in fund-raising and volunteer work for charities and causes over the past 30 years she has lived there.
She and her husband, Hennie, currently have two daughters, in grades nine and 12, boarding at Uplands College. Their son matriculated from Uplands in 2014.
“This is by far the hardest thing I have ever done and parts of the trip were awful,” this mother said.
“Many people ask me why I do these kind of trips and to be honest there are many times on such a trek that you ask yourself the same question, especially when you are exhausted, sore, freezing cold, struggling to breathe and hungry,” she admitted.
For Angie it was all about taking herself out of her comfort zone and seeing what she was made of.

“It’s about pushing yourself beyond what you think you are capable of and when you get to that point, pushing just a little bit harder. It’s about experiencing a unique out-of-this-world experience and immersing yourself in a culture and place completely alien to your own way of life,” she added.

Angie said the last push to base camp last Thursday was the most difficult day.

“You can’t actually see base camp so if you want a good view of it you have to get up at 03:45 and start walking for around two hours from Gorak Shep at 04:30, ascend 446 metres to the top of a hill called Kala Patthar and then come back down, before the two-hour trek from there to base camp.”
When she set off in the dark it was -20 degrees Celsius and windy. “It felt like my fingers were going to fall off from frost bite. Had I not found another set of inner gloves in my pack I would have given up and turned back,” she said.
But the view of the sun just starting to rise over Everest was worth the pain and suffering she had endured and that for her was the greatest achievement of the tour.

“A trip like this is truly life-changing and you learn to really appreciate so many things we all take for granted in life. It’s humbling to know that every single thing, whether food and water or items for general daily living, has to be carried up that mountain on the back of an animal or person.
“Something as simple as finding a clean long-drop toilet that actually had toilet paper at base camp was a highlight for us all. I have to say that doing this for good causes definitely gives you that extra strength needed to get you through the toughest times.
“If anyone were to ask me if I would do this kind of trip again I would say yes in a heartbeat, but just give me a year or so to recover,” Angie concluded.