Young Hammers take off!

At 19.20 on Sunday 9th August, twelve young Hammers took off from Heathrow bound for the Andes. They were all excited, some nervous, some apprehensive but the greatest fear each had was having to leave their mobile behind!

At the final count there were – ten lads and two girls: – John Akon, Hassan Khan, Sam Lowne, Adil Malik, Yaseen Mukadam, Jimmy Nganga, Emmanuel Okunja, Jasen Osei-Bonsu, Luke Sewell and Abdulrahman Sheik Yusuf and identical twins, Faye and Lauren Picton.

Angie White, the expedition leader, was in charge but according to the policy of Wilderness Expertise, the expedition organisers, she delegated the job of “herding” the group towards Departures to one of the team. Each day throughout the expedition, a team member will be appointed Leader and each member given a special responsibility.

 

 

Eventually they’d bought the Sunday Telegraph (see article), thrown away water bottles, identified their day-packs (each being identical!) and, accompanied by Angie’s assistants, Stephen Wass and Timothy Lukwago, disappeared through Passport Control.

They fly via Lima to Tacna (550m), shop for stores, take transport to Miculla (23km, 1600m), overnight in hostal with hot thermal baths and visit petroglyphs. Next day onwards and upwards to Palca (3,100m) where they meet the 25 llamas who will carry their kit! From there the trek starts.

Although Angie has a satellite phone we don’t expect to hear from them until they arrive in Puno, Lake Titicaca. Their ETA being Thursday 27th August. At 19.20 on Sunday 9th August, twelve young Hammers took off from Heathrow bound for the Andes.

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