Wednesday, July 11, 2018

Sleepless nights for Cathy Mohalahlana as she gets ready to climb Kilimanjaro in August, with the eNCA anchor hoping to reach Africa's highest point on Women's Day.

The eNCA (DStv 403) anchor Cathy Mohalahlana is set to climb to the top of Kilimanjaro, the highest mountain in Africa.

Cathy Mohalahlana, co-anchor on eNCA's NewsNight, is one of a group of people who will join the Trek for Mandela initiative this year.

There are two groups with the first leaving within days.

Cathy Mohalahlana is part of the second group leaving later, who will try to reach the summit of Kilimanjaro and Uhuru Peak in northeast Tanzania in early-August.

Cathy Mohalahlana told the former eNCA anchor Joanne Joseph on radio 702 during an interview on Wednesday that "it's such an emotional journey, as well as a physical one because there's obviously getting ready physically which includes lots and lots of walking and climbing stairs and just getting some strength in your legs that will carry you through the journey. But the most challenging part is the mental issue".

Cathy Mohalahlana said she's already had quite a few sessions with one of the team leaders on the mountain trek about getting into the right headspace.

"We're expecting snow, it's going to be below freezing point. I can barely handle Johannesburg's cold. I can't imagine what it's going to be like to walk out, over snow, in the night in the dark, but I think that I'm ready as everybody else who has decided to take on this journey because we understand the cause," said Cathy Mohalahlana.

The Trek for Mandela will help more disadvantaged schoolgirls to get access to sanitary pads.

"I am starting to get sleepless nights about it," she said. "The group that I'm going with is going to be in going to be in August and we are hoping to get to the top of the mountain on Women's Day on 9 August."

"As that day draws closer, the sleepless nights are there and the heart palpitations. It's nerve-racking."

Besides Cathy Mohalahlana, the SABC News reporter Gillian Pillay and Thabo Madilola, SABC cameraman, are also taking part in the Trek4Mandela.