Leaving Nepal?

3rd April - Sukete Beach to Friendship Bridge - Distance 44km - Ascent 1045m - Av speed 15km/hr

The team were up early with no after effects from Jamie's birthday to report, partly aided by an early night due to no power and a wonderful storm with lightning illuminating the whole of the valley. With all the cyclists reunited, today was supposedly a straight forward day. The cyclists cycle to Friendship Bridge for 11am, where they meet the climbers who were being driven to the meeting place by Thamesurku our support team. What could possibly go wrong with this our last border crossing? Famous last words!

We left Sukete at 7.15am and our thanks go out to the owners and to Pauline for arranging a wonderful stay in this hidden spot. The ride to the border (Friendship Bridge) was a gradual climb of around 1000m, as we followed the river along its meandering course. Although we are always up for an adventure, we decided best to pass on the bungee jump on a suspension bridge over the valley gorge, although it has been pencilled in for the return journey. The road on the whole wasn't too bad to start with and only really deteriorated as we approached the border, but nothing that the team couldn't handle. Arriving at the border at 11am, we were ever hopeful that the climbers would arrive very soon and we could swiftly pass into China, yet it will be no surprise to read that things didn't go quite as planned!

The climbers left Kathmandu at a good time, but the forthcoming Maoist strikes have already started to cause problems on the roads, and they were held up by some local who decided that it was his right to block the road to all transport wishing to head to the border with his vehicle. Details are still quite vague since we only saw the climbers for around 15 minutes, but finally the vehicle was moved sufficiently for them to get through and they reached us after 5pm when the border was closed! Now we just need all the gear for the mountain to arrive!

In the meantime we have been passing the time of day by playing pool with the locals, and adapting to their local rules. Jamie and I showed Ro and Sarah how to win at pool, whilst Dickie decided that he would team up with the local pool hustler in an attempt to win the pool crown back off Jamie and myself. If only they hadn't potted the black too early on 2 occasions they may have been in with a chance!

Tonight we are literally in throwing distance of the border and hope that finally tomorrow we can enter China with all our kit. But with the EverestMax team and border crossings who knows what will happen… It will be the first time that the whole team have been together, which means a new audience for Pauline to try out her jokes, whilst Phil quietly tries to make a hasty exit. Sorry Phil but you have to take some responsibility for Pauline!

Posted by Nic

White water rafting

2nd April – Sukute Beach

We were woken from our riverside huts at 8am by Pauline with the breakfast call. After a late night of pool by torchlight a few of us were slower to rise then normal but we were soon wide awake and all helped to load the raft and kayaks onto the bus.

An hour later we were dropped off at our launch spot and after the raft guide took us through the rafting techniques which mainly involved throwing yourself around the raft and paddling like crazy, we pushed ourselves off and entered the white stuff. Nic and I faced the rapids face on at the front of the raft, Pauline, Sarah, Dickie and Ro positioned themselves in the middle and our guide sat at the back giving us commands so we could skillfully make our way down the Bhote Kosi . As we plunged down the river all we could hear was the shouts from our guide, the roar of the water and the occasional squeal from Sarah, Pauline and Ro who desperately clung to the raft as we bounced from boulder to boulder. We had regular stops to put more air in the raft and also to carry the raft around the rapids that were too dangerous to attempt. Whilst anchored at a small beach, Sarah thought she would try and push Nic into the river. Obviously there was one outcome, and lets just say that Nic was still dry at the end of it.

As we entered the rapids once again, Dickie and Pauline, who obviously felt threatened by my rafting technique, pushed me over board. Luckily I managed to scramble back into the raft before the white water began, but we only lasted about 30 seconds until the side of the boat got wedged on a boulder. With water pouring into one side of the raft, we dived from side to side in a desperate attempt to free ourselves. Much to our guides' relief it worked, although it did mean that we had to face the rest of the rapid backwards. The final and rightly named rapid “oh my god what to do” ended a fabulous morning on the river and it was a great way to relax and prepare ourselves for the challenging time ahead.

Back at Sukute beach, Dom arrived on his bike from Kathmandu where he had been liaising with all the climbers who have eventually made it to Nepal after some very long delays at airports. Phil and one of the safety Kayakers spent the afternoon teaching Sarah, Ro and I how to Eskimo roll, and Nic replaced the bottom bracket on his bike which had been almost falling off for the past 10 cycling days.

As the thunderclouds built up around the valley, we took shelter in the main hut. Luckily the electricity lasted long enough for us to see our dinner, but with an early start in the morning so we can make it to the border by 11am, I don't think there will be much torch lit pool playing tonight!

Posted by Jamie

Paparazi Send off!

1st April - Kathmandu to Sukete Beach - distance 70km - descent 580m - av speed 23km/hr

As the group gets bigger, so does the social scene, so getting out of the hotel, saying goodbye to family and the climbers took time. There were no major papers but at least the gang made us feel special by taking loads of photos as we set off on the last stretch to Base Camp. Dom, our illustrious leader is staying behind for a day to complete some admin. and will catch us up tomorrow while we go off rafting for the day (yes we are on a hard core expedition punctuated by pockets of frivolity and luxury).

The pollution in Kathmandu is the pits. It is so bad that the coolest of people (me, Jamie and Nic) were even prepared to wear face masks that make you look like an extra for Star Wars but anything to save our lungs for the mountain.

Far from being a huge climb, it ended up being a huge descent (Ro managed to get the uphill stretch and Dickie got all the downhill.....who was smug?) So we started at the Dead sea and we still have over 4000m to climb! Something seems a bit wrong.

Lunch was a picnic and Jamie became entertainments manager by trying to carry a traditional basket with the strap around your head. It was empty. So knowing how he likes to live on the edge we put a 5 year old into the basket who enjoyed the novelty. Not sure how much Jamie was enjoying it at this point, but he never likes to disappoint a crowd.

We arrived at our destination Sukete Beach which is part of Equator Expeditions, the company I worked with (yes I am very proud and loyal to them). It is ace,with a pool, river beach and great bar . So see you tomorrow the banter is to good to miss.

Posted by Pauline

The group converge

31st March - Kathmandu

Today saw the arrival of more climbers; Tarka, Phil and Nigel were joined by Chris, Andre and Patrick. The climbing team is now taking shape and it's good to be all together. We spent the day running around doing errands, frustrated slightly that the frieght didn't turn up until 6pm - it was a late night packing!

We had a lovely dinner out with our sherpa team at a traditional Nepalese restaurant, complete with Nepalese dancing. Pauline might have been keen to join in but managed to hold back! Toasts were made to Dom and the next phase of the expedition; if the next two months are as good as the last three then we are in for a real treat. Tomorrow the cyclists set off for the final leg of the cycling. It is going to be the toughest yet but the weeks rest has left us feeling rejuvinated and we are all keen to get going. We will meet the climbers at the border on the 3rd April and then travel for the first couple of days in China with them before they drive ahead. We'll keep you posted!

Posted by Sarah

A Few Thoughts from Dickie

30th March - Kathmandu

I have found it hard to make reflections on the journey so far because there is so much more to achieve and many more jobs to complete. Chapter 1 is over and we are moving on to Everest and the climbing phase of the expedition. I have written a few thoughts below but will be unable to do justice to the experience until I next return to Kathmandu in June.

When we started our expedition back in December I had no real concept of how things would work out or exactly how the support role would evolve. All I knew was that we had a monumental challenge to get the 5 cyclists to Everest on time and in one piece. The rest would work itself out because as a team I believed that between us we had all the skills to deal with every eventuality. In my mind I felt that we would be lucky if 4 of the cyclists made it unaided and that even 3 may be a more realistic prediction. Only time would tell.

It took us a few weeks to get organised into any sort of routine but once established the mix of shopping, filming, preparing lunch, afternoon tea and finding a hotel or campsite became quite slick and was lots of fun. The experience was fascinating. Within a week of departure we had brought a van, crossed our first border and were celebrating Christmas in Damascus.

Discovering the different cultures and foods has been exciting and made every day different. Every shop, market or bazaar brought new treats or ideas and even more elaborate games of charades to explain what we were after. I felt privileged to be in support and lucky that we were able to see more of the countries we visited. Whilst the cyclists had the hard job of crunching out the miles, Ro and I were able to mix and get much closer to the people. Although it took until Pakistan before we really got on the bicycles, I feel richer for it.

The 1600km of cycling I have achieved so far has been great fun and a necessity if I am to make a serious effort at the North Coll. My time on the bikes also made me respect and understand the cycling challenge a lot more. Ro and I always had a van to jump into if it was cold, wet, or both but the team have been focussed throughout and never lost enthusiasm. Their tenacity and drive has been brilliant and bodes well for the mountain.

The mountain, Sagarmatha, Chomolunga or Everest fills me with awe. To be part of an expedition to one of the most extreme places on Earth grips me with fear and excitement. Fear of failure but excitement for the adventure ahead. In support our role will change as we pick up responsibility for camp organisation. This time though we have a superb outfit in Thamserku providing food, cooks and sherpas so our roles are much smaller but important all the same. We also have Patrick joining us in support which gives us all a chance to attempt to climb the North Coll.

I do not want to take anything away from the team in getting this far. They have done brilliantly and have surpassed expectations and I am elated that they have ruined my pre-trip predictions but in my view the easy part is over and we are now getting down to serious business. We are yet to enter Tibet and over the next 10 days will experience our hardest cycling so far. To reach Everest base camp will be an incredible feat for all of them and if one of them reaches the summit, we will as Dom puts it, ‘have achieved one of the last great overland adventures.' The fine line between success and failure will be taken to the limit and I wish them all the best of British.

Posted by Dickie

Message from Ro

29th March - Kathmandu

The trip so far from Jordan to Nepal has been fascinating from start to finish... it has also been breathtaking, freezing, extreme, exhausting, very funny, slightly queasy, memorable, frustrating and most of all, thoroughly enjoyable.

As a member of the support team, most of my time has been taken up with food, accommodation and Martha!… simple enough at home but on an expedition that has travelled through seven countries without stopping, it has been much more complicated and enormous fun. (Oh yes – there have been a few border crossings too.. .but I'm not even mentioning them!)

The challenges throughout the trip have been endless… what do you serve five hungry cyclists for breakfast when the country you are in has unappetising bread, no cereal, no porridge, no milk, no baked beans, no sausages, no bacon, no mushrooms and bad tomatoes..? In short, nothing that resembles the Full English breakfast they are craving! You try to convince them that eggs (we have never been short of eggs), apple crumble and refried potato from the night before is delicious and filling at eight o'clock in the morning! Bless them - they actually agreed that it was.

We have had some interesting food phases...banana and chocolate spread wrapped in flat bread was devoured in huge quantities through most of Turkey . This was replaced by cakes...once Pauline produced the first bread and butter pudding in the Ramoska Cooker there was a frenzy of cake making and a whole new shopping list of goodies. What is baking powder in Iranian? How do you mime it? In the first month the daily selection of chocolates fitted into a shoe box as it was expensive and hard to find. At the end we had a crate full of cakes, biscuits, chocolate and sweets that would be devoured every day - cheap, delicious and easy to throw in your backpack. In Iran the beautiful selection of dried fruit and nuts meant that Dickie was in shopping heaven. When we reached India and had all the ingredients to cook some really good curries, people became ill and wanted simple, bland food! In the freezing snow we produced large amounts of steaming pasta at lunch, chopped, cooked and served from the van. In the hot deserts we peeled and sliced endless tubs of fruit salad. In India we had the quest for cold drinks from a fridge! We have hardly cooked with meat at all (hard to buy when you have seen it butchered on the floor of the shop or covered in flies hanging in the street!) but we have eaten a great variety of local food, so much so that our job has often been to produce the ingredients for simple home cooking. Marmite and toast, PG Tips and Cornflakes. At every stage we have made tea. This is a very British expedition and the brew box was always the first out of the van. Quite right too.

Accommodation has been fun. In Syria we had to find somewhere to hide the tent in the vast open spaces of the desert. In Turkey and Iran we needed to stay indoors (often in towns with no hotels). It was just too snowy to camp as the cyclists clothes wouldn't dry overnight, so shop floors and Red Crescent buildings were called upon. In Pakistan we inspected the inside of a great many police compounds, sleeping in the tent, in garages or in the cells! In India we would have loved to camp but wouldn't have had a seconds peace so we were back to the hotels again. Some of them needed pulling down and starting again, others were incredibly good value for a pound or two a night. Every day we have packed up in the morning and unpacked again somewhere new at night. I think we are all looking forward to having a tent of our own, for two whole months, at Everest Base Camp.

The cyclists have been patient and enthusiastic and have greeted everything with a great sense of humour - not only the random ingredients we've produced for cooking but also the quality and location of some of the stranger hotels and camp sites. I don't think I can recall a serious complaint. They would arrive from a long, hard day cycling and happily get on with whatever was arranged - often declaring it to be the best yet. Our expectations have changed a great deal from the start! Places we would have dismissed at the beginning are now greeted with nods of approval. Bathrooms we would have sniffed at no longer seem to smell so bad. Finding a good campsite still gets the best reaction - except perhaps when it rains!!!

I have to mention Dickie - the other half of the support team. We very quickly discovered that the bits I was good at interested him slightly less and the things he was good at hardly interested me at all...he has been just brilliant at telling me again and again how much something costs in Pounds. He sorted out the border guards when they wouldn't speak to me anymore (a woman!!!). He has arranged all the kit in the back of the van whilst tippy-toeing around my stacking boxes in the middle!! He has sorted out most of the engine problems that Martha threw up and still gets excited about the generator. He also says he hasn't noticed me getting stroppy once! Wow!

As we've passed through the different countries everything has been changing...The people - their features, hairstyles, clothing, traditions, language and religions have evolved from one place to the next. The towns, buildings and vehicles have taken on new shapes and the language and writing that was almost helpful last week would once again become baffling. The currencies and exchange rates have confused me most! - the great wads of money you get in Turkey as you spend a couple of million over dinner! The Pakistani coins that have no numbers on them at all! The shops and food have varied enormously – what was available and useful last week would suddenly be gone to be replaced with a new and weird alternative. Tea has been different in every country, not just the way it is made but how and when it is served. The hotels have ranged from delightful to dreadful and the hot water has never been guaranteed! The landscapes and weather have probably seen the most extreme changes. Vast open desert in Jordan and Syria, endless snowy, frozen mountains in Turkey and Iran, rolling sand dunes and hot, hot desert in Pakistan then lush, flat, fertile land in India. Now the soaring Himalayas with their paddy fields and snow capped mountains. We have been through autumn, harsh winter, summer and will soon have winter again – all in just a few months. All of our worldly goods have been stored in the back of a temperamental van and most of our conversations with the locals have been done in sign language! It has been a very surreal experience at times but at every turn we have found people who have been generous and smiling and incredibly helpful. I wouldn't have missed it for the world and there's still more to come.

Posted by Ro