THE 27 CLUB

Kurt Cobain, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix and now Amy Winehouse; these are the names of stars who have died at the age of 27 through substance abuse and drug overdoses.

Amy Winehouse was found dead in her flat on Saturday the 23^rd of July 2011 at 4pm. Although autopsy details have not been released, it is suspected that her demise could be attributed to a drug overdose.

According to her friend Russell Brand, “When you love someone who suffers from the disease of addiction you await the phone call,” writes Brand, who battled substance abuse himself.

“There will be a phone call. The sincere hope is that the call will be from the addict themselves, telling you they’ve had enough, that they’re ready to stop, ready to try something new.”

“Of course though, you fear the other call, the sad nocturnal chime from a friend or relative telling you it’s too late, she’s gone.”

Firstly, I have a different take on drug addiction; it’s not a disease. Drug addiction is a choice. From the very first hit of a joint to the conscious and deliberate decisions one makes when choosing to abuse any substance. We are human beings, not animals and as such we are given the power of choice and what we do with these choices when it comes to drugs means the difference of demise or recovery.

This is not an isolated incident and too often worried family members do receive that frightening call in the dead of night only to find out that their loved one is dead from an overdose or complications from drugs. Like Amy’s father, Mitch. Images of him distraught at his daughter’s funeral have circulated around the world and lays testimony to how drugs destroy lives. It’s heartbreaking, it’s not natural to lose a child, especially under those circumstances.

The reality is that Amy didn’t want to get better nor did she reach out and seek help. Ironically her well-known hit ‘Rehab’ lays testimony to this, “they tried to make me go to rehab and I said no, no. no”.

You can’t force someone into treatment; they have to want help. There is a small light at the end of the tunnel; her death has prompted greater awareness of the addicts’ plight. The tragic thing about some drug addicts in South Africa is that rehabilitation units are beyond their financial means, a sentence in itself. Whilst Amy could afford to check herself into recovery, many drug addicts who crave recovery and clarity are unable to. That’s why Mountain Heights is committed to raising awareness around drug addiction and is committed to helping as many addicts as we can who are committed to the recovery process.

You can only help someone that is genuine/serious about getting help. I (Marco) tried several times and often used going to rehab as an excuse to ‘get out of trouble’ and pretend I was getting clean. Winehouse did not want to change her life. This being said, I hope her family finds peace in this tragedy and eventually come to terms with the choices she made that lead to her untimely and tragic death.

Wallonggong and other craziness, the summit to Kosi

So our epic journey to Oz began with leaving Joburg at about 6:15pm on Tuesday and we arrived in Aus at 14:00 (oz time), the flight was long and tiring. Of course we were in economy so to say we were cramped would be an understatement! We hoped that there would be some empty seats but naturally the flight was packed.

Once we arrived in Australia of course we had to overcome the challenge of customs, always a fun experience and if you have ever watched an episode of border security you will know what I am talking about! Barry in all his wisdom ticked one of the boxes on the customs declaration form to say that he had been in contact with a farm in the last 7 days, excellent! That ensured him getting pulled out of the line after which a detailed search of his belongings ensued culminating in an Australian customs official cleaning his hiking boots so as to be rid of the evil South African soil!

After the customs ordeal, we hired a car and were on our way. Our plan was to drive to Cooma, a town about 400km from Sydney and only an hour from Kosi. The drive was long  after being cramped up on a plane for such a long time. Driving in Oz is definitely an experience, no one breaks the law and speed limits are adhered too - don’t even think of stopping where you shouldn't. Having to stick to the 110km speed limit we finally reached Cooma at about 8:30pm.  By this time we were completely knackered even though our bodies thought is was still lunch-time what with the difference and all. We stayed at a hotel called the Alpine Hotel, this was the kind of hotel where the bathrooms are communal  which means 1 bathroom per floor so it was more a boarding house then a hotel really. We planned to have an early start the following morning with the hour drive to Kosi. We stopped off at Mac Donalds on the way for a coffee and a egg macmuffin, the breakfast of champions and climbers alike! We arrived at Kosi at about 08:45am just in time to catch the Ski Lift at 09:00 ( as embarrassing as it is to admit, we caught a ski lift half way up one of the seven summits!). It took us little under 4 hours round trip from the lift to the summit and back. We also felt it would be important on this trip to introduce a mascot of sorts to add a bit of a fun dynamic to the whole documentary, enter Mkhize the wonder Wombat. We aim to collect a mascot on all the summits! After summiting we drove back to Sydney which was a marathon drive of about 6 and a half hours due to the fact that it has far worse traffic then we could ever have expected to anticipate. We stayed in the Ibis hotel, quite an experience as it was in the heart of China town, a shock to the system after the tranquility of outback. The room keys weren't working so every time we needed to get to our rooms the receptionist would have to open up for us.

We said our goodbyes to Kabelo that night as he was leaving the following morning, his shuttle was collecting him at 07:00am. We then drove to a town called Katoomba in the blue mountains near Wallonggong (yes I am serious, the names in that part of the world are crazy). We stayed at a hotel in a place called Lilianfels, a far cry from the Alpine and the Ibis hotel. It was beautiful! Alex and I were sharing a room and Barry and Mike another. The weather was a bit sucky on the Friday, so we decided to take a rest day. We prayed really hard that the weather would clear otherwise our dreams of getting in some world class rock climbing would not be a reality. Saturday we woke up to another miserable day, but we decided to get out onto the cliffs and worse case turn our climbing trip into a trekking stretch event. When we got to the mountain to our surprise the weather cleared and it was spectacular! We climbed on a crag called Mt Piddington, we did two routes that day one being a 2 pitch route that took us longer than we thought forcing us to end in the dark! The next day we did another 3 routes (more difficult) also on Mt Piddington. It was fantastic training and a great way to build camaraderie. Unfortunately time was coming to an end the following day we left for Sydney again, as sad as we were to leave I was super excited to see my beautiful wife and my amazing boys. The last day in Sydney was spent shopping for the family back home and on Tuesday we left Sydney at 10am and arrived back in SA at 16:00, totally and utterly finished.

All in all the trip was amazing, chalk another experience to those that I will remember for a lifetime!