Saturday morning Adrian, Alan, Andy and Francis were due to leave base camp at 09:30, unfortunately their transport turned up at 09:00 Chinese time and not Nepal time, so after a mad panic to get all their gear packed and ready we said a tearful good bye to the boys, we have really enjoyed their company over the last month and they will be sadly missed by all. Adrian was in tears at leaving base camp as he has enjoyed the cold, snow and the miserable conditions, don’t worry Adrian its ok for a man to cry, Andy nearly broke the handle of the 4x4 he was in such a panic to get away from BC! As for Alan he has been missing Linda so badly he was also in a panic to get away, Francis was as cool as ever.

After this, the day was spent relaxing in the mess tent and highlight of the day was watching Sahara and the Borne Supremacy on DVD, Geoffrey was quite taken with Matt Damon movies and has been asking for a repeat showing!

Sunday and the team moved out for Interim camp again, and no one was really looking forward the prospect of a 4 hour walk (make that 5 for Kate) in the boiling heat, anyway after approximately 4 hours we eventually arrived at the camp and set up for the night, dinner this evening as particularly delicious consisting of Indian boil in the bag meals, I think I got a vegetarian option, excellent, luck me. The camp we also were lucky enough to occupy was like lying on a bed of nails, so a wonderful night of sleep was had by all.

Monday morning we awoke to have another a beautiful breakfast of Indian curry again! This was the first time ever I have had curry for breakfast and hopefully the last, the curry was so good that I still tasted it a day later. So after breakfast we set out on the four hour (again make that 5 hour for Kate with poor Raymond trailing behind!) walk to Advance Base Camp, this is comparable to the walk from Base camp to Interim camp. Again we eventually arrived in our ABC in great health and spirits.

The rest of evening was spent repairing the generator and other things around ABC, we have came to the conclusion, that if it going to break it will break on Everest, it has become a full time job fixing equipment.

Tuesday has been a rest day at camp, preparing equipment and food for higher up on the mountain, tomorrow morning at 8 am we move out for the North Col, we will hopefully camp at the North Col for the night and the following day climb to camp two 7700m, this will be our highest point Everest before making a summit bid.

That’s all for now from the monkey, Kate will probably be keeping the Blog up to date from tomorrow on.

Neill

Saturday morning Adrian, Alan, Andy and Francis were due to leave base camp at 09:30, unfortunately their transport turned up at 09:00 Chinese time and not Nepal time, so after a mad panic to get all their gear packed and ready we said a tearful good bye to the boys, we have really enjoyed their company over the last month and they will be sadly missed by all. Adrian was in tears at leaving base camp as he has enjoyed the cold, snow and the miserable conditions, don’t worry Adrian its ok for a man to cry, Andy nearly broke the handle of the 4x4 he was in such a panic to get away from BC! As for Alan he has been missing Linda so badly he was also in a panic to get away, Francis was as cool as ever.

After this, the day was spent relaxing in the mess tent and highlight of the day was watching Sahara and the Borne Supremacy on DVD, Geoffrey was quite taken with Matt Damon movies and has been asking for a repeat showing!

Sunday and the team moved out for Interim camp again, and no one was really looking forward the prospect of a 4 hour walk (make that 5 for Kate) in the boiling heat, anyway after approximately 4 hours we eventually arrived at the camp and set up for the night, dinner this evening as particularly delicious consisting of Indian boil in the bag meals, I think I got a vegetarian option, excellent, luck me. The camp we also were lucky enough to occupy was like lying on a bed of nails, so a wonderful night of sleep was had by all.

Monday morning we awoke to have another a beautiful breakfast of Indian curry again! This was the first time ever I have had curry for breakfast and hopefully the last, the curry was so good that I still tasted it a day later. So after breakfast we set out on the four hour (again make that 5 hour for Kate with poor Raymond trailing behind!) walk to Advance Base Camp, this is comparable to the walk from Base camp to Interim camp. Again we eventually arrived in our ABC in great health and spirits.

The rest of evening was spent repairing the generator and other things around ABC, we have came to the conclusion, that if it going to break it will break on Everest, it has become a full time job fixing equipment.

Tuesday has been a rest day at camp, preparing equipment and food for higher up on the mountain, tomorrow morning at 8 am we move out for the North Col, we will hopefully camp at the North Col for the night and the following day climb to camp two 7700m, this will be our highest point Everest before making a summit bid.

That’s all for now from the monkey, Kate will probably be keeping the Blog up to date from tomorrow on.

Neill

Base camp life seems to roll from one day into another, it is not the most interesting place in the world and the routine goes as such, get up around 08:30 have a wash, have breakfast from 09:00 to 10:00 then you are free until lunch time.

Breakfast normally consists of porridge etc, now today Pemba the cook excelled himself and for some reason accidentally thought lunch was breakfast, curried potatoes, semolina and mixture of rotten vegetables for breakfast? I have no idea what he was thinking? But needless to say everyone dived into the Weetabix and Cornflakes boxes and left the locals to eat the lunch-breakfast meal that Pemba had prepared. Now one team member young Alan McDowell decided that he was not a team player and that he would selfishly eat a boil in the bag meal that he has been carrying for the last month, a few or the others turned green with envy, but I was ok as I do not like beans and bacon!

So back to this free time, well this is normally spent drinking Tea and slagging each other off, we haven’t ran out of detail yet! However today was some what different in that Adrian, Alan and I decided that we would go and see the Indian team, they had a very sick climber on the North Col a few days ago suffering from HACE and he had to be lowered down the North Col and carried on the back to Base camp on the back of a sherpa! Now this was an amazing feat, not the lowering bit as there were 30 plus climbers available and willing to help, but the carrying, can you imagine a man or woman carrying another person on their back for 22km! Amazing, now the good news is that the climber was taken to Kathmandu yesterday and is fine, that’s the nature of Altitude related illness the simple cure is descent, and the oxygen rich air cures almost all problems instantaneously. Anyway the Indians we called to see were out and all we got was a Indian who could only speak a few words of English, mind you his English was better than our Indian!

After this we called over to see the Everest max guys, they were just down from the North Col and full of beans with their achievement, they offered us the full box set of James Bond movies, but we had to decline as some of the team may have gotten carried away, we have enough James Bond wannabes in the team!

We then returned to our tent to discover that some of team had resorted to child labour, unbelievable, I have heard of “when in Rome” but this has been an all time low, imagine employing kids to wash and dry your clothes! Steve Hodge and Raymond Hassard you should hang your heads in shame! (Can I just say that the child labour Neill refers to is not strictly true- the girl was at least 14. A side from which I fully support anyone who is prepared to wash Raymond’ now stiff socks, not to mention the rest of his underwear. –K)

So back to the normal base camp day, Lunch comes along at 12.30 every day and consists of a three course meal, now the fresh vegetables seem to have run out a while back? And the food is getting worse by the day, that’s my opinion but there are others grumbling as well about the slipping standards, I just hope things do not get any worse!

After lunch the afternoon is your own, so you can read, listen to music well if your die pod worked! Or wander about base camp. Now today we went down to the village close by base camp and sampled Tibetan tea, disgusting is all I can say! I have no idea what it tastes like, in fact I could not describe it only to say there is a generous helping of both salt and butter in it! Not for me or anyone else from the west, but the locals love it.-N

So after copious amount of tea we returned to our base camp tents. (I think that the lads actually drank coke and listened to a rendition of the local Base Camp talent on a Tibetan stringed instrument). I am assured that it was hardly Robbie Williams in concert, but it kept people happy and gave them something to do for the afternoon. In fact one of our Sherpas is still missing and was last seen in search of more butter tea! Judging by breakfast, goodness knows what culinary delights await us tonight????- K

Stop Press

After all the complaints made today about the food, Pemba and his staff have total surprised us with a culinary delight fit for a King! Chicken, roasted potatoes, rice and vegetables, quite an unbelievable meal, and to top it all this was followed by a cake (baked at base camp) for the team members who are leaving us tomorrow to return home. Thank you, Pemba.

Today we welcomed Hassie, Kate and Francis back to base camp, everyone is now safely in camp and we will be resting for the next few days, the North col Climbers (Francis, Adrian, Alan and Andy) will depart from Base camp in two days time for Kathmandu, and everyone will be sorry to see them go, as they have kept us entertained over the past weeks.

That’s all for now

Disaster struck last night at Bc last night when the generator went out and Andy and I had to dive into our tent early than we expected, we have been missing all the others who are still up at ABC but we have been heartened by the news that most them have made it safe to the North Col and back to ABC, the lucky …….

Anyway this our breakfast was the normal delightful porridge, (a word of warning to everyone when I get home never offer me porridge!) the rest our day was a normal base camp day, simply visiting other teams and drinking tea, I must admit base camp is a bit of ghost camp at the moment, as everyone seems to be up at ABC or down at a lower altitude.

The highlight of the our day was Jonathan, Steve, Fergal, Geoffrey, Adrian and Alan returning to BC, the guys returned this evening at 5pm full of stories of their adventure, and their difficult return from ABC, they timed it really well as it just started to snow as they entered the mess tent and it has not stopped snowing since, in fact there is as much snow on the ground now as last week, so I think we shall be stilling put for another few days?

Hassie and Kate have decided to stay at ABC for another night and Francis decided that he would also stay in case they were in any danger? They may return to BC tomorrow but with the snow lying everywhere I would doubt it?

Thankfully with Steve returning to BC I was able to fix the generator, Steve was a great help and advised me that Red is Live and Black was neutral, brilliant if there are any lines that Steve put up near you, you are in no danger, he is an electrical genius!

Adrian is in much better mood now that he has returned to BC, we thought we had lost him for a few days there, but the extra oxygen has certainly recharged his batteries?

Alan has grown a lovely Ginger head of hair and it suits him well! Well we think so; we will get an image on the web so please send your opinions to: no_one_loves_a_ginger_baby.com

As for Steve and Jonathan the trip to a higher altitude has had little or no effect other than Steve has said I can have another drive in the DB9 in the Summer.( Steve, I promise I will not crash it again)

Well to the North Col, the team set off from Advance base camp this morning for the North Col and after many hours on the steep glacier slopes, over the ladders etc they finally reached the North Col at 7000m, I received this news from Adrian via Phone and he will give us a full run down tomorrow, as for us at base camp its been another day of Tea and coffee.

More Tomorrow

This morning everyone arrived for breakfast except Hassie or Neill, that’s right Hassie, so after a good breakfast Andy and I decided to descend to BC for a rest, I had agreed this with Jonathan yesterday after feeling so unwell, although feeling fine today we agreed that this was best for the long term, Everest isn’t a spirit it’s marathon and I am going to be there at the finish. Just a short note of thanks to Jonathan he has virtually seen half the people at BC and half the people at ABC his surgery has never stopped since arriving here, and the main cause of illness, altitude.

So Andy and I headed off down to BC this morning. This was a long walk of 22km in total but was really enjoyable as we met Phil from the Everest max team, one of Swedish guys who is planning to ski off the summit! I gave him some advice: “don’t do it” and “sharpen your edges”, then we met the Army west ridge guys and spent a while with them, Everest has been great for making friends and all the boys and girls from the British Isles have been fantastic, I suppose we are all in it together and everyone is looking out for one another.

Thankfully Andy I have been well fed and are sitting in a heated mess tent, I wonder how miserable the others are? Luckily for Andy his adventure up Everest is now complete and he’ll not have to venture that way again, he damaged a rib through coughing so much, so I’m sure he is happy to get back to his loved ones in N.I, As for the rest of us the adventure continues for a few more weeks with many sorties higher on Everest.

Sorry readers is has been 3days since our last communication, this was due to us moving to Advanced Base Camp (ABC) and the fact that I have been ill and no one else seemed interested or did not know what to do!

Anyway, three days ago we set off for interim camp. This involved a journey of 11kms to an altitude 5800m, the last of us left base camp at around 12.00pm and followed along with the yaks, the reason for this is if you saw the yak herders, you wouldn’t trust them as far as you could throw them, so the possibility of equipment going missing is highly probable without giving these guys an escort along the way. The journey was straight forward enough, but a few days earlier would have been very difficult with all the snow around. So after 4 hours we arrived at interim camp, I must admit I was expecting a nice flat area- wrong! It was a few small hills with just about enough area for two tents, and the 30 yaks! Anyway we got the tents erected and managed to drag ourselves into them. There were a few of the boys that wanted to sleep with some of prettier yaks but I had to insist that this wasn’t sporting! After a cold night, we moved off the next morning to ABC- again we waited until all the yaks were loaded and ready to go, now the day before we had no problems keeping up with the yaks, however this day the yaks took off like a bolt of lightning and that was the last we saw of them.

After an exhausting 4 hour walk we arrived into ABC, and guess what? Ours was the highest camp there, a few of team had to be restrained at this point, I pointed out that we were closer to our objective and that it would help with acclimatisation, even the mild mannered Steve Hodge began to curse, little did I know I would also pay for this high camp!. Eventually we reached our tents at what seemed like the North col itself and chose our accommodation for the night. At this stage most of us felt unwell from the sudden gain in altitude, some of us more than others. There was not much movement around the camp that evening, with the minimum of work done. The next day everyone was up for breakfast except Raymond and I, now this is nothing new for Hassie as even his nagging wife (Kate’s words not mine) could not get him upJ but I can normally struggle up for breakfast, however on this occasion I could not, and after a consultation with Doctor Jonathan he deduced Young bull induced AMS, (altitude sickness, induced by going far to fast and not going slow enough!), self inflicted. So the rest of team spent the rest of day sorting out the equipment and food supplies for the rest of expedition, I don’t think anything too entertaining occurred, but ABC is a miserable place and for the first few days after arriving there no one feels well, so that was probably why there was none of the usual fun and laugher out of the gang. Last night everyone went off to bed early as the generator would not start, much to the annoyance of everyone.

Last night we had another night of snow at base camp so it was decided to stay at base camp for another night, it has become a growing frustration, with all the team keen to get further up Everest, the North Col climbers have become very aware that time is running out for them as they will have to leave base camp at the end of the month and unless we get to Advance base camp very soon they will run out of time to climb to the North Col. Today was a lazy day around base camp with the Indians climbers calling for coffee this morning, after this Jamie McGuiness called in with a sick climber, now this a spot of luck as he had a spare R-bgan, this being the faulty satellite that has prevented uploading images and data to the web, so Jamie kindly loaned us this unit for a while, this has allowed us to send the latest images back, so please take a look at the gallery for the latest images.

After lunch, I spent the afternoon sorting out the comm’s kit while the rest of gang decided to turn their hand to a spot of ice climbing in a frozen river just beside our base camp, now to call this Ice climbing would be a gross exaggeration, the part of river the guys were playing on has less of fall in it than the mess table in the mess tent, so any images that appear on the web of this “ Ice climbing” will be of a climber lying on their fronts for effect, what a bunch of spoofers! This said this training was very useful as most of the gang had to learn how to put on a climbing harness again, in fact one Jonathan Salter was seen running about with a harness on upside down., probably just as well to get the mistakes out of the way before heading to the serious stuff.

Tomorrow we definitely are going to intermediate camp, the weather has improved today and the yaks are booked so we must go

That all for now must go to bed, sorry about the standard of the update today, but I have writers block today…

Neill

Hello Everyone,

After another night of snow the team decided that it would be better to stay at base camp for another night, well I am not sure if we decided or the weather, however we are stuck here for another night. Breakfast was different today for the first time in a few weeks, this was due to the delivery of our equipment and food yesterday, and so we had Wheatabix, cornflakes etc, thanks to Andrew Maxwell at Musgrave Supervalu for these. Once breakfast was over doctor Jonathan opened the Surgery for his first patient of the day, this is becoming a regular occurrence and a must say a big thank you to Jonathan on behalf of all of our team for his medical assistance, he has been a great asset to our team.

Camp visits are also becoming a frequent event and this morning we had a visit from Patrick and Rowena from the Everest Max team, they have just cycled from the Dead Sea to Everest base camp, a journey of 8000km through 8 countries, and you thought we were mad? I must say great people and its great to entertain other people from the UK and Ireland, next on the visitors listed was Noel Hanna, Noel’s is Bannbridge in N.I and is climbing with a Russia team, he only arrived into base camp yesterday, so hopefully we shall be talking lots more to Noel in the near future.

Now on to the base camp humour:

Steve Hodge has given up on the Street lighting and has moved on to a new project, a wind generator, he is in negotiations with Chinese as I type and he told me last night that all he needed was a few holes and with as many Paddies around that shouldn’t be a problem! Thanks Steve.

Fergal Corrigan has really taken the Tibetan way of life on board and has taken up chanting, last night he was heard chanting “come on Fermanagh, I hope Tyrone never win another all Ireland” so its good to see that he is turning Green and white again, maybe Fr Dessie, if your reading this, you say a few prayers for us and Fergals return to his rightful colours?

Allan McDowell’s investigation into the stolen chocolate is still on going, Allan stated that the police do not comment on individual cases, but that he will leave no stone unturned, well judging by the number of stones at base camp this may take him some time, but it will keep him entertained.

Andy has decided that this base camp is not for him and very keen to move ABC and equipped was his uncle Buck Hat and boots I am sure he will be warm enough anyway, please keep checking the gallery and you will see what I mean.

Anyway that’s all for now hopefully I will be able to get some image on the site this evening.

Neill

Ps. I received a call last night at 1.30 in the morning, its great to hear from people at home but we are 5 HOURS ahead of BST and not 5 behind, maybe someone could explain this to Ewan?

Thanks for all the good wishes, messages, and interest in our expedition.

Monday night brought the first snow to base camp, and when we wrestled ourselves out of our tents this morning we were confronted by more than a few centimeters of snow. As you can imagine with the limited clothing we had this was not a pleasant surprise. We all then assembled for breakfast and shortly after a lorry arrived with, you guessed it, our equipment! After all the hassle it was hard to believe but it had finally come through, and was sitting on a lorry in front of us. Now this arrival caused major panic and even those in bed, Fergal & Andy managed to get up!
We then unloaded the contents and set about checking that all had been delivered, now as expected, the head torches and few other items were missing but nothing to stop us climbing the mountain. Morale has hit an all time high, with Adrian now having something more to lose, all the rest of us were just glad to receive enough equipment & food to go higher and have a chance at climbing Everest. So now the ball is firmly back in our court and it's up to us to make the most of this opportunity.
Otherwise today has been a quiet day with little other excitement.
Neill

Well speak for yourself- quiet day indeed! Between the squeals of excitement form hardened mountaineers, when the barrels arrived to the grunts of trying to put on warm gear, it has been quite a day!

Personally I have really enjoyed the barrels arriving. Not only has it meant clean warm clothes (which was essential when snow has arrived), but to my amazement Geoffrey has packed enough chocolate and sweets to stock a shop! So tonight I shall look forward to a good nights sleep in thick warm down sleeping bags, and in the mean time I shall snuggle up in the mess tent beside a heater wearing my newly arrived down boots and my ... down jacket.
Kate

For me waking to yak bells and snow on the ground reminded me of a perfect Christmas morning. As Neil has already said our kit arrived and after 16 days in the same clothes this was really a treat for me ,I have to thank everyone for the things they shared especially Allan who has been a savior more than once. Next time I do this I will chose traveling companions who are more my size as everyone was willing to offer a medium something.

Adrian.

Yesterday afternoon, Steve and I went for coffee with the Indian climbers this is fast becoming a daily event as they have great food, tea and provide good entertainment, their leader is a real character and is a wealth of knowledge having been high on Everest before. After this, we all assembled back in mess tent for dinner, Easter Sunday has been a very quiet day, with not much going on other than drinking tea & coffee, it's a tough life being a high altitude mountaineer! When dinner was over the group assembled into two groups to play cards, one group was lead by Alan, decided that snap about or above their level, and other consisting of Geoffrey, Francis, Fergal and I decided on a game called twenty five a more mature game I thought.
Anyway the card games continued until 10pm with the rules called to question on numerous occasions! Now I must say they are all a load of cheaters, and the sooner the equipment arrives the better, as there is a card game book in Kate's bag so that will hopefully sort out the rules. Isu, one of cook boys joined us at mature table and proved to be quite a card shark, winning all the games he played, Fergal suggested that if he continued in this trend Isu may have difficulty playing with broken fingers!
After we all retired to our tents, this very annoying coughing noise commenced from within our camp site, this was most annoying and as it turns out the coughing noise was caused Kate with a very sore throat, thankfully Raymond had a solution, now the solution may sound awful, but there is no reason to call relate or the care unit just yet, the solution was very simple, just put a pillow over Kate's head and tell her to stop it, no complaints please as this was quite effective, no one was injured, and Kate is much better today.

Monday morning and breakfast was held at normal time with a few of the team deciding to take a wash & shave, just as well as it was becoming difficult to recognize some of the team with so much facial hair.
On the equipment front we heard it had left Kathmandu yesterday and should arrive tonight at base camp, so here's hoping, on to the communications front and Hp are sending out Hard Discs to handle to altitude and the cold, however we also still await the delivery of the broadband sat modem from AST in the U.K. So the sooner it arrives the better as then we can start to send back images of the expedition.

Neill

Well what more can I say? Living with this bunch of hairy men has been an experience. The sooner the barrels of kit arrive the better. For the last few days half cleaned, still smelly socks and holey underwear have been hung around the mess tent. This is hardly the sort of interior decoration that helps with appetite. Life in base camp has taken on a familiar rountine- attempting to wash in a bowl of warm water inside my tent and trying to avoid the site of now hardened mountaineers washing, eating breakfast and reading.
I am looking forward to the move up to Advanced Base Camp, and I also eagerly awaiting the change in Adrian's attire, and I have to admit that clean, warm clothes is starting to sound good.

Kate

This afternoon we all went out for a walk, Francis, Geoffrey, Fergal, Hassie & I headed up one of the local mountains beside base camp, we reached a maximum height of 5750m a new altitude record for Fergal & Francis. The rest of the gang took a much harder walk, although it looked easier and walked out the track to Rongbuk village, the longest 10k in the world. Adrian & Alan where almost converted by a Buddhist monk in the Rongbuk monastery, but when they heard it would cost money they both declined.

Equipment update, as I type our kit has been flown to Kondari and is hopefully on the road to Base camp.

Anyway everyone is safely back in camp and enjoying dinner.

More tomorrow...

The team were awoken for the first time this morning by the Sherpas, for the 8am Punja, now for those of us of the non Buddhist faith, this is a religious ritual, that is carried out as a blessing of good luck for people climbing Chomalungma(Everest). So all the team, were promptly made get out of their semi warm tents and sit on a freezing cold mat in the wind around a stone built cairn, this ritual must have gone on for 45 minutes, but was very interesting with a monk from the local Rongbuk monastery leading the service, he blessed all the climbing equipment we had present and will bless the rest of the equipment when it finally arrives, the ritual ended with the drinking of Coke (Black Gold) and beer everyone then the throwing of flour and rice over each other so quite messy, although we have not changed clothing in a week or so another day's dirt will make no difference, after the 45 minutes, all of us have agreed never to complain about religious ceremony taking to long in a church building as the cold had to be felt to be believed!
After this Punja, we enjoyed breakfast in the recently rearranged mess tent, yes as predicted, the Sherpas had rearranged the tables, something to do with planning permission? Fergal thought we were exempt, as this was a temporary structure, but it seems the rules are different in Tibet than back home.
Having been blessed we took our chances and sent a text to enquire about our gear . The results were good and Adrian might have something to be blessed at the next Punja when we get to Advanced Base Camp (ABC). Life at base camp is pretty routine with the drinking of tea and the teaching of Chess under Raymond's watchful eye. Book swapping is also a popular pass time however Geoffrey is holding this up as he insists on chatting idly with senior officials from the Foreign and Commonwealth office. With this much excitement there is plenty of time to see each others true colors (Linda you will see what we mean when Alan takes his hat off). Andy is entertaining the camp site with some high altitude juggling . And our doctor has dealt with Sherpas suffering from dog bites, sore eyes, coughs, alleged altitude sickness and camp chair sores. As for Steve the electrician his qualifications are subject to a stewards inquiry as base camp is still without street lighting. He seems too preoccupied with noting down quotes and quips. Neil has managed a coffee with most of the other groups at base camp and even managed an interview with the Discovery Channel.

Oh, tinman if you are out there please make contact again, and iceman please reveal yourself.

Adrian/Neill 08.00 BST

All articles, grammer and spellings are subject altitude and attitude.

Saturday 15th April 2006
Hello from Base camp,
Firstly an update on the equipment situation, yesterday 14th April, Geoffrey's
wife Gillian was in contact with Lady Sylvia Hermon MP, Lady Hermon then got
in contact with Downing St, who passed on our problem to the Foreign &
Commonwealth Office, they then in turn contacted the British Embassy in Nepal,
who then contacted the Nepalese authorities, the reply we then received was
that our equipment would finally clear customs on Sunday 16th April at 10am,
they also agreed to give any assistance in safe guarding the transportation of
equipment to the border, including a possible air lift and or military guard.
We would like to thank everyone who help us in this issue..
Anyway on to the fun and games at base camp, earlier today I had this great
idea of walking to intermediate camp, so Hassie & I set off on what we thought
would be 3.5 hour walk, well 5 hours later we staggered into base camp pretty
exhausted from our walk. Adrian suggested that I needed mouth to mouth from a
yak as to aid my recovery but I declined the offer, although I suggested that
all of us may have partaken in this activity in the past, present partners,
wives & girlfriends excluded of course.
Thankfully we made a full recovery, Sat afternoon all the rest of team went
out for walk and enjoyed the fantastic views of Everest, after this Fergal
had a wonderful idea of rearranging the mess tent, now for those of you who
know, Fergal recently rearranged the bar he owns, this took him months and we
hoped that this task could be completed much quicker or else our food would be
cold! So after much lifting of tables a final layout was agreed, just in time
for dinner, I wonder will the Sherpas have it changed back for tomorrow
morning?
Dinner was of the normal excellent standard and everyone enjoyed the normal
evening banter, slagging of each other, oh the Triumpt 20 Girls keep asking
for images of Francis, well we captured some excellent ones of him at the
dinner table, sleeping as usual, so they are coming soon to the gallery, when
we get our broad band modem delivered!
Steve is still awaiting his emai from Lawrence Dallagalio, now we have told
Steve that we can't receive email at the moment and that we don't want
messages from a team that hasn't really won anything recently, so if any of
Irish six nations players would like to email steve@everest2006.com that would
be great.
That’s all from me, I am spoofed out for now,Neill

14th April 2006 Update

Alan and Andy enjoyed their first night at Everest base camp, they both
complained bitterly this morning that their tents had been much too quiet with
no dogs barking and that it as much too warm for sleeping and they would like
to return to Tingiri as soon as possible for an awful nights sleep, after some
negotiations they agreed to stay at base camp.
This morning all the team went for walk around base camp and meet up with the
Indian team. Tea was taken and we found that the Indian team had a lot of
experience on Everest. It turns out the world is a very small place indeed,
with a member of the Indian team having worked with a guy from N.I that we
know, namely Kevin Smith but they had never heard of Ewan Ballantine which
amazed us as he has often told us of his international connections, the
Indians have also invited us to join them n the highest game of Cricket on
earth which will be videoed for the Discovery channel and might even make us a
record breaker weather permitting of course. After this we enjoyed lunch and
then had our first basecamp shower, now a basecamp shower at the moment
entails a large basin and a cup, as our solar showers are in the barrels in
Kathmandu, however I must admit that it is fantastic to feel clean again after
so many days without a wash. There are a few of us that have not washed yet,
but I feel that peer pressure may also result in them taking a wash also or
Allan has promised those who don’t a code red.

Neill

Today has been a day of resting around the base camp, we have spent most
of day on the Sat phones trying to get our equipment through! Alias we are
no further on, all the equipment is still sitting in Kathmandu airport awaiting
customs clearance we are told! We have heard every excuse under the sun why
these consignments have not cleared customs before now, team morale is dropping
and I am have a hard job keeping morale up. We are told that there is a national
holiday tomorrow in Nepal, Saturday is a holy day and therefore nothing is
open so things will not happen until Sunday! But on Sunday ?there will be
no problems with the clearance? again we have heard this all before. We have
contacted the British embassy in Nepal and they have used what influence
they can to expedite the process of customs. The transport of our equipment
has become a major problem and has put serious pressure on our expedition,
we do not want to name and shame people, but we have been serious let down.
Anyway enough of the doom and gloom, Adrian still has not got his rucksack
that the sherpas lost, so he has just won the award for the lest well dressed
man at base camp, we all would like to congratulate Adrian on his award,
Alan McDowell is still taking statements and was last heard saying ?I am
pursuing a number of lines of enquires and I have a few people helping me
with enquires?, so more on the case of stolen chocolate later.
Kate was hoping that today was shower day for all the boys, as everyone is
beginning to smell a little, unfortunately the weather was a little too cold,
so sorry but Kate is going to have to bare it for another few days, we may
get a wash tomorrow? Geoffrey has suggested that if don?t own shares in Thurya(
sat phone), rush out and buy some, as at the rate we are going they will
double in value very shortly.
The food continues to be excellent, but the mess tent is very cold and not
a pleasant place to be, thanks to the lack of clothing!
We are all grateful for Fergal?s I pod which has a great selection of line
dancing tunes and at this time the two step Everest shuffle is the only way
to keep warm.
Despite the lack of obvious silver linings thanks goes out to those who phoned
even though we did miss your call, please don?t let this stop you from trying
again as every little helps. As do the good wishes on the message board.
At this point we all want to say thank you to Andrew Weir (don?t forget my
baggage please) for all the behind the scenes work he is doing and to Mike
Foster who is also helping to pull us out of this cold windy hole.
One thing is for sure if this had been a selection assessment no one would
have been discharged for complaining or not maintaining a stiff upper lip.
The team is holding up well but at this time there is only a small ?m? in
MORAL. But I know that the arrival of equipment will make that a capital
M and when we are celebrating the effort of our summiteers this will only
seem like ?character building?.
That all for now, as our finger joints have frozen.
Adrian/Neill
PS I promise never to complain about having the heating on again
Adrian

After a really good nights sleep with our new sleeping partners, we arrived into the mess tent for a hearty breakfast. An unfortunate incident occurred during the night with Geoffrey leaving a bar of chocolate in the mess tent, now this bar of chocolate may seem trivial at home but out here with no supplies (all is in the barrels in Kathmandu) a bar of chocolate becomes very important.
Part of this bar was consumed during the night by a person or persons unknown to us. The investigating officer is Adrian and he is currently taking statements for the entire team and may use DNA evidence that was collected yesterday?

We can also welcome back into the fold Alan and Andy who have travelled up from Tingiri today to join us; Alan may assist Adrian in this investigation as he has specialist skills in dealing with ?Serious, Serious Crime?. More on the investigation later.

On the equipment front, the road between Kathmandu and Kondari is still blocked and no traffic is allowed through. We have requested that our equipment be flown to the border, if possible, but because of the curfews there is a ban on flying. We have put a request into the Embassy in Kathmandu and would ask if anyone out there can help us please contact us on the satellite phone
- 00882162150071.

We are now at a point where without our equipment the entire expedition is in jeopardy and I cannot stress this enough.

More later today?.

What a difference it has made moving into base camp a freezing cold nights sleep, with no dog barking, no Chinese dog music, just the continual howl of the wind off the sides of our tents. Now this will be home for the next few weeks, so we had better get used to it. Anyway we all awoke to enjoy the best breakfast of the trip so far, eggs, toast, porridge etc, we all hope that this continues for the rest of the expedition? The views of Everest where even more spectacular than before, with Jonathan taking out his grandfathers binoculars for a close up view of route that we must follow to the summit, not as scary through the binoculars I must admit. On the technology front nothing is working, hard discs have failed in three laptops, this means we are down to one, all Ipod?s have given up, the Broad band sat modem has never worked, and we are getting one shipped from the UK! We cannot send or receive emails and everyone is annoyed about this, but hopefully over the next week or so we can get some of things up and running, the only advice I have is, is it has a battery it will not work, just bring a good book instead!

The British army have a climbing team camped beside us and they have been really good to us, loaning us warm clothing, and as you guessed our equipment is still in Kathmandu and we still do not have enough warm clothing with us, everyone in base camp knows about equipment situation and it is becoming a bit of standing joke, although we must say that most teams are willing to help us with any requests, but we cannot go any higher on the mountain before our kit arrives, more about that later?.

After lunch we entertained Conan and Scott from Adventure peaks, Rab & Mike from the army team, Mike took DNA samples from the summit team and he is doing research into a certain gene type and he may be able to tell in the future who will be a successful summit climber or not? Anyway it used up some of the afternoon, and was quite entertaining with numerous comments about Mike wanting to take our DNA to clone us as we are such fine athletes?

Dinner was of the usual fantastic standard, but shortly after this most of us retired to our tents as it was far too cold to stay in the mess tent, and even conversation became difficult, as our jaws became slightly frozen.
We have all being allocated separate tents however even the most harden male climbers, have decided to ?double up? and not sleep alone. Now for the girls at home don?t read too much into this, we have not changed to the dark side.

Good night.

Neill

We all had our last breakfast in Tingri, although two of our group needed to spend an extra few nights to help with their acclimatisation. We left Alan McDowell and Andy Robinson to the delights of Tingri for a few more days as we set of in a 1960s bus to Everest Base Camp. The journey was spectacular, as we drove along the Tibetan plateau we saw beautiful mountains on either side, although the plateau itself was more like a lunar landscape with dust and small farms of sheep and goats.

The road took a turn towards what we though was an impassable mountain, when the coach lurched round numerous switchbacks up to a height of 5200m. We were afforded our first views of snow capped mountains before the road plunged down onto another plateau. We drove along this, until we took a final turn towards Base Camp. The journey took almost 6 hours along the main Kathmandu to Lhasa highway to reach our final destination. We passed the highest Post Office on earth and the highest mobile phone mast! Unbelievable, mobile phones working at base camp on Everest if anyone can do it the Chinese can. After passing Rongbuk monastery we were greeted with our first close up views of Everest.

Any pictures I have ever seen do not do justice to the amazing sight of the North Face of Everest, with clouds whipping over the summit at 160 mph.
The 6 summit climbers huddled together to spot the various parts of the route they are to attempt in the next few weeks. Adrian reckoned that the mountain didn?t look that big, but quickly added he was glad he didn?t have to climb it.

The Sherpas had set up camp a few days before, and so our tents had been erected and we were ushered into the dinning tent for some hot lemon and some much needed lunch. What a lunch! Baked beans, toast, eggs and cheese- we couldn?t believe the feast and we did feel rather sorry for Andy and Alan eating another meal of rice and chillies. We were ready for our first night under canvas and since the Sherpas had kindly given us our sleeping bags we anticipated a good nights sleep?

Today we welcomed back into the fold our team doctor Jonathan Salter, Jonathan was feeling much better this morning and even managed breakfast, he then considered staying another day in Nyalam, but when he heard that he would have to pay additional $450 for the transport he decided to travel on with the rest of the team to Tinigiri, now for those of you know Jonathan, you would understand that the shock of this almost caused him to have a cardiac arrest!

Last night was pretty eventless, with another DVD viewing, and we were entertained by continual Chinese strangling dog music and Chinese fire works, powerful enough to go the moon. These people are very poor but when it comes to wasting money they seem to be experts. Almost everyone enjoyed a good night?s sleep, but thankfully we were awakened at 3 am by a dog barking in the street, this barking continued for a 1 hour. Had any of the team been armed I think the noise could have been silenced much quicker.

We embarked on our bus journey at 10.15 am this morning and no one was sorry to see Nyalam for the last time. The bus journey consisted of a 5 hours drive over two 5000m mountain passes, so today we have reached our highest altitude of the trip so far at 5085m. The journey was almost eventless, except for a few comfort stops along the way. Poor Geoffrey. Oh Gillian, it?s nothing to worry about.

The most exciting part of the trip was seeing Everest in all her glory for the first time. Visibility was very good with no cloud cover; wind conditions on the summit looked favorable with no snow plume in sight. Now I must say that we have all seen the images of Everest but it?s a lot bigger in reality than it looks in any picture you have seen. To add to the vista today were spectacular views of another two 8000m peaks namely Makula and Cho Oyu.

After arriving in Tinigiri, at an altitude 4390m, we checked in to a small hostel that would remind you of any of the scenes out a Clint Eastwood western, the only thing missing are the guns, just as well maybe? The rooms in this establishment are dark, cold and damp, just as we like it. The toilet facilities are outside and consist of elevated platform with a dark hole in the floor!
There is no door on this construction so to warn fellow users of your arrival, you must say?Knock, Knock? whilst climbing the stairs, hopefully no one will disappear into this hole later this evening, as I am not sure if anyone would be willing to assist in a rescue?

Tomorrow we take a well earned rest day and probably just climb a local peak to acclimatise. Or spend some time looking for Adrian's second bag that has gone missing on this trip. We are currently looking for some string with which to tie the rest of his possessions to his wrist.

A group decision was made to quarantine the sick, and so they were abandoned in the rat infested hotel, while the rest of us switched on our electric blankets and snuggled down to watch 'My dog Skip' on DVD. Steve played the hero card and honourably tended the sick and stayed with Jonathan and Andy.
If you are ever in Nyalam, we strongly recommend never staying in the Snow Land Hotel!

I have to admit that it was either the clean room or the heat of the electric blanket but I slept better than I had since I've left home! Thanks must go to the detection skills of Alan McDowell and Adrian Moutray for finding such a nice hostel.

We were again rudely awoken by some awful Chinese cat strangling music and forced to eat rubbery pancakes for breakfast. We managed to trail the sick down to the decent hostel and organise ourselves for an acclimatisation walk.
The goal was a stoney peak standing at 4400m. We had obviously been too strong a team for the Sherpas from the day before, since they were exhausted and found it necessary to loosen their muscles by dancing in the local disco and drinking chang (a local rice wine). Unfortunately this resulted in only
3 Sherpas able to join us on our walk today. The group has been divided
onto how best to acclimatise- one group firmly believe that it is advantageous to climb high sleep low. This group of Geoffrey, Francis, Steve, Neill, Raymond and myself (Kate just incase there was any doubt) set off on a walk.
The other group (Fergal, Alan, Adrian, Andy and Jonathan), felt that the best way to acclimatise was to lie in bed and watch more DVDs!

As we type, our equipment should be winging its way to Kathmandu and will have departed London Heathrow at 10am???????- watch this space.

Update: Its not on its way, it will leave tonight on the Gulf air flight for Muscat and then Kathmandu?. I am told (Neill)

Just a short update on the sick, everyone has the cold (except me), Jonathan is recovering well and the rest are back to their moaning selves. Hopefully tomorrow we head to Tingiri which is at an altitude of 4200m.

That's all from me since the other lazy ones are eating potatoes and sampling chang.

Kate

Latest news from the Roman bathes at Nyalam, despite not having electricity, rubbish collection or pest control. Most of the team (there was one exception) have taken the opportunity to have a hot shower. If you are visiting here, and we recommend you don?t the showers are under a tea house opposite the internet café. This café can easily be spotted as it is full of Chinese people wearing headphones singing along to cat stranglers on the internet. We are investigating the Chinese trades description act the internet café ?does not do what it says on the tin?. A bit like satellite modems!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Adrian

Enough from the spoofers, I am now sending this dispatch?

Neill

The latest messge from the team is that they have now made it as far as Everest Base Camp !

All is well although its very cold.

Most of the kit is still in Katmandu with a curfew stopping its transport to base camp.

Due to these cold conditions we are experiencing severe problems with communications back home, we have already had 3 laptops fail due to the cold and a new satellite modem is on the way from UK. Guess we need Toughbook Laptops.

Fingers crossed that we get our communications sorted soon and that we are back in touch soon.

Bye for now

The Everest Team

Left Nylam this morning and in Tinigiri now, seen everest for the first time!. Everyone keeping well.

Everest team

In bed in Nylam, thankfully we have decided to change hotels as the last one was a dump to put it mildly. This hotel is clean, warm & well, of low western standards, I think the final straw that broke the camels back in the other grotto was the rats, yes you have read correctly RAT's! Well after Adrian encountered his first rat that was it, time to go else where, now I was happy to stay don't get me wrong, but as a team player I decided it was best that accompanied the rest of group. Other news today is that Andy & Jonathan are feeling unwell, but are being well looked after, so please Sharon and Andy's family do not worry, it's nothing serious and hopefully they get better very soon.
Thanks to Kate for typing the last blog, and I would like to add Fergal & I really have had a cold/Flu what’s this rubbish about swaning around? Don't always believe that girl, do you think Fergal & I are hypochondriacs?
Anyway the dinner this evening was fantastic and probably the best we have had since arriving in Asia, its hard to believe that earlier today the same restaurant produced such a awful meal, different chef maybe?
For those who are interested the Breitling is performing brilliantly and working in two time zones, I might add. Thanks for asking.
We got confirmation tonight that our equipment will finally left Heathrow tomorrow and will arrive Katmandu Sunday and hopefully will arrive base camp next Friday? I know we have heard this before but it's is thanks to Geoffrey, his brother, TNT and hosting of other people for sorting the problems out, so hopefully we will with any luck get our much needed equipment and clothing next week.

Thanks for all the messages of support from around the world and it's always a morale booster when we read out the messages each day, so keep them coming and as we are thinking of you and hope you are thinking us out in the cold, windy Himalayas.

That’s all for now and we shall report in again tomorrow evening, we are GMT -8, so we have our work finished before you in the UK start!

Anyway Take care for now

Neill

Geoffrey was first to be woken up this morning by a raising chorus of China’s finest early morning call to worship. Everyone managed to drag themselves from their damp, hard beds down to a hearty breakfast of omelets and something resembling soda bread. All that is of course except Andy Robinson, who was still dreaming and dribbling on his pillow while everyone else stood waiting with their gear to head to Nylam. He made the last 4x4 to leave.

After boarding the 4x4 our driver who could speak no English began to chant and pray in some strange language. We got really worried when he brought out his prayer beads- was this an ominous sign for the road ahead? 5 minutes later we saw the end of the concrete roads and we were back traveling on progressively steeper and perilous mud tracks, with a sheer drops of hundreds of meters to one side. If the car had driven off the road at this point it would have resulted in sudden death, in spectacular scenery. Thankfully though, after and hour and a half driving, 1500m ascent and one million prayers to Budda, we arrived in Nylam- Gate way to hell, and our luxury accommodation for the evening.

Well luxury is a bit of an overstatement, unless you like overflowing drains, open sewers and rubbish lining the streets. The people here are friendly but have nothing, if even that much. Our hotel here is very basic and if the AA were to give it a rating a minus 5 would probably be on the high side. In fact it has to been seen and smelt to be believed. On to lunch- what a feast of garlic, fat and rice, with Geoffrey breaking into his emergency rations for the first time in the trip. The rest of us will undoubtedly scare away any vampires, and will need to visit the toilet several times this evening!

After lunch we went for a short trek and accomplished a new altitude record of the trip of 4030m. Two climbing Sherpas, one of whom has already summated Everest found it rather tough, but we managed to look after him, and Adrian Moutray saved the day by escorting him safely back down.

On the illness front, our Doc is sick with a tummy bug and is currently resting up- fat lot use he is (only joking)! Neill offered to give first aid assistance but it was promptly declined, so he’s not that ill. Both Fergal and Neill are playing the dying sawn complaining of flu and Andy Robinson has sore lips from kissing yaks…

In fact it is so cold here I am typing this surround by down sleeping bags and Raymond is warming his fingers on a flickering light bulb.

On the equipment front… guess what our equipment still has not left Heathrow and we have been here a week! The lovely job’s worth baggage handlers at the airport saw Alan McDowell’s name on a barrel and called in the bomb squad. Last we heard they were still convinced that the barrels contained gas explosives. THIS IS NOT THE CASE!! Although we need to ring Linda to make sure she didn’t pack his squadie shower. Things dropped to an all time low yesterday when Alan McDowell was seen buying underwear for another man- Namingly Steve Hodge. More information on this later…

Tonight we are looking forward to another feast of lunchtime garlic fuelled leftovers, reheated until we clear the plates.

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE, If you know anyone who is a baggage handler in Heathrow ask them to send on our bags.

That’s me blogged out with the assistance of 3 useless spoofers- Kate

Stop press… Steve has just barged into the room to show off his new red hat! I wonder who bought it for him?

Listen to our exclusive radio interview with Frank Mitchell before we departed on our adventure.

click here to listen

Well after a good nights sleep it was a freezing shower for those that were brave enough (only Kate was stupid enough), and down to a hearty breakfast of omelettes, curried potatoes and pancakes.

We headed down the hundreds of steps that we were drudged up in the pitch black last night to the 4x4s, and off to the Nepal/ Tibet border. After standing in torrential rain storm for 2 hours we were finally issued with our exit visa after parting with some extra cash to speed up the exit process, only then were we allowed pass over the world famous Friendship Bridge.
As we entered Tibet there was an immediate difference in the living conditions and not for the better, but unfortunately not in the conditions of the roads, these were equally as poor as in Nepal.

While waiting, our luggage was portaged across by what seemed like a few hundred men, women and children. Vehicles are not allowed to pass over the bridge loaded; hence all the loads were carried across (quite bizarre I must say). After being carried the luggage was then transferred into two lorries, and we were transported in 3 all terrain mini vans. These vans would be right at home on the dirtiest farm lanes in Fermanagh! The road conditions went from bad to worse as the last traces of concrete disappeared in the rear view mirror. This road got continually worse until the vans got stuck and we all had to get out to push, eventually arriving safely in Zhangmu and checking into another five star hotel.

ah this mountaineering is a tough life!

Ps. Having been on Nepal time for the past 3 days, we are now on Bejing time- whatever that is. Answers on a postcard please.

From the men on the roof

Today the team all visited a Buddhist temple in Nepal to receive blessings of good will and to spin the prayer wheels. After this we headed to do some last minute shopping in Kathmandu ( Oh Kate's such a little liar, imagine saying that she was bored going around all the gear shops in Kathmandu, she was the one dragging us to all the shoe shop's, is that all matters to a woman? ). Oh Adrian's rucksack has still not been found, so he has decided to purchase replacement equipment, now this was not helped by the fact that Adrian's feet are size 13, however after some time he managed to replace all the necessary kit for $150, all original manufacture no copies they told us! So the next any of us need any equipment we are coming to Kathmandu instead of going to the shops in the UK.
Anyway after lunch, we left the pollution and smog of Kathmandu behind and travelled out along what is probably one of the worst roads in the world, sheer drops for most of the way, no road surface with many obstructions along the way, vehicle passing by mere inches between them, the only positive thing is that they don?t travel very fast.
Nepal is a beautiful country, but it?s so poor and unfortunately the political situation is not helping either, we passed through numerous Maoist army check points along the way and thankfully we encountered no problems.
After travelling for five hours we thankfully arrived at our accommodation for the night, now normally in the western world you park and walk a few metres from the car to the door, in Nepal you take a 4x4 from the road for some distance, then you trek up some seriously steep ground for fifteen minutes and then you have arrived, I must say however that you are far more grateful to have arrived at your hotel in Nepal than in Europe.

That's all from me for today over to you Kate....

Let me just set the record straight on the shopping? I have not been in any shoe shops- I was too tired after being trailed round all those gear shops!
When we finally managed to extract everyone from the shops in Kathmandu, we piled bags of gear onto the bus for our journey into the unknown. What a journey!

The roads at home are motorways in comparison to the mountain roads leading out of Kathmandu. They are just slightly bigger than the width of a bus, so when lorries come hurtling towards you and there is a straight drop down into the valley below, we all found ourselves breathing in and hoping for the best. Due to the skills of our bus driver we passed safely through the smog of Kathmandu and up into the foothills of the Himalaya.

As night fell we still had not reached our hotel, and to be honest I wasn?t expecting very much since I had been assured that the life of luxury would end in Kathmandu. The off-road drive in the 4x4, and trek up steep steps (struggling under the weight of all the gear Raymond had bought in the last few days) didn?t bode well for our accommodation. Yet again I was surprised by the level of comfort our hostel has afforded us- a loo, a running shower and a feed of Sherpa stew has set us all up for whatever tomorrow brings.
I?m told that we will be heading further up the valley towards Nylam where we will try some light walking for a few days, so watch this space!

Finally after 5 hours I have just got this Sat connection to work its 12 at night, I am going to bed!!!!

Sorry run out of battery power when sending this through!!!!

Check out our online Photo Gallery for a glance at some of the first photos back of our journey so far.

First dispatch

Well after two years of planning, we are finally on our way to Mount Everest, I have always said that an expedition is like an iceberg with most people only seeing a very small part of it, the last few weeks have been hectic with delivery failures of equipment, foods, etc. In fact some of our equipment was only delivered to London on the Saturday before our departure!

The rest of our equipment was dispatched two weeks ago for delivery to Nepal, so you can imagine it was our delight when last Thursday I received a call to advise me that our gear was still sitting in Belfast and would not be dispatched until Friday and arrive after we would arrive in Katmandu.

The last couple of day's have also been very emotional for all of us, not knowing what lies ahead of us, the number of calls & good wishes we have received, wishing us well and saying good bye to friends family and loved ones has been hard, 10 weeks is a long time. Most people have heard horrendous statistics about the death rate on Everest and think that it's almost certain that someone will not return, well I must say that it's not as bad as statistics state and we are a safe team, the summit is optional but a safe return is compulsory. I think it was Shakleton who said 'better a live donkey than a dead lion' so we shall not take any unnecessary risks.

The team all met up in Heathrow, with Francis & Neill travelling across on Saturday, on a personal note, I must admit that waking on up on Sunday morning was surreal with nothing to do other than travel to the airport that evening and catch a flight.

Over to you Kate...

The team gathered together in Heathrow ready for our flight together half way round the world. Our first flight was to Muscat in the Oman, and we certainly became very familiar with the national airport since our flight to Katmandu was delayed by 6 hours. After numerous cups of coffee we set off at last for our final destination.

Our arrival at Katmandu was not without it’s upsets either- To enter the country of Nepal, it is necessary to fill out not one but two visa forms. One of which requires a passport photograph and which none of us had. For the cost of a few dollars we negotiated 11 mug shots. The visas took so long to fill out, that by the time we were finished all the luggage had been off loaded from the plane. We each picked up our luggage, which was when disaster number 3 became apparent- Adrian’s baggage had not arrived. Poor Adrian was stuck for a tooth brush and a fresh change of clothes. We were transported through the deserted streets of Katmandu to our hotel.

Now I imagined that this trip was all about self sacrifice and hardship, but when I clapped eyes on the hotel, sorry palace we were booked to stay in for 2 nights, I couldn’t believe my luck! Neill assured me that I shouldn’t get too used to it though, since for the next 65 nights the most comfort I can expect is lumpy ground to sleep on and yaks cheese to eat.

After a comfortable nights sleep, we were set loose in Katmandu. If I ever hear another man complain about how women shop I shall simply have to disagree. These 10 men have trailed me into every single outdoor gear shop in the city. Believe me I didn’t realise there could be so many shops selling the same thing! I gave up counting after shop 1099.

The rest of the day (what little there was left after all the shopping) was spent finalising arrangements for the rest of our trip. Our equipment is not expected to reach us until Friday, and the itinery for the trip needed to be discussed with the trekking agency.

Our first evening in Nepal was marked by a lavish feast with all our sherpas, cooks and trekking companions. Neill assures me that this fattening up is necessary before 8 weeks of hardship on the mountain- and I could get used to this kind of life.

Tomorrow we set off on our acclimatising journey when we travel to the border of Nepal and Tibet at 3800m. Perhaps that is when the hardship and self sacrifice will start!