An Unexpected Opportunity

Huh, well that was easy...

Less than a month ago I was grumbling about how long it takes me to plan trips and how much time I spend faffing about researching and agonising over how much time to take and how much ground I should try to cover and then my father asked me if I wanted to come on a trip with him and I just said yes.

So, yes, in December of this year I'm going on a trip with my father and my brother.

We're going to Nepal to trek from Lukla to the base camp at Everest.

Yes, in December.

Yes, the Himalayas in December.

Yep.

As we're not going up the actual mountain, the trek itself is supposed to be manageable as long as you prepare yourself with some regular and varied exercise a few months in advance.

I already walk for about two hours every day but I'm going to have to start mixing that up a bit, replace some of the walking with stair climbing and biking to get some more cardio going.

The trip is 18 days long and includes acclimatisation days that let you rest and get used to the altitude, though I've been informed by the last few days you'll be shuffling along missing full oxygen saturation.

The reaction of various friends and family to hearing about this trip has been equally split between 'OH MY GOD, THAT'S AMAZING!' and '... What on Earth is wrong with you?'

I can over-think things at time, I can be anxious or a bit of a cynic at others but there's no way, no way, that I could let myself be the person who would one day say 'you know I had a chance to go trekking in Nepal once but I didn't take it'.

Any worries I have about things possibly going wrong are completely outweighed by how amazing the experience could be and how much I want to do this.

Have I mentioned that we'll have Sherpas? And pack yaks?

Yes, you read that correctly. Pack. Yaks.

The company we go through pays its guides and Sherpas well and operates on a 'take nothing but photos, leave nothing but footprints' philosophy and as the time between my decision and the present stretches out I'm getting less nervous and more excited.

Holy crap, I'm going to Nepal!

And to celebrate, I give you this...