It's March - which means we go THIS MONTH!

Some updates on what we have been doing and what's to come:

Fundraising

First of all, a huge, huge thank you to everyone who has donated so far. Our fundraising total so far across all our BH trekkers past and present is £8748 which is not far away at all from our target. Across the whole team of trekkers we have raised nearly £90,000! Nic, Reuben's Mummy had some lovely words to share about what this means to them. You can read them here.

https://www.justgiving.com/team/EveRRest22

Preparation

Update from Vicki: With 4 weeks to go I have packed my bags. We have a very strict weight limit of 15kg for the trek and I wanted to see how much space I would have to take some familiar snacks with me so I had a day off on Monday and packed it all. I think the answer is I will have my coat packets filled with snacks and will look like Joey from friends when he wears all Chandler's clothes when I board the plane to Lukla. I've bought things I never thought I would - some water-free washing gel called 'Pits and Bits', some bright pink fake Crocs to wear in the evenings and when we do reach showers in the lower parts of the trek, highly concentrated soap you can wash your dishes, hair and clothes with and I now own more pairs of hiking socks than I ever imagined. I have been trying out boots, walking poles and various clothes (on my 4th pair of gloves to try!) on my hikes and have learned to keep my Camelbak in the freezer as well as that you can get covers for the mouthpiece so you don't get yak dung in it. It has been a journey of discovery for sure even before we set off. I think so far I have had 4 vaccinations, with a final rabies shot scheduled for next week and am trialing contact lenses you can wear for a week so it won't matter that I won't be able to clean them properly. I have been reading up on different breathing techniques and been reminded that I am mildly allergic to microporous tape and have made a really feeble attempt to learn some Nepalese. I'm still on 'namaste' 

I am a regular at the 7am gym class on a Tuesday to keep the legs strong and have spent hours on the stepper machine to get the cardio in for all the steps we will have. Unfortunately I won't be able to watch re-runs of Superstore on the way up to Base Camp but I think the scenery will be much nicer than a gym car park. I've even been actually doing my physio exercises. All of this spurred on by my family, friends and colleagues who are still nodding enthusiastically at my efforts - thank you!

Training

All 3 of us have been hitting the hills and the mean streets of our local areas to get time on our feet. Steve and Vicki have been up Kinder Scout and Snowdon (with Kathryn in tow) with another trip planned this weekend (maybe we will get decent weather this time - maybe!) and Owen has been cycling and hiking regularly too. You might have spotted Steve's update videos from his walks if you're on Facebook. It's been great to meet some of our fellow trekkers on these hikes and get a feel for what it might be like on our trek. We had a Teams call with the travel agent who advised we start to carb load soon so I think we are all looking forward to the last week before we go where we will be making sure we eat and drink well and get well-rested. 

What's to come

We fly out on 25th March on a 13.5 hour journey via Doha with Qatar Airway (Vicki is a plane nerd so is excited about this part), spend the day and night in Kathmandu trying to recover from the flight and having our briefings before getting up very early to head to Lukla the day after. The plane journey there is short but, well, Google 'Lukla airport' and see what it says...

Then the trek begins! We expect it to be 8 days up, 4 days down and will post our itinerary nearer the time. If tech, signal and electricity allows, we might have Strava links to share - let's see. 

Thank you all so much for your support and we will be back in touch with how to follow us on the trek!