Vietnam Trekkers 2022

Caroline, Jacqui and Aileen completed the trek in October. Aileen and Caroline are sisters and Jacqui is Caroline’s friend.

Aileen is a retired midwife with 3 grandchildren and another due early 2023. Caroline is a retired police officer working part time as a receptionist for Vermilion and Jacqui worked in the travel industry and is now mum to 2 daughters and Alfie the dog.

Aileen already has an impressive 5 treks under her belt whilst raising funds for It’s good 2 give; Kilimanjaro, the Arctic, West Highland Way and the Great Wall of China. The Vietnam trek was the first time for Jacqui.

We chose It’s good 2 give because they supported my godson Paul around 10 years ago and Caroline and I have volunteered at numerous events ever since, and at the Ripple Retreat. We also take part in the Kiltwalk each year.

Our trek started with a flight to Hanoi in North Vietnam. We then travelled for 4 hours to the South West to the Karst Mountain area where we trekked for 6 days in the mountainous countryside through local villages, jungles, rivers, paddy fields and over the mountains for a total of 100km.

There were thirteen of us in total as we joined nine Welsh ladies who were supporting the Velindre Cancer Centre. Tracey Davies their head trekker has the British Empire Medal awarded for services to charity. There was also a trek doctor from England with us who has supported several treks organised by Ultimate Challenges. Our guide was Binh and he had two porters with him who were all from the countryside although Binh had relocated to Hanoi with his family. We met so many amazing Vietnamese people every day, hard working and always with a smile on their face. They work the land and are totally self sufficient.

There were so many highlights of the trek! Here are just some of them; meeting so many different people, interacting with the Vietnamese people, especially the children. We took donated toothbrushes and toothpaste from Vermilion and it was a joy to see the children’s faces light up with their new brushes. We also gave them some bouncy balls to play with. We passed through some beautiful countryside and the joy of seeing the porter on his moped with fresh water at our stopping points was amazing!

The challenges were the high humidity and 30 degree temperatures which made hiking extremely difficult through the jungle - especially the day we had to contend with leeches as well ! Add in 22km of lengthy, steep 25% incline on the Karst Mountains with 'jippy' tummies. This was tough but we really did not realise how tough - but kept smiling!

We would highly recommend trekking . The achievement on completion and raising funds for It’s good 2 give gives such a great sense of satisfaction. We are now planning our next trek for 2024 and looking forward to fundraising again in the New Year with our first vent already booked - a Burns Supper.

A huge thanks to Aileen, Caroline, and Jacqui for raising over £21,000 - incredible!