The Ultimate Challenge

What is the Ultimate Challenge?

The Ultimate challenge has been set up for a group of members to challenge themselves to 12 events over a 2010. These events are designed to push the members beyond there normal confort zone, and to enjoy what life has to offer. (Please see the original event HERE)

Can I get involved?

Yes if you wish just drop Dom a line at dominic@thamesvalleyspice.oc.uk

Who/When are the events taking place?

How did the Ultimate Challenge come about?

In 2007, I (Dominic) decided to do something different every month which culminated in an amazing year of challenges, (please see the event web write-up to see what I got up to). 

2007 - A year I will never forget

It all began back in January where I took 36 Spice Thames Valley & Solent members off to Les Arcs/La Plagna skiing – an excellent area to ski.  Our Spice Thames Valley & Solent trips are always great fun and attract some great people – I can’t wait for the next one!

As February is such a cold month, I decided to give Fire Eating a go.  This is an experience I will never forget – it really does boost your self confidence.  However, I’ve been trying to get the taste of white spirit out of my mouth ever since!

Then in March it was off skiing again, this time to Val D’Isere and Tignes.  I have never seen so much snow which made for some great skiing, and, as with all Spice trips, we had a great crowd of people.

I have been trying to get a place on the London Marathon for 7 years.  April saw me finally realising that dream.  If you have ever tried to get a place you’ll know it’s a challenge in itself – places are like gold dust.  Anyway my debut was on one of the hottest days of the year, but I got round, and it was a fantastic achievement, with the support of the crowd and the camaraderie of my fellow runners. After saying to myself as I crossed the finishing line that I would never do it again, rather stupidly I decided to enter again for 2008.  Guess what? I have a place for 2008 – 2 years in a row! Then to finish the month I did an Underwater Helicopter Escape – a great confidence builder and enormous fun.  I would recommend this event to anyone.  Watch out for it in the coming months.

Another life-long ambition was achieved in May - a trip to the Amazon jungle, but first I thought it wise to address my fear of spiders.  So I booked onto the ‘Conquer Your Fear of Spiders’ workshop and it really did work! Now, spiders will never by my favourite creatures, but I am a lot more comfortable around them, which is good as in June we saw some very large tarantulas in the jungle! After a week exploring the jungle it was off to the Inca Trail, which should be on everyone’s ‘to see’ list. The trip was an experience I will never forget, and someone also told me about the Inca marathon… well it has to be done - let’s see what happens in the coming years!

July began what I call the ‘adrenalin months’.  First off was a staff day Rally Driving and what a fun day we had, practicing our hand-brake turns.  But when it came to the rally stage itself, some of us were more like ‘Driving miss Daisy’ than Colin McRae!

With this under my belt a Microlight trip was next for August.  This is a great way to see the surrounding countryside whilst flying one of these quirky machines.  Bitten by the bug I just had to do the amazing Bulldog Top Gun flight, a truly amazing experience where you have the control of a very agile aircraft the RAF use to train in. Two planes are in the air at a time and you are in full control of the aircraft whilst looping the loop, doing barrel rolls and chasing the other aircraft only 50 meters in front! The aim is to ‘shoot down’ your opponent, unfortunately my ‘trigger finger’ let me down on the day, and I was beaten by a girl (Jane).  It is always wise to listen carefully to the pilot, as I misheard an instruction, taking the plane into negative G, which, believe me, the body does not like!

Well September and Kilimanjaro was looming, and I can officially say this is a very big mountain. You start very, very slowly as you acclimatise - that is, until the last ascent. We set off at midnight for the summit, the moon lit the way, and it probably helped us not seeing the steepness of the slope we were climbing!  We made the crater rim as the sun rose. WOW! is all I can say. Having had a cuppa, we then set off for the summit and arrived some hours later.  Altitude sickness is a very strange thing, and it feels a bit like being drunk.  Obviously I hadn’t had a drop of alcohol, but my legs were acting like I’d had a skin-full, making the descent highly entertaining and a little bit nerve-wracking. Climbing Kili was an unforgettable experience and one I shall treasure forever.

In October an amazing event - the Royal Marine Commando Challenge. The title probably already gives you an idea. This event is difficult to explain, however once you have ran though knee-deep mud, crawled through dark tunnels and swam through a water filled tunnel you savour the experience as one of those events you will never forget. Just as I thought this was enough, I decided to do a tandem sky dive from 12,000ft. Strapped to a 6ft 6in firemen (I had little choice, where he went, I went). I still remember doing the safety briefing - as he stood up, my little legs couldn't reach the floor (if you have watched Austin Powers you get the idea of a mini me!) I will explain no more apart from saying just do it for the experience.

It’s every schoolboy’s dream, and mine came true in November when I drove a Ferrari F360 around a race track.  You don’t need me to tell you that these awesome cars are very fast and they stick to the road extremely well, making them so much fun to drive.  My second adrenalin rush of the month was an afternoon Gliding, and finally I finished the month having a great day out Power Kiting and Kite Buggying in a field in Theale.  All are brand new suppliers – look out for these events in this newsletter, and book!  They are serious fun!  

Finally December has come around and for the first year in a while Jane and myself are spending the time at home. This may not sound very exciting, but it is something we don’t do very often as we like to spend Christmas skiing. Saying that, Jane had just had an operation on her knee, and sugested my challenge should be to cook a Christmas dinner.  Hmmmm, that just might be a challenge too far!