As the Dragons continue in their preparations for Sunday’s game against Glasgow, Colin Charvis quite literally has a mountain of his own to climb.
Charvis been given time off from his coaching role with the Men of Gwent to join 14 other former Welsh captains in a seven day trek to the' Roof of Africa'. Standing 19,335 ft above sea level the party of 50, will climb Mount Kilimanjaro as part of the SA Brain Captain’s Climb.
The trek that aims to raise £1m for Valindre Cancer Centre’s Stepping Stones Appeal was the brain child of Welsh rugby photographer, Huw Evans.
After a 24-hour delay due to baggage being lost, the party will begin the climb tomorrow. Speaking ahead of departing, Charvis said: “We start in the pretty low, in the jungle and then trek for six days until we reach the summit. There’s a really big push on the final day where we will encounter arctic conditions on the last day.
“We have all been training, we have done local mountains like Pen Y Fan and some others in the Brecon Beacons and we went up Snowdon. But we will basically be doing two Snowdons a day for Kilimanjaro.
“A few of the guys have done a bit more training and gone in an oxygen chamber. But I haven’t been able to do that because I am still doing the bike rides with cyclo-sportive. I’ve been doing a number of rides around Wales and did a 120 mile one the weekend before last. And of course we cycled around Wales in eight days earlier in the year. That was fantastic but this challenge will be a bit harder!
“I’m confident that I’m fit enough but there’s also the worry of altitude sickness. You either get it or you don’t. There’s a group of 50 odd of us in total, you just have to dig in. If you are struggling a little bit there are plenty of people to support you and vice versa. Hopefully with 50 other people doing it, it will drown out my moaning!”
And Charvis admitted he didn’t think twice about taking part in the challenge:
“When Huw phoned me and asked me to do it - I thought it was a once in a lifetime challenge. You don’t have many opportunities like this and with the cause we are raising money for there was no way I wasn’t going to do it. Fortunately the Dragons have been supportive of me and have allowed me to have the 10 days off necessary.
“I’d just like to extend my gratitude to the Dragons and then Huw and Velindre for asking me along. It is just a case of crossing our fingers that we all get to the top!”
Newport Gwent Dragons Rugby Manager, Rob Beale, added: “Everyone here is delighted to support such a worthy cause. It was something Colin felt strongly about and wanted to do, so we were happy to allow him the time off to take part. Hopefully they can all complete the trek and hit their desired targets.”
For more information about how you can donate visit www.captainsclimb.com
