The end of September saw 6 members of the Mentzendorff team complete an ‘Everesting’ cycling challenge in order to raise funds for a pre-school in Hemel-en-Arde which is funded by the Hamilton Russells.

The Hemel-en-Aarde Valley Pre-School does a brilliant job in providing a safe and educational environment for the local children ensuring that they will get to start school properly. The school was built in 1996 by Anthony Hamilton Russell with the sole purpose of providing high quality pre-school education for the agricultural community and the wider less privileged Hermanus community.

The concept of Everesting is devilishly simple, even if it is much tougher in practice! Each of our intrepid riders chose a hill to ride up (and down) until they had ascended a metric mile (1,500m) – this took on average 3hrs – and collectively the ‘Mentzendorff Wheelers’ aimed to ride up the height of Everest (8,848m).

In the end a total of 9,073m were ascended and so this year’s Mentzendorff charity ride contribution will be £9,073 to the Hemel-en-Arde Valley pre-school. Well done the Mentzendorff Wheelers!