Nepal Trip 09

The Begining of the End

2010-07-22T17:58:00.001-07:00

4th January

Woke up a little later than yesterday this morning - feeling much better than yesterday. Still missing my appetite BUT I'm sure it'll reappear sooner rather than later.

While I was sleeping a few brave souls (Kev, Torbs & Ash from memory) made the ascent up Kala Patthar - meaning 'black rock' - to catch the sun rise and get a good view of Mt Everest itself. From all reports it was a hard climb and extremely cold (I believe their water bottles froze on the way up) but the view was magnificent! While they were up there Torbs tied a prayer flag up on the summit with everyone signatures... well everyone EXCEPT mine - I was too busy sleeping off my BC exhaustion (Thanks guys!)

So anyways, today we started on our return journey. Pretty much we'd be doing the trek that KTP and I did on the way to get here - so at least we had some idea of what to expect. Poor Alicia was still suffering through a splitting headache - but as it was all downhill (kinda..) from here, she'd hopefully be feeling some relief soon.

We started off trekking to Loubche (to the teahouse that smells like Yak Bark!) where we had some morning tea, before making our way back along the river and down that killer hill (much quicker this time!) to have lunch at the tea house with the stinky toilet... (and yes I can confirm that the toilet still smells as bad as we thought it did). Lunch arrived eventually (took like 1.5hrs!) and we started head back through the valley that Raj had pointed out to us previously (when we were on our way to Loubche!)

We eventually made it to this smallish town which we thought was going to be our resting place for the evening... only to discover we actually had another hour or so to go! (According to Raj this place is too cold and windy to stay at!) I guess another hour today means an hour less of walking tomorrow?!

We followed the river, crossing some dodgy bridge and walking up hill (argh!) for a little while. It started to get quite cold, especially as the sun was starting to set - however watch the lights rays disappear slowly along the valley was pretty spectacular. KTP and Alicia (KTP just wanting to get it all over with) were far ahead of me but I had a good chat with Torbs along the way and it was a relatively pleasant journey... if a bit long and kinda cold.

We eventually reach Orse and KTP and I quickly realized we had been here before - it was the tea house in the 'middle of nowhere' (previously surrounded by snow) that we stopped at for morning tea while on our way to Dhingboche! The dining room was nice and warm - and as a treat we bought ourselves some popcorn and some PRINGLES (expensive but worth it!).

Spent most of the evening by the fire playing cards with KTP, Joel and Torbs - a bit of cheat, some 500 and quite a bit of Shithead - cause we're classy like that!

In which Team Nepal makes it to Base Camp!

2010-02-06T18:04:00.000-08:00

3rd January

It was a VERY early morning start this morning as the alarm started blaring off at 4:30am in the morning so that we could pack & eat before our 6:00am starting time. Now I know 1.5 hrs sounds like a long time need for just packing and eating but at this altitude (4900m) even little things seem to take quite a bit out you! After packing my bag I actually had to catch my breathe... which as you can imagine bode well for the rest of the day!! Unfortunately for Alicia - she had to do this all with a splitting headache!! (Altitude sickness rears its ugly head!)

We finally left Loubche at 6:00am extremely cold with our head torches on as it was pretty dark, though after about 30min or so it was light. Our first part of the day was a 3 hr trek to Gorakshep (5140m), our last stepping stone to Base Camp and our final place of resting for this evening & home to the HIGHEST RESTAURANT IN THE WORLD (imagine that done with a booming Wizard of Oz type voice!)

Anyways, it was a relatively easy trek except for the massive arse hill we had to climb up in the middle... which was you know 'fun' if you like pain... which (to be honest) I don't! But we got up there eventually and had a nice break at the top and watched these Europeans practically run up the mountain.... freaks.

Anyways, we eventually reached Gorakshep at 9:30am and ordered our extremely early lunch (I'm not going to call it brunch as no cantalopes were involved).... and then waited... and waited... and waited... til about 11:30!!

We were actually a lil worried we would not have enough time/light to make to Base Camp, as it was still another 5 hour walk there and back but we all wolfed down our lunches and were ready to go by 12pm (our deadline).

We started out by crossing the sight of the Everest Test Match, which hold the record for the "Highest alitude recorded for a field sport" - I can't imagine playing a game of cricket up here... I think I'd be requesting a runner! The field itself was pretty rocky as well - so I could imagine it'd be quite easy to roll an ankle or two... (not that I need any help in THAT department - I'm quite good at falling over without any external assistance!)

After following the relatively dried up river beds for awhile we ended up walking on the Khumble glacier which kept things pretty interesting as it was pretty up and down and extremely rocky and prone to rockslides as poor Ash found out when nature called! She almost ended up sliding her way to the bottom with a few boulders but luckily Kasia was there to save the day.

We spent quite a bit of the time walking along the 'ridge' of the glacier, which I guess was the easiest path to follow... relatively close to Base Camp, Fangy actually followed the ridge a little too far and the guides had to yell out to her that she was going the wrong away!! (But don't fear... the guides got her on the right path eventually!)

As we got closer to Base Camp the ridge of the glacier actually got quite small and slippery - so much so that KTP and I (the stragglers), instead of staying on the ridge, had to walk a different path as they had determined the ridge was too unstable! Raj and the guides mentioned that this path was perfectly fine the last time they has made this trek (only a couple of weeks ago) but it obviously deteriorated very quickly... Alicia told us later that she was quite scared crossing the ridge as it was icy and about 1cm in width! I was glad that we had the other path!! And then... finally... there is was

BASE CAMP!! in all it's rocky/icy glory!

Now lets be honest. Base Camp is not a very exciting place. It's bloody cold. It's very windy. It's rocky and icy. Did I mention it was cold and windy? (and where exactly the mountaineers camp is a freaking mystery to us!)

But this is a perfect example of how its about the journey and not just the destination. 8 (or so) months ago we decided (unfit, unprepared and completely sober) to do this. Randomly. Out of no where. We wanted to make our way to this place, in this amazing country, fiver thousand and six hundred kilometers above sea level. And finally here we were - slightly fitter, a little more prepared. There's just something amazing about setting, what seems to be, a far off unreachable goal and actually making it. It makes all the pain and toil worth it.

Unfortunately (for me anyways) the pain and toil weren't exactly over... but more on that later.

Our short time on Base Camp mainly consisted of us taking lots (and lots) of photos... though we never got around to taking a big group photo at the camp! Which is a bit of a shame! Kev carried up a can of beer and a few people had a good sip of the (very frothy) celebratory beer, while Raj and guys mixed up a bit of a shandy and asked everyone if they would like some 'sprite'! (Nice try guys!) AND quite a few of us managed to defile BC with a celebratory pee!!

I stuck to the celebratory chocolate - mainly as the trek to BC had taken a lot out of me. It seems I had finally succumb to the chest cold that had been plaguing me for the past few days.

The trip back to Gorkashep was, by far, the hardest leg of the whole trip. It just seemed to go on forever and myself and Marky Mark really struggled (with our lovely companions KTP and Amy).

We got to one part where there was a steepish incline, slippery with lots of small rocks. I half-heartedly attempt to get up but slipped back all the way down. Exhausted I looked to KTP and was all like "I don't think I can do this!" but KTP had my back giving me the advice I needed to get up there!

Anyways, with the sun quickly slipped behind the horizon we did eventually make it back to Gorkashep - about an hour or so behind everyone else. Though it wasn't an easy time for those who made the trek back quickly either. We hears later on that Ash, Kasia and Kev nearly got caught up in a rock slide on their way back!

As we finally walked back in to the tea house the rest of the team gave us a little cheer to welcome us back. Unfortunately for me the day had taken its toll and as soon as I dumped all my gear I was back outside having a bit of a spew.

Which was the begining of a short but horrible even where I split my time between the table (attempting to eat dinner...) and the bathroom (throwing up dinner). Eventually I just headed to bed with Ash's hot water bottle and an extra blanket from Raj to a solid nights sleep.

Off to Lobuche

2010-01-19T03:35:00.000-08:00

2nd January

Heading off from Dhingboche we walked back up the hill that KTP & I had ‘acclimatized’ with the day before – following the lay of the land over hills and small dips. The high altitude was most definitely starting to affect me as I found I quickly became very short of breath, despite my slow walking pace. Though in some ways my slowness came in hand as I spotted two thousand rupees that had been dropped along the path!! Being a kind soul I made sure no one else had dropped it before adding to the Team Nepal’s group fund… which was received with little gratitude :( (haha!) From where we were we could see down the valley below us and Raj pointed out that this would be the route we would be using to head home after Base Camp!

After crossing a frozen over river (by jumping from rock to rock) we made our way to our lunch teahouse. Lunch took forever to arrive (Nepali time!), however this tea house will forever be remember for the god-awful toilet!! A little tin shed off to the side… wooden wonky board over a LOOOONG DROP… and OMG THE SMELL!! I had my neck warmer over my nose and the roll of toilet paper and it was still horrible!!

After lunch we had to conquer a massive hill “straight up” to make our way up some 200 m to the Thokla Pass. For the majority of us the pace was slow going as we needed constant breaks to slow our racing heart or gather back some breath – however KTP zoomed up that hill like the devil was after her… and I think was about the 2^nd person up the hill!!

During the climb I chatted a little to one of our porters called Nema… and then confused him by mistaking his question of “first time” (in Nepal) for “past time?”… The whole f/p pronunciation thing confuses me!

Upon reaching the Thokla pass we rested for awhile and admired the memorials for those who had lost their lives on Everest. From memory, believe at least one person dies for every 5 – 6 people who reach the summit… though these numbers may come down now as those figures were after the 1996 distaster (where 11 people died in the one climbing season) – but as you can imagine there are quite a lot of memorials there.

The route flattened out after this and we touched the edge of the Khumble Glacier – a massive wall of rock and ice that reaches all the way to Everest Base Camp (& beyond). It was about at this point that Alicia unfortunately succumbed to the runs – making the rest of the way to Lobuche quite unpleasant for her :(

For most of the afternoon we followed the path of a frozen-over river – Mark & Torbs both testing the strength of the ice by hurling large stones at the river… none of the rocks broke the ice, so it was obviously nice and solid!! I hung out the back for the majority of the trek hanging out for KTP and Alicia (who had to make a few stops along the way!).

As we reached Lobuche, we came across poor Ash who was struggling with vertigo. It took her quite a few minutes to make it all the way to the tea house and she looked pretty worse for wear – obviously the high altitude (Lobuche is @ 4910 m) was starting to make it effects known!

Alicia didn’t even make it to the tea house before needing to stop – ducking behind a Porter’s rest house for another ‘rest’ stop… and when she did reach the teahouse she headed straight outside to the toilet only to come back a few minutes later with a sheepish look on her face and a short exclamation “Oh my God guys, I dropped my camera in the toilet!”

As you can imagine, we all just burst out laughing (no sympathy here!) as she told us how her camera had fallen out of her jacket pocket right down the LOOOONG DROP!

It was the guides/porters to the rescue as they successfully retrieved her camera… according to them it didn’t actually make it all the way down – instead falling on a piece of ice. I must admit it looked pretty clean – but we used a good dosage of hand sanitizer before we touched it again!!

Poor KTP had a massive migraine tonight which also made her feel pretty nauseous, which probably wasn’t helped with the entire place reeking like Yak Shit from the heater. She’s a bit hesitant about making the massive trek to Base Camp planned for tomorrow and even Raj said it’s not worth pushing yourself to Base Camp if you can’t as really it’s just “ice and rock”, at least you’ve made it to 5000 m above sea level… achievement enough! Either way, she’ll just have to wait to see how she feel tomorrow… BASE CAMP DAY!

Fang's reminiscence on January 14, 2010

2010-01-14T02:28:00.000-08:00

Ok so far I have been told off that I have not added or contributed to the blog so I thought I would add a few thoughts to Brennan's efforts of our Nepal trip this far.

So currently I am sitting in Bandipur at probably the only internet cafe in the whole entire town. As you can gather it is not a very big town. I think we walked pretty much all through it in about 30 minutes but it is a very beautiful, quiet and quaint town with many beautiful people. We travelled for a good 2.5 to 3 hrs on a very interesting looking bus where I couldn't get my knees behind the seat in front. There were many many many bumpy parts on our journey from Chitwan to Dumre (town just outside of Bandipur). All we were really missing on this bus were some chickens and some goats. We arrived here at 1pm today at the back of a pick up truck. The interesting thing about this journey was probably the number of people that were on this truck. We are estimating that there were approximately 17 people that were crammed on top, inside and hanging on the outside of this truck. People were getting in and people were getting out. Have a wild guess where I was positioned on this truck.....that's right on the back, standing up, holding on for dear life....one to not die and to make a fool of myself as there were 2 Nepalese women that were laughing at me a good part of the way up to our destination. Standing at the back I really thought how in the hell did I end up here right NOW!

So officially we finished our Base Camp hike on January 8, 2010 where we flew out from Lukla. I would have to say that trekking on that path was probably one of the most difficult things that I have done physically to date. As some of you may have been reading Brennan's daily posts it has been quite the physical challenge that has been faced. Pushing the body to that challenge on a daily basis was very tough and to also combat altitude sickness made things interesting! To sit on your bed at 7am in the morning after your head has throbbed since 12am that night and to pack the entire contents of your bag, provided that it wasn't that much was something that was so hard to muster for our last stop before Base Camp! Nevertheless.....HFUP.......as I have been known to say to motivate myself!

After trekking for 6 hrs to Everest Base Camp after leaving Loubcher, I cannot describe the sense of satisfaction, achievement and calm that I felt when I reached the "destination". It was rocks after rocks that we had to walk over, some big some small but each one a challenge an obstacle that was overcome. To some if you saw the photos of Base Camp it doesn't look like much. Not fancy, not flash, definitely no neon flashing lights saying......Base Camp here! It is bascially surrounded by rocks and is a huge mound of rocks itself with prayer flags and momentos left behind from other trekkers and climbers but to me it was such a sense of accomplishment for 2009. After setting out and committing to this trip since an early early morning back in April. All the hard work, preperations and sweat paid off as soon as your foot touched that "sacred" spot. I don't think I will ever forget after clambering up the rocks, staggering across to the centre of Base Camp and Ashleigh running and hugging me screaming into my ear "we did it, we made it". I don't even think it registered at that time what she was saying. I was just standing there in awe of where I was and trying to breathe. Thinking back on it, all I can do is smile to myself. To many Base Camp is only the beginning, the start of their climb, to something bigger, harder and better, and I do feel that by reaching the location of Everest Base Camp that it was only the beginning but standing there that day I had climbed my Everest for this part of my life!

A Tale of Two Halves

2010-01-11T21:49:00.000-08:00

30th December - 1st of January

After probably my best sleep so far of the trek I woke to discover that my poor roomie KTP had not been so lucky.... turns out she had to visit the bathroom multiple times for a bit of a vom vom. She really did not look well but decided to attempt to carry on none the less and so we started our journey towards Phortse.

Obviously after expelling all her previously eaten food KTP was feeling a little on the weak side so it was a pretty slow journey with Torbs joining us up the back as well. The trek itself was a 'Nepali flat', which means it was mainly flat with a few ups and downs... this was probably the most maintained track we've come across so far - and halfway along we came across a guy who had apparently done all of the work himself... through donations from tourists like ourselves - so I happily donated a few hundred rupees to his cause... (even thou I doubt he'd be able to do anymore work on the track based on his advanced age!!)

We eventually made it past all the prayer poles and stupas to our first rest stop - a small tea house kinda in the middle of nowhere. KTP pretty much looked like the walking dead at this point so it was quickly decided that both her and myself would spend the day her to allow her to recuperate before moving on any further.

Luckily for us the Intrepid itinerary diverts from the main Base Camp trail to Phortse, which means we could travel an easier route over the next few days to catch up with the crew in Dhingboche.

While Alicia was a bit conflicted, we encouraged her to stay with the rest of the group as she was the strongest out of us and two people would be much easier to manage than three. So after leaving us with a guide, Nara & a porter we bade farewell to the rest of the group & Alicia and put KTP straight to bed... AND while KTP slept... I pretty much read and lazed around in the sun... (for what happened to Alicia & the rest of the group... you'll just have to wait till she's bothered to blog about it.... possibly never!)

The next morning we both awoke to the fact that it had SNOWED overnight (something like 6 inches!)!!! In fact a small pile of snow had built up in our room's window still. After her day of rest KTP felt quite ready to continue on our journey so we headed out into the snow(and somehow resisted the urge to create snow angels!)

The morning walk to us down toward the river - and to be honest it was the most fun I've had so far. Neither of us could imagine a better place in the world to be at that moment! I managed to get KTP with a good snow fall a few times by just tapping the trees above us with Hesus 2.0 (my walking pole), but don't worry - karma paid me back as I stacked it big time into the snow! Our poor guide, Nara, seemed a lil under prepared for the snow as we had to stop a few times for him to remove the snow that had built up in his sneakers!!

Once down by the river we had a quick break for some tea before beginning to climb (OMG CLIMB) 400 m straight up to the Tengboche Monastery.... There's not much to say expect it was hard, we did it very slowly and we took LOTS of breaks... and that we made it up there... eventually.

We ate lunch at a teahouse just across from the monastery and meet a Sydney-girl, Marissa Ward, who by pure coincidence I share a few mutual friends with. She was actually 'snowed in' as her group was unable to head to their next destination as it was to unsafe for the porters to carry all their gear!!

After lunch we headed toward our final destination - Pangboche - by again heading back down to the river and then climbing back up agin (this happens WAY too often for my liking). The main 'exciting' event of this trip is me having to the whole 'crap in the woods' thing way too literally as I suffered from the 'runs'. We finally reached Pangboche (to my great relief) late in the afternoon - both KTP and I were so tired we actually had a nap before dinner... and then as soon as dinner was over headed back to bed.... though not before celebrating Sydney New Years (~7PM Nepal time) with a hands raised "HAPPY NEW YEAR".... oh yeah... we're party animals.

The next morning we woke up relatively early again to make on way to Dhingboche - where we would finally meet up with the rest of the crew. It was a relatively pleasant morning walk in the snow-covered hills and we passed a few people who wished us a 'Happy New Year.' We stopped to have morning tea in this teahouse that was basically in the middle of nowhere with snow-covered ground as far as the eye could see.

We reached Dhingboche just around lunch time - with both Raj and Kevin coming outside to meet us... we are both still sorely disappointed that Alicia did not come out and greet us with open arms!! She claims she was told that we would not arrive for another hour or so... thou we believe she just couldn't be bothered leaving her sunny position in the dining room :D

We did however enter the dinning room to a round of applause - which was both very nice and made us feel like we had been missed. Sitting back and having lunch with everyone again I think made both KTP and I aware of how much we had missed our social interactions with the rest of the group. We also were

Today was an aclimatization day for the group - so they spent the morning climbing some 300 m up o a Tibetan prayer pole on the hill behind the teahouse. In an attempt to make up for it, both KTP and I did our own aclimatization walk - though as we had already climbed some 500 m... we decided we would not go as far up as the group had.

First we made our way up to the stupa directly behind the teahouse - which was probably around about 100 m up, we then made our way to the right to where some prayer flags had been strung together to make it about 200 m. It only took us ~ 1 hour and as we made our way down the hill we ran into Torbs who had gone out searching for us so he could do some extra walking... next time Torbs!

Once inside the teahouse we found most of the group intensely playing Phase 10 (some sort of American card game similar to Gin Rummy) so KTP and I started playing Shithead (name of the game I swear) and we taught it to Raj... who then proceeded to kick our arses!

All in all a good day! Tomorrow - Loubche!!

Brennan (KTP & Fang)

To Namche & Beyond

2010-01-10T00:40:00.000-08:00

28th - 29th of December

We were up relatively early again today for our trek to Namche Bazaar (3440 m) – the last real ‘BIG’ town on our trek. Didn’t really sleep very much – no major reason why – just kinda laid in my sleeping bag for most of the night. It was relatively cold – but not TOO bad, though I did wear my thermals to bed for the first time.

Apparently though, it can be quite difficult to sleep in high altitudes (we are currently only 2610 m above sea level… BUT it is a lot higher than what I’m normally used too!!) and you can also have extremely vivid dreams… thou I guess I’d have to actually get some sleep to experience that!!

The trek to Namche Bazaar was probably our first real ‘test’ for the trek. While we were walking only 9 km it took ~ 6 hours as we had to climb a long way up right at the end (known as a Nepali ‘straight up!’). The first few hours were a Nepali ‘flat’, which consisted of “little” ups and downs as we made our way along the Dudh Kosi River – actually crossing it by swing bridges 5 times!!
The swing bridges are kinda interesting to walk across – as quite often they seem to be swinging up as your foot is coming down and then you end up all out of sync… it just a little weird. You also have lots of obstacles to pass – yak caravans, porters carrying trekkers bags… or 80kg of glass using only their foreheads and backs(!!... it’s AMAZING!). At one stage I was walking along a bridge and I heard a rustling behind me and realized there was a guy, right on my tail, carrying 60 – 70kg of empty plastic water bottles on his back (it was these massive bags that were twice his height and twice as wide)!! I practically had to jog down the bridge to give him enough room… it felt very raiders of the lost ark!!

Just before lunch we entered to Sagarmatha National Park – Sagarmatha is the Nepali name for Everest – and finally saw our first glance of EVEREST in a small clearing as we started making our way up (UP UP!) to Namche Bazaar. While the ‘overall’ altitude gain between Phaking and Namche is ~800 m, because we have to go down to floor of the valleys to cross the river we probably climbed up much further (someone we met along the way suggested it was a climb closer to 1500 m!) Either way it was a LOOOONG way up and took 2 – 3 hours to complete. KTP & I firmly planted ourselves as the tortoises of the group (everyone else seems to be moving VERY quickly)… but we are not that much slower really… and we get to hang out the back with Raj, who has been able to answer all our stupid questions.

Our first sight of Namche was definitely a sight for sore eyes – it’s a bit like a big alpine town… though it’s slightly unusual in that it seems have multiple levels… its quite hard to describe actually… but when I finally post photos you’ll understand… but there’s probably like another 200 m in altitude gain from the bottom entrance of the town to the top – and about 6 – 7 levels of buildings between the two.

As we climbed up to our teahouse we passed the Tibetan markets, which is filled with Tibetan refugees who have escaped from Tibet with goods (like shoes, pants, etc.) to sell. They all live in these flimsy tents made out of tarpaulin, despite the fact it is freezing here! It’s quite sad actually.

We did eventually make it to our teahouse, tired and weary, and had a nice hot meal and a relatively early evening… despite the fact we had a bit of a sleep in the next morning as we were staying on in Namche for one more night to help acclimatize.

Acclimatization day was relatively peaceful – we spent the morning walking up to higher altitudes and then returned for the afternoon to rest and relax and then sleep.

We first walked up to visit a local museum, which despite Raj describing as ‘not very interesting’, wasn’t too bad. It had lots of information about the National Park and the surrounding fauna and flora, as well as info on the Sherpa culture and some of the programs Hillary had set up. We probably spent 20 – 30 minutes up there, as there were also great views of the mountains from there as well. Even more interesting were the military exercises happening right next to us at the army barracks!!

After seeing the museum, we headed back down to head straight back up again to the highest airport IN THE WORLD…. From memory I think it’s around 3750 m above sea level… on a mountain… and is funnily enough called ‘Mountain’!! While there is still a runway there, planes are no longer allowed to land there as there have been too many accidents, and the airport is now only being used by helicopters.

After a MASSIVE lunch we spent most of the afternoon exploring the town (not that interesting really…) and picking up a few essentials including our new walking poles (named Moses 2.0 (A), Hesus 2.0 (S) & pole (K)) which I think will be quite handy.

Another earlish nigh as we head off again tomorrow to Phortse Gaon (a random Sherpa village).

Brennan (KTP & Alicia)

The start of the trek….

2010-01-09T00:39:00.000-08:00

25th -27th of December

Christmas night we headed out to try and find the Nepali Chulo restaurant following the minute instruction printed on our business cards… however we luckily ran into “our friend” Barga who out the front of the Northfield Café and he offered to give us a lift. Like most Nepali’s he drove a small car, as larger cars make it virtually impossible to maneuver around the small narrow streets especially in Thamel, and we managed to make it there incident free.

The Nepali Chulo restaurant is housed in a 900 year old Rana palace. The exterior and interior of the place has been lovingly restored and is just amazing. Walking in, we had to remove our shoes and we had another red dot placed upon our foreheads (for free this time) before making our way to sit at our traditional table (aka on the floor).

We started off with a few serves of Nepali rice wine, which I must say really warms up the body VERY QUICKLY… they have this unique way of pouring from a tea pot like vessel. Starting low in the clay cup and then quickly going higher before flicking their wrists to stop the flow at just the right moment… before the cup overflows. As the Nepali rice wine came quick and often & were being intermingled with some sort of run type cocktail it wasn’t very long till we were a very merry group… which would explain why Alicia and myself had a good go at the traditional Tibetan dancing… needless to say we weren’t very good – but it was all in good fun. The food was traditional Nepali and was very good… especially as we had multiple servings of momos(!!) which we all currently LOVE!!!

Anyways, after a lovely evening we returned back to our hotel thanks to Barga… who kinda made a move on Alicia and was quickly rejected… (Alicia: Not even while I was drunk! EW!)… so I think that’ll be the last we see of him (Alicia: hopefully!)

Boxing day was a pretty quiet affair – we met up with our trekking group for the first time. While there are 12 of us on the trip only 10 of us were there for the initial briefing (the other 2 were unfortunately stranded in China for a 70 hour layover!!) The briefing was pretty standard and we met our group leader Raj as well. Afterwards we headed to the Kathmandu Environmental Education Program (or K.E.E.P.) – which ended up being a bit of a bust as the guy who normally ran it was sick… so we pretty much just watched on what they do instead. We decided to go out for dinner with Raj and most of the group that evening and headed to the K-too Steakhouse, which wasn’t too bad from memory & it was here we met the last two members of the group… leaving us with:

• Peter, Mandy, Torbs & Joel from SA/ACT
• Amy & Mark from BrisVegas
• Ash from Sydney (who is friends with one of Alicia’s good friend’s Jess… small world!)
• Kevin & Kasia (the token Americans)
• & of course… Me, Alicia & KTP

It was an early night as we had to be up and ready to go by 6:30am(!!) for our 7:45am flight to Lukla. After arriving @ the domestic airport and heading through the ‘highly sophisticated’ *cough cough* security measures we ended up having to waiting for 4 hours(!!) for our flight as we were fogged in.
A variety of measures were undertaken to alleviate the boredom & it gave us all a good chance to finally meet and get to know the rest of the group – especially as we were about every moment of the next two weeks together!!

Eventually we were given the all the clear to leave and we headed via bus to our lil Yeti Airlines twin otter plane to Lukla. We had one flight attendant, whose main job is to close the door and had out Carmel candy and cotton wool (for earplugs!!) at the beginning of the flight! We were told we should get fantastic views of the Himalayas from one side… but no one would tell us which side it was!! Katie and I had the single seats on the left (underneath the wing)… and as we finally broke through the clouds it was obvious we had chosen the ‘right’ side and the majesty of the Himalayas was clearly apparent. As you can imagine the flashes started going off straight away and I have some gorgeous pictures (which I swear I will post eventually).

The entire plane trip was a lil nerve wrecking at part – especially as you get closer to Lukla as there are some very small passages that have to be negotiated… and the runway @ Lukla is crazily short (200 m… maybe?) on the side of a FRIGGIN MOUNTAIN!!! Apparently you have to have at least 7 – 8 years experience before you are allowed to land plane there… which is definitely a good thing!!
After alighting from the plane we quickly made our way to a tea house for lunch (which took an hour or two to arrive) before finally setting off on the start of our trek.

The first day was a ‘gentle introduction’ of 3 hours to Phakding (pronounced Fakding). It wasn’t too bad… but I’m pretty sure that was because it was mainly downhill!! The tea house we are staying in had small little separate rooms (with our own toilets… luxury!) made out of plywood boards… it’s cold but not too bad so far. Dinner wasn’t too bad either – so…. So far so good! Tomorrow will definitely be a different matter as we change elevation by over 800m to Namche Bazzar… Man that’s a lot of climbing!! Fun!

Brennan (Alicia & KTP)

So This Is Christmas (Nepal Style)

2009-12-25T04:09:00.000-08:00

24^th – 25^th of December

So after signing off yesterday afternoon, we pretty much spent most of the afternoon relaxing back at the hotel. KTP and I practically fell asleep… though I’m still currently claiming I was only resting my eyes!! We eventually dragged ourselves back out of bed and headed to the Northfield Café for dinner. They were holding some sort of Christmas Eve celebration, with a BBQ, live music and some traditional Nepalese dancing. “This was the last place I ever thought I’d spend Christmas!” - Alicia

We originally thought it would be a quiet, early one. We were just going to grab some dinner and go – but it ended up being quite an enjoyable night.

We quickly made friends with Mr. Photographer for the evening – who took a group shot of us, and proceeded to introduce him to us. He took a particular interest in me… giving me his card and telling me he would be awaiting my call at 12PM Christmas Day… unfortunately I was unable to get in contact with him… so our love has prematurely died :( “This was the last place I ever thought I’d spend Christmas!” - Alicia

We also made friends with the ‘big boss’ of the restaurant – Barga – who we’ve pretty much discovered is probably one of the richest men in Nepal. Anyways, he pretty much changed our quiet night into a much louder one by giving us a few rounds of the hot rum punch on the house… and let me tell you – there was more rum than punch in those glasses!! “This was the last place I ever thought I’d spend Christmas!” - Alicia

After being attacked by the Yak, the Yeti & the giant peacock… we finally decided that we had probably had enough rum and headed back to the hotel for a good solid sleep.

Awaking upon Christmas morn we were greeted with nothing particularly exciting… except for SANTA HATS!!! AND PRESENTS!!! AND TEAM T-SHIRTS!!! All in our lovely Christmas stocking!!! “This was the last place I ever thought I’d spend Christmas!” - Alicia

We headed back to the Northfield Café for breakfast, as we promised our new Barga we would meet up with him then. Another ‘Western’ type breakfast was had with KTP & Fangy having omelets and myself having the Quesadilla. All were quite yummy.

After meeting up with Barga, he then proceeded to show off his silver jewelery stock room – which was pretty amazing. There were a heap of different gems and minerals and some fantastic pieces of jeweler… unfortunately we are all pretty sure they are out of our bargain price range.

After breakfast, everyone got in touch with various relatives & significant other via phone, Skype or Google chat to wish everyone back home a Merry Christmas. After that we then decided we wanted to head into Kathmandu Valley to see Durbar Square and also the money temple. We had originally planned to grab a taxi to drive us for the whole day but after pursuing our oracle (aka the Lonely Planet Guide) we decided upon taking the walking tour from Thamel to the square. “This was the last place I ever thought I’d spend Christmas!” - Alicia

We made our way to Thamel Tole – close to where both KTP & I got conned yesterday – and then headed south. Our first major stop was Kathesimbhu Stupa. This is apparently the most popular Tibetan pilgrimage site in the Old Town and it’s not hard to realize why. They beautifully white Stupa is surrounded by brightly coloured Tibetan prayer flags, tucked away behind and tiny alley, it a truly wondrous site. The stupa is apparently a small copy of the great Swayambhunath (or ‘Monkey Temple’) complex dating from around 1650!

After spending some time trying to find the stone lion guarding to passageway to the Nag Bahal (hidden behind pashmina shawls) and the stone relief of Shiva (hidden behind a truck) we then came out into square with the Sikha Narayan Temple. NE of this square there is a small statue of Buddha framed by blue & white tiles that apparently dates from the 5^th or 6^th century. To our amazement it just sits there nondescriptly beneath a ‘Raj Dental Clinic Sign’. Further down in the SE corner of the square also lies a gigantic lump of wood, into which thousands of coins have been nailed into. These coins are offerings to the toothache god, which makes the score of Dental clinics in the surrounding streets, make much more sense!! “This was the last place I ever thought I’d spend Christmas!” - Alicia

From there we headed to Asan Tole – a bustling market place jammed with buyers, sellers and lots of fresh produce. There is also another temple – this time the Annapurna Temple which is apparently dedicated to the goddess of abundance. We then came across the Seto (White) Machhendranath Temple, which is apparently one of the most important temples in Kathmandu – however at this time it seemed to be currently being used as a fabric store!

We then took a quiet alleyway looking for the Itum Bahal – one of the oldest and largest bahals in the city. Apparently we had to find the sign saying ‘Jenisha Beauty Parlor’ – so we were searching for this giant sign and ended reaching the end of the alley without hide nor hair of this bahal. Eventually, after backtracking a few hundred meters, I found the TINY sign stuck on top a tiny entryway leading out to the bahal. The highlight of this was seeing the impossibly skinny (not even double bed width) building surround the courtyard. (I’m not sure I’d like to live in one of those!) “This was the last place I ever thought I’d spend Christmas!” - Alicia

The last major sight we saw on the tour with the Yatkha Bahal – though not without some help from some American tourists also attempting the same walking tour. After then battling the ever increasing traffic, we finally made our way to Durbar square!!

Unfortunately for us, access to Durbar square was closed as there we demonstrations happening at the time… not that this stopped various ‘guides’ offering their services, much to our increasing annoyance as they didn’t seem to know how to take NO as an answer.

We made our way across to a small marketplace just across the road – where KTP bought a few trinkets for what turned out to be relatively expensive prices (not that she knew it at the time!). After that we headed to the Snowman Café for a very light lunch of cake and tea. Alicia tried the coconut cake, while KTP & I had some of the chocolate cake this place is apparently famous for. I can say though that the chocolate cake was pretty delicious – nice and surprisingly moist! KTP thought it was good… but a lil bit different. “This was the last place I ever thought I’d spend Christmas!” - Alicia

After lunch, we then hired a taxi to take us to Swayambhunath, more commonly known as the ‘Monkey Temple’. We were driven to the top of the temple and spent about an hour making our way around the place. It was quite beautiful – even if the main stupa was currently under construction! – and, as could be determined by the name, there were lots of cheeky monkeys running all over the place. From the top there were amazing views of the Kathmandu Valley and we spent quite a bit of time taking photos of the panoramic views.

Tonight we’re heading out for some traditional Nepalese cuisine at one of the many other restaurants owned by our new friend Barga. While it hasn’t been the most Christmasy of days – we’ve all had a good time so far!! (“This was the last place I ever thought I’d spend Christmas!” – Alicia)

Our Everest Base Camp tour officially starts tomorrow – which is kind of exciting, if nerve wrecking (KTP & I were feeling the effects of walking up the stairs @ Swayambhunath!!) – though we don’t officially ‘leave’ till the 27^th!! Wish us luck!

Brennan (KTP & Fangy)

***

Things we learnt so far:

· Head down & ignore all strangers attempting to talk to you (unless they are rich restaurant owners)

· Shop in the morning – apparently its cheaper

· Wearing a Santa hat will make people stare at you… and also wish you a Merry Christmas

· Big temple sites are normally signified by lots of rubbish

When you hearing honking GET OUT OF THE WAY… or you will be run over.

Shopping Extravaganza

2009-12-24T03:36:00.000-08:00

24^th of December

After a relatively restful night sleep on our lovely concrete like beds (only disturbed by our over flowing toilet dripping, the lights and TV being turned back on after a brown out & my lovely mobile phone alarm) we headed back out into the organized chaos of the street of Thamel for some tasty breakfast. We headed out into a food court opposite the hotel and all got the Country Breakfast – bacon, eggs, a garlic & potato frittata & toast (complete with jam and frozen butter).

After breaky we then headed in search for some of our last pieces of missing equipment for the trek. Top on the list of things to buy was a down jacket to help us combat this freezing cold. The first place we stopped off at was in some random alley where we all had a chance to try on one of the jacket and ensure it would fit underneath our gortex jacket for the trek. It made us all look very Michelin man like!! High-light of this stop though, would have to be KTP getting shatted on by one of the birds lounging on window still… needless to say she wasn’t very happy!! (I tired telling her it was good luck… but she didn’t seem to want to hear about it!!)

We managed to get everything we need for a relatively decent price. Alicia was our main bargainer and she was pretty good at putting on the hard sell while KTP and I giggled in the corner. Between the three of us we got 2x -20 sleeping bags, 3x down jackets, 2x gortex gloves, 3x beanies, a daypack, a litre water bottle, as well as a stack of postcards and other nick knacks.

After that we headed to Tibetan for lunch… where we purchased WAY TOO MUCH FOOD!! We got some steamed momos, cheese balls, momo in soup, Tibetan bread in honey, as well as two sort of noodle soup dishes… (yeah we’re pretty sure we’ll be the first tourists to come back from Nepal larger than when we got here :P) The food was awesome again… though it took a while for it all the come out… which really was probably a good thing! We also tried some Tibetan tea… which was an interesting experience. It’s made from milk, butter and salt & pretty much tastes like liquid butter with salt in it. Not something I think I would drink again… unless I was going to die of thirst (& even then KTP thinks urine may be the better option!)

We then headed back into the street of Thamel for the afternoon – wandering around with no real goal in mind and just exploring around. We got ourselves completely lost for a little bit but managed to find our way back to the hotel eventually!! Part way through both KTP and I got approached by some random Hindu guy in yellow who put flowers in our hair and gave us both a red dot on our forehead for good luck… before asking for a “donation”. While I sneakily pulled out a 10 rupee note out of my wallet, KTP pulled out a handful of 50s and of course he then requested a 200 rupee donation… so pretty much we kinda got conned… BUT at least we got a RED DOT out of it. (Alicia thinks we are idiots!)

Further along, we then got solicited by some random Nepalese “guide” who wanted to show us the temples around Kathmandu… he also wanted to show KTP a good time offering his hand in marriage!! He even offered to purchase her ‘beautiful Nepalese wedding sari’. For some reason, she declined! (We told her to hold out for more chickens as her dowry first!)

(Alicia: THESE IDIOTS JUST DON’T KNOW WHEN TO NOT TALK TO THESE PEOPLE!!)

Tonight we have something (relatively) special planned for Christmas Eve. There seems to be some sort of shin-ding on down the road with music, a BBQ and presents… so we’ll probably head down there. Our room is currently ‘decorated’ with a beautiful Christmas stocking… all ready for Santa’s arrival!! We are sure he will be able to find us where we are!! : )

On behalf of the three of us we wish anyone reading this a very Merry Christmas!! We’ll hopefully get a chance to update at least one more time before we start trekking up the mountain!!

Brennan (Alicia & KTP)

Welcome to Nepal

2009-12-24T03:35:00.000-08:00

22^nd – 23^rd of December

So good news people – we finally made it to NEPAL!!

The trip over started well with KTP and Fangy being late before we had even left Sydney. We were meant to meet at about 4PM but as a result of traffic and the like I wasn’t joined by the other two till close to 4:30. KTP & I had already wisely checked-in online but of course Alicia had ignored KTP’s reminder message, so while KTP & I headed to the front of a very short baggage drop line, Alicia positioned herself at the very end of the check-in line. Lucky for her, the guy who was checking-in our luggage asked about the other person travelling with us so Alicia managed to by-pass the long queue. Alicia will tell you this demonstrates how intelligent/efficient she is… but I’ll leave that one for you to decide.

After saying goodbye to the various loved ones that had dropped us off, we headed through to customs and eventually boarded our flight. Alicia somehow managed to injure herself doing this by walking full steam ahead straight into the seat positioned directly in front of her… good work Fangy! Flight over was relatively unremarkable. We all watched a couple of movies and then tried to get some sleep… to varying degrees of success: Alicia slept like a log for the majority of flight, I managed to kip for a few hours while KTP cursed us all with her lack of sleep.

Upon arriving to Changi airport we decided to make use of the free internet available to us before discovering that KTP had left her small cache of drugs on the plane. We then had to locate the nearest pharmacist, which actually wasn’t too difficult in the end. Once that was done we then explored parts of the airport – making use of the free x-box games and seeking out the Transit Hotel… unfortunately the Transit Hotel was slightly pricey so we headed to our gate to find a quiet piece of floor to have a quick nap. Using our handy blankets (unknowingly provided by Singapore Airlines) we ended up settling down behind a travelator and tried to catch a few Zzzz’s – Alicia was again the best sleeper out of the three of us, but we all managed to get at least a few hours rest.

Upon waking up, (after managing to scare the be-jesus out of some poor people sitting outside our gate by our sudden appearance) we went & grabbed ourselves some toasted sandwiches for breakfast and did a lil window shopping before discovering that our flight had been “re-timed” (aka delayed) by 2 hours. After much groaning we went and had a look around a few other terminals before finally boarding our flight at around about 11:00AM.

The flight to Kathmandu was long and kinda boring… and I think we started going a lil stir-crazy by the end of it… culminating in Thumb Wars; Scissors, Paper, Rock; & finally Alphabetical Market where we were all going off to get….

“Artichoke, Beeswax, Carrot, Dog, Echidna, Frog, Gargoyle, Hairy Monkey, Igloo, Jam, Kite, Lumber, Matches, Nails, Orange , Porcupine, Quince Paste, Rabbit, String, Turtle, Umbrellas, Venison, Weed (*Alicia’s Suggestion), Xylophone, Yacht & Zucchini”

Though to be honest I’m glad we didn’t as there would definitely be no room in my bag for all of this! J

As we got closer to Kathmandu we did have great views of the Himalayas (unfortunately on the other side of the plane… so we did a lot of craning of necks to attempt to get a look.) After touching down, we headed through immigration and collected our bags and took our first few steps out of the airport… to... absolute chaos.

Of course, being white, western tourists we were bombarded with about 50 million people offering to take us to a million places for “cheap”. Eventually we settled on following the guy that the policeman said was okay (not that it stopped other various people trying to solicit us!) to a random looking car… once there someone with a clipboard from the Kathmandu Guest House (our hotel) double checked we had a booking and gave us the nod to get into this random car (which stalled straight away) to take us to our hotel.

The drive to our hotel was an experience in itself – like most developing Asian countries the best way to describe the road is organized chaos. It’s literally insane – I really don’t know how anyone gets anywhere in anytime and I’m not really sure how there aren’t more accidents or pedestrians run-over… but despite its craziness it seems to work.

Our hotel is situated in Thamel, which is kinda like the tourist mecca of Kathmandu. Our hotel, the Kathmandu Guest House, is pretty much smack bang in the middle of all the action. Our room is pretty simple and the bathroom a bit of a nightmare but it more than satisfies our requirements.

After dumping all our stuff, we resisted the urge to just SLEEEEPPP and headed out into the streets of Thamel on the search for some food. We discovered very quickly that is was JUST a little bit chiller than we expected and had to layer on a few more jumpers and shirts… this does have us slightly worried for the days ahead!!

We had dinner at a place called the Thalkali (?I may have to check the spelling on this) Kitchen which was about a 5-7 min walk away from KGH and provided traditional Nepali food. We all ordered some steamed momos (sort of dumpling type thing), Cheese Pakodas (kinda like fried holumi!) and some sort of set Thali dishes (which we really have no idea what was in them). Everything was fantastically tasty, the momos and the pakodas being the highlights.

After dinner we had a lil wander around the streets but nothing major. We were all pretty bushed so headed back to the hotel for some much need sleep!

Part-Way There....

2009-12-22T08:14:00.000-08:00

So we've just arrived in Changi Airport... tired and a lil grumpy but still crazily excited! Despite the fact that all we had to do was sit down for 8 hours, one of us has STILL managed to injure themselves... walking straight into one of the seats.... I'll give you three guess who it is and the first two don't count *(aka ALICIA)*. She has a beautiful lump on her knee already but besides from that is OK

We have approx 8 - 9 hours to kill before our next flight to KATHMANDU... after abusing our free internet privledges I think we'll go and search some where to rest our weary heads for a couple of hours.

That's it for now. Next time we blog we will be in NEPAL!! :D

Brennan

OMG!!!!!!!!! Only 3 days to go!

2009-12-19T01:47:00.000-08:00

So as the title may suggest, we only have 3 days left before we start our big adventure.

I really fear that i have not dont enough prep in the fitness department (though i did do the bay run the other morning in 80% humidity- its killed me!).

So the last few weeks have been mega busy with the school year finishing up, and christmas parties all round (which of course means over eating and drinking).

Not to mention that alicia screwed her ankle just 10 days before departure (fingers crossed in that department).

we can only hope that none of us suffers too much from altitude sickness, and all the horror stories people are telling us exaggerations.

But if something of an adverse nature does occur, Rachel has called dibs on my furniture!! but my car is up for grabs, also my great collection of Maths textbooks, which i'm sure must be worth something!!!

au revoir

21 days to go....

2009-11-30T13:06:00.000-08:00

The second of December.

Man it's crazy how time flies - I can't believe we are leaving for Nepal in 22 DAYS!!! It doesn't seem that long ago we actually decided to do this crazy adventure and now we're on the cusp of leaving... I'm both incredibly excited and absolutely terrified!!

Excited because.. well... NEPAL!!

Terrified because I have NO IDEA what to expect... and the unknown she is a scary place my friend.

Training has been a bit sporadic over the past few weeks as well. My gym pass ran out in mid-Nov, however I kinda can't afford to get a new one. I've been going for morning jogs for about 30 min or so, I think I do between 4- 5 km each morning... so it's definitely better than nothing.

I've also done a little bit of stair climbing recently, which has been fun (not). At least twice a week you can find me in the emergency staircase at MMB going up and down at least ten times. For the record there are 133 stairs from the bottom to the top, meaning I do 1330 stairs (upward) and 2660 in total... FUN!...

The major problem I've been having is that both of these activities are very heavy on the legs and I've really been starting to feel it. The bottom of my calves hav felt all knotted up and I even started to get cramps!! So as a result I took last week off stairclimbing and hope to get back into it sometime this week... sometime...

Last Saturday Lessh, KTP & myself did some major shopping for Nepal supplies. Unfortunately for me I had the most to buy therefore did the most damage to my credit card :( Hoewever, on the upside I'm not the new owner of thermals, hiking pants, a windproof vest, a hiking pack, a day pack and a brand spanking new gortex jacket. I also need to be thankful for the Kathmandu salem in which pretty much everything I bought was half price, otherwise.... I'd really REALLY be broke.

Next Sat, we have another bushwalk planned... still not sure what we are doing exactly - possibly the hills of Eastwood (oh the wilds!), somewhere beachy (for a cool dip afterward) or something completely different... it's up to KTP really!

Sydney to the Gong - Done and Dusted

2009-11-01T20:43:00.000-08:00

Ok so on Sunday November 1, 2009 on a not so cold morning at 5am, I crawled out of bed and made the journey into Sydney to Park to begin the wonderful ride from Sydney to Woolongong!

The conditions were perfect! Not a cloud in the sky, 10000 keen bike riders ready to tackle the treaturous journey, working bike, working rider and mother nature at her best. Kate (fellow biking enthusist) who has participated in many of our physical goals/challengers for the year was my fellow companion for this adventure to the Gong. We set off around 7:30am and I was pleasantly surprised at how beautiful this ride was, as it took us through the city, national park and the urban areas of Woolongong. We had hills which we fought our way to the top of and we had hills that we flew down at speeds faster than I wanted to reach....I know such a whimp I am. There were a few casulaties along the way however the ambos, volunteers and police where out in their numbers!

I can now officially say that I have a new love of my life, which is my beautiful road bike (still yet to be gendered and named). My theme song for this ride was Queens - Bicycle Race which I managed to whistle during my ride. Did i get weird looks.....I sure did ;-)......did I care......not at all! Maybe I should name my bike Queeny???

Anyway off on a tangent now, back on track! We arrived at Woolongong around 1:30pm and crossed the finish line with the sign still up and many people still around.

It was a beautiful ride and it is definitely something that bike enthusiasts should consider doing. So at the end of our 4 physical challenge (re-cap: Mother's Day Classic, City to Surf, Spring Cycle and Sydney to Woolongong) we are ready to tackle the moutain known as Everest (we think). We have a hike that KT has organised, to where me and Brennan don't know, for how long me and Brennan don't know, when we will be back me and Brennan don't know. So we will keep you posted on where the hell we end up at the end of Sat!

Sydney to the Gong

2009-10-26T21:38:00.000-07:00

Ok so here we go, last challenege of year 2009!

So Team Nepal has piked out on the Sydney to Woolongong ride this Sunday! So gutted I am!! However I will persist and continue with our goals. The ride this Sunday is 90kms in total from start to finish, a pretty full on ride.

So here's a copy of the map of the ride, not the greatest pic but you get the idea!
Will fill everyone in on the gruelling task ahead. I also bought a bike with the hope and inspiration that my love for cycling will continue into the years to come. Will have to post a pic of this beautiful piece of machine at a later stage!!!

SPRING CYCLE

2009-10-04T08:36:00.000-07:00

omg!!!!

so it turns out that cycling 40kms is actually hard work- who would have thought?

Didn't help that we were cycling into the wind the whole time; a wind that got so strong we nearly got blown off our bikes!

So i really should have prep-ed a little better for this...

Alicia was a gun, and brennan, despite her claims for disliking the activity was never far behind her.

Me (ktp) on the other hand was the slow one. At one point was 30mins behind them.

My legs kept cramping up, and there just seemed to me hills followed by more hills.

By the time we made it to our first lunch stop at rhodes, i was ready to quit. But after a non satisfying lunch of salad roll and dry choc cake (just missed out on the sausage sizzle), they convinced me to keep going.

So after like 5hrs of cycling we finally made it to the finish line, but they had just deflated it :(

Then for second lunch and massage!!! and ice cream! and home! and bath! and bed!!

City2Surf - A PhotoJournal

2009-09-29T01:10:00.000-07:00

Much time has passed since our City2Surf run... and I haven't been bothered to blog about it... so now I've kinda forgotten what happen... so instead of writing about it I've decided I'd rather just post up the photos I took on the day. This was my City2Surf journey....

At the start ready & raring to go; People disposing of their jumpers in trees

Milling around the start; A sea of people

Start of the run down William St; Free entertainment

Water looked very nice @ this point; Some excavation gear

View along Heartbreak Hill, Halfway

View from the other side of the finish line

The three of us (plus one interloper) with our medals

Glad we weren't in THAT car!

We Did The City2Surf & All We Got Were These Flimsy Medals

2009-08-09T16:14:00.000-07:00

We Survived....

More later...

SB

Bush Walking, Fitness Assesments & the CITY2SURF

2009-08-04T21:31:00.000-07:00

First off – apologies... I’ve been meaning to post this for awhile however I’ve been a lil pre-occupied with other things (aka lazy) and haven’t had a chance!
So while KTP was off partying it up in INDONESIA...

KTP partying it up

Alicia and I were left back in beautiful Sydney to attempt our first bush walk in our new boots. For some reason Alicia was not particularly enamoured with my bushwalking outfit (I have no idea why) and after being adequately supplied with water, minties and snakes by our overly concerned and protective friends (who apparently have no faith in our navigational abilities) we headed out from the house we were staying in.

Recent photo... just in case we went missing and also showing off my AWESOME bushwalking outfit.

Luckily for us, Echo point was JUST across the road and we set out in the direction of Scenic world. We managed to reach the first lookout with no real problems and I took a few quick snaps... however we really had no idea where we were meant to go to from here!! We followed the only path we could see and it took us up some stairs into a nice and quiet SUBURAN STREET!... Alicia decided it would be best if we followed the road and we ended up finding an entrance to the Prince Henry Cliff Walk near a cable car.

At the first lookout... She doesn’t know it yet, but Alicia is going to regret wearing those jeans (Shorts ftw!)

We headed down to the Katoomba Cascades – mainly cause I wanted pictures of waterfalls! Here we tested out the waterproofing of our boots – Alicia ran hers under the waterfall, while I trudged around in foot deep water. Good news is both our feet stayed dry! Yay for waterproofness.

The Cacascades, Both myself and Alicia testing out our boots

We then headed past ‘Witches Head’ and down the Furber Steps down to the bottom of the valley. Took a few photos of the Katoomba Falls which were actually running this time!! (The last time I was here there was a drought and we missed the falls... as there was no water falling down!) At the bottom of the steps we decided not to head over to Scenic world and instead started heading back toward Echo Point via the Federal Pass.

Witches Head & some of the Furber steps.

From the top of the valley... to halfway there!

At the end of the Federal Pass we took a bit of a breather as we knew what was coming next... Oh yes. All 900 stairs that make up the Giant Stairway. But eventually we made our way up them all – Alicia (who is a MACHINE) motored up them while took a lil (much) longer as I stopped to take photographs (catch my breath) along the way!

Alicia makes a start up the Giant Staircase.... and her much further away

Anyways, we both survived up the staircase It only took us about 20-25 min to make our way up all of them (well me anyways... Alicia probably did it in like 15!). I think our journey was ~5 – 6 km which I think is a pretty good start for a first time! We’ll have to start planning a few longer journeys for future weekends!

Alicia and I sweaty from the climb....

Alicia relaxes after a hard days work

Anyways... on to OTHER NEWS...

I've continued on my gym program. Last week I had a Fitness Assesment/Program done to a) see how I was going and b) input a lil direction into my workout. The result was relatively simple - my cardiovascular fitness is good however I'm a lil overweight.... no surprises there. My program is relatively similar to what I'm doing now... with a lot more Intervals and the like thrown in. I'm also taking of my heart rate and have even ordered a heart rate monitor... which will hopefully come in soon.

As KTP said on Sunday the three of us are doing the CITY2SURF which, to be completely honest, I'm a lil nervous about. My current goal is to try and finish within 2 hours... not entirely sure if I'll be able to do it... but I'm going to try! I've even bought nice new joggers for it (which I've been breaking in over the past two weeks!).

Anyways, I'll post again after the run... assuming I survive!

SB

2009-07-31T19:05:00.000-07:00

So 8 days to go... (till the city to surf)

Its been a shocking few weeks

- was sick the last week of school

- was away for 2 weeks of school holidays- too hot in Indonesia to run

-have only run once this week (okay it was the bay run 7km in 48min, but still not good)

I fear any dreams of running the whole 14km are no more.

SO my aim is to now run at least half of the city to surf, which is still an achievement considering the last fun-run we did (4 km) i only ran 3 km, so i've more than doubled my running capabilities!

So i guess- yay me?

So fingers crossed for next weekend- bring on the sunshine!

If i have a good run, I'm so getting a deep-fried mars bar in bondi!!!!

NEW JOGGERS

2009-07-08T23:45:00.000-07:00

On monday i got all excited.
I just bought a new pair of joggers (rrp $230, i got them for $115- love Paul's Warehouse)
Then monday night- i started getting sick
Tues- couldn't get out of bed
Its now Thurs and feeling so much better, but no where near up to running my 7 km bay run.

This sucks, i was going to christen my shoes at the school sports carnival on tues (which i missed).

So now i dont think i'll be going for a run until i get back from Indonesia, on the 26th on July.

I'm gonna have lost all my fitness by then!!

Since everyone else is doing it...

2009-06-30T17:11:00.000-07:00

Since both KTP and Alicia have managed to post updates in the past few days I thought I better hop on the band-wagon (so to speak) and put my next post up.

I'm pretty sure in my last post I hadn't even purchased my gym pass yet!! However, I did manage to pick one up and have been making very good use of it since then.

At the moment I've been heading into the gym 5 time a week & sort of mixing it up between Cardio day and Weight Days.

Mon, Wed & Fri are Cardio days and consist of my Couch to 5K run (I'm currently on week 6 of 9), a 1km row, 10min bike ride (up the big hill) and then 30min on the cross-trainer doing easy intervals.

Tues & Thurs are Weight days and start with a 15min warm up walk (up a 9% incline) and then 30-45mins of weights (where I'm currently concentrating on upper body/core strength... thou this is mainly for cricket rather than Nepal), before finishing up on the cross-trainer again with sport intervals.

All in all it's going pretty well - I can definitely feel the increase in my fitness especially when I play hockey on Sunday! I now have the ability to run down those pesky wingers and run back when required (rather than lagging behind while trying to regain my breath.)

In other news... we now have plane tickets!! Which is awesomely exciting as you can imagine. We are officially leaving on the 22nd of December and returning a month later on the 23rd of January 2010!

The next step is to probably organise our first lot of accommodation in Kathmandu for the Christmas period, which we'll get around to soon enough.

Also, we've all signed up to do the SMH City 2 Surf in August (you can see it up on our Upcoming Events tab) which is both scary and exciting at the same time. You'll hear all about it once we've completed it in early August.

And as an ADDED BONUS here's some photos of Alicia attempting to Pole Dance... note these are BEFORE the lessons... The only way is up Leesh! :)

New Training for Alicia

2009-06-30T06:25:00.001-07:00

Well just to update you all my hand I think has made a full recovery however left with a slight scar from the past as there is a slight bump on this particular part of the hand.

So I have started a new training program that will hopefully get me trim and toned for not only Nepal but for the remainder of the summer when I return. Its called I want 6 pack abs and is a 16 week challenge, check it out if you want: http://www.iwantsixpackabs.com/abs.html

We started our first session on Monday night June 29! So one down and too many to count to go. Its quick, its fast but boy do you feel it the next day. My arse can vouch for that!

Also me and Michelle are starting pole dancing on Monday July 6, so there is a lot happening in Alicia's life atm. Will let you know how the pole dancing goes, personally I think there will be more abdominal work out from all the laughing I will be doing!

I'm broke!

2009-06-29T23:45:00.000-07:00

So i've gotta say- i love Kathmandu

Their end of financial year sale!

I bought a 35L backpack $150- at 60% off

an awesum polar fleece $200 at 50% off

Also at the easter sale i bought the same shoes as brennan and socks and neck warmer.

This trip is costing more and more, but it'll be worth it!!!

I CAN RUN!!!!!

2009-06-29T23:13:00.001-07:00

So this is my first blog entry.

I went running around the bay yesterday....

I ran 7km in 45min non-stop!!!!

Next target- 10km!!!

It was tough, and I didn't think I was going to make it.

I've got blisters on both feet.

My calves are sore today!!!

That's all for now!

Alicia's Nepal Training Update!!!

2009-05-31T00:46:00.000-07:00

Well as KT and Brennan were "training" in the South Pacific, I have been working out down at the local gym known as Mac Uni Gym. Been working the Rev and Boxacise classes along with an Aqua and Circuit classes during the week, throwing in a few squash and badmington games here and there! Everything has been going on track, getting fit, staying strong and applying our new found fitness at the Mother's Day Classic!

Unfortunately on May 29, 2009 during my Boxacise class I threw a punch that was a little off and received a nasty pain down my right arm. I think I had hurt my hand before this night however to my stupidity I ignored it! Anyway tried to keep boxing through the rest of the class however the pain got too much after one of the guys threw a big power punch to my right hand. The aftermath once removing my glove was a very sore and swollen hand, applied ice, splintered it however in the morning it was a slightly bluish colour and still quite swollen. Time to visit the doctors. To my dismay the prognosis was not good and I had actually broken my hand in my fifth metacarpal in two places, one horizontal and one vertical break. So currently I am in a cast and unfortunately my hand will be out of commission for six to eight weeks. So quite annoyed at the moment with my hand however the little so and so will not hold me back! Currently trying to work out a different work out routine to still work me cardiovascularly and muscularly! Will keep you posted on my poor weak hand!

Alicia and her hand

Status Update

2009-05-13T00:42:00.000-07:00

Wow wee! Time is getting away from us quickly and Nepal is looming on the horizon! All three of us have been busy preparing for our trip... some more than others.

While Alicia has been sweating it out in her spin cycle class, KTP and I headed to the South Pacific for our “training” – which mainly consisted of eating, drinking and lounging around in the sun!! Possibly not the best start to our fitness program!!

Me and KTP working on our fitness in the South Pacific… (not)

However I should state that we did actually go for a job a couple of times... I think I went twice and KTP went 3 times(? I’m sure she’ll correct me if I’m wrong) so it wasn’t ALL eating and drinking and sleeping...

Since we’ve been back though we’ve started to put in some hard(er) yards. Alicia is still carving it up in the gym at the moment, and both KTP and I are currently doing the Couch to 5K program. I think Katie’s currently on about week 4, while I’m plodding along on week 2.

My big goal for the week is to FINALLY purchase my gym pass & I’ve give KTP permission to kick my arse if I haven’t done it my Saturday!

Last week we also participated in the Mother’s Day Classic. This was the first of our group fitness events. We all headed out to Parramatta Park relatively early on Sunday morning to have a go at the 4km ‘fun’ run. Alicia also had a few work colleagues that were participating as part of a Hen’s Party(....)

There was quite a few people doing the 4km run/walk and we had to fight our way through the crowd and the pouring rain before we had any chance of getting in to our stride.

Lots of people ahead of us, and me scheming a way to get around everyone

All of KTP’s work with the Couch to 5K program has obviously done wonders as she kicked both my and Alicia’s arse and raced ahead.

KTP powering ahead and making her way over the finish line.

Alicia and I made our way a lil further behind, though we were both pretty happy with how we fared – finishing around the 30min mark.

Alicia and I making our way to the finish line (with helpful indicators!), me looking a lil spent!

Alicia and I after finishing, and the three of us all done!

Mother's Day Classic Official Results

Name - Overall Rank - Official Time

Katie - 312 - 27min 19sec

Alicia - 388 - 30min 21sec

Sarah - 389 - 30min 33sec

I’ve also made my first Nepal related purchase (in fact I think we all did) buy getting some hiking boots (& socks) from Kathmandu! They had an Easter Sale on and I picked up these snazzy leather boots for ~$160 (down from $320! What a bargain!) This will hopefully give us lots of time to break them in

My New Boots

Anyways, we’ve still got lots to do and plan obviously. I think the next big thing for us is working out flights and deciding what our next group event is!! But that’s all from me (for now!)

Sarah

Nepal Contract Video

2009-05-03T18:06:00.000-07:00

The Start

2009-04-08T17:08:00.000-07:00

04/04/09

It started out innocently enough. The Manly Quarantine Station Ghost Tour.

Alicia is thinking about doing the OxFam Trailerwalker. Anyone interested?

Of course we were.

And from here it started. Talk of all the training we would need to do & how fit we would need to be. We had a few months - no worries.

And then back to Lauren's. Holidays we'd love to take.

"Everest?"

"Oh my goodness, YES! What a great idea!"

"We should do it now! If we're training up for Oxfam. Just keep training afterwards and trek to Everest!!"

By Tuesday the trek had been booked.

8 months to the trip of a lifetime!

Sarah

Oh and P.S. We decided not to do the Oxfam challenge afterall... too expensive.