The Painting

One deep night in August 2006 the Mighty Rovers from HK ascended Mount Kilimanjaro in conjunction with the outward Bound School of Kenya , hence the HK flag perched on ( not quite ) the summit of the mountain , overseen by the Outward Bound moon.

We went up the face of the mountain in a zip-zap route, and all night long I watched as the headlights of the climbers snaked along, flickering like fireflies .

The upper slope of Kilimanjaro consists of highland desert, while the lower zone is made up of rain forest which supports a host of exotic flowers , and the indigenous butterflies Papilio homimanii and Papilio rex .

During a routine morning dip a Rover accidentally lost his swimmimg trunk in the pool and performed the first and only nude swim in the whole history of the Outward Bound School .

On the way down the mountain we met Darol Kubacz, who became paraplegic while in the US Army in 1992. Darol is the founder of Freedom For Life, an
organisation which helps disabled outdoor enthusiasts .He was in Africa at this time on an expedition called the Uhuru Ascent where he attempted to summit Kilimanjaro using a hand-driven mountain climber . He hoped to be the first paraplegic veteran to summit Uhuru unassisted .
I was sad to learn after I got back to HK that Darol developed pulmonery edema at 17,500 ft and had to abort the mission on the 6th day of the ascent .

Prior to the mountain expedition the Mighty Rovers in collaboration with World Vision donated and helped build a schoolhouse for the Olkara Primary
School in the Kajiado District in Kenya .

I love the Marsa designs and colours, so I put in the painting also a Marsa bracelet with the classical warrior spear pattern .