You may have noticed that I disappeared for a while recently, to go on holiday. I feel now that I should probably tell you all about it, as it was quite a holiday!
Our story starts way back in June 2009. A teaser had just been released in school, advertising a trip to Nepal, and Everest Base Camp, for the Summer of 2010, the next year. I should explain that it’s been a dream of mine to visit Everest, the highest mountain in the world, and see it for myself, for many years. As a young boy, I would sometimes see television programmes or books about it, and want to go to Base Camp. So, I jumped reluctantly at this new opportunity, but was concerned that I wouldn’t be able to afford it. My form tutor, Ms Rudge, assured me that she thought that money would be no problem, and so I went to the presentation a week or so later to find out what it was about. That convinced me to go, and Mum agreed to let me, as there was a plan in place to fundraise as much as possible. So, the £400 deposit was paid in July, and I was in.
A new start came in September, as I moved up to Sixth Form. Our first fundraising meetings were called, and we began in mid-October with a Sponsored Hike, which raised a fair bit. We also did bag packing, car washing and all sorts in the run up to the trip. In the mean time, we had lots to sort out, as I didn’t have a passport. May 2010 came quickly, signifying exams, and the date when the money was due. Luckily, Mum and I managed to scrape together the amount, somehow, and paid it off. Then it was just the wait, a long wait, with all the pressure of exams, for the end of the school year, and the holiday itself.
Because of the length of time that we had been booked on the trip, being excited about it was hard, and I don’t think it was until a few days before we left that it all suddenly hit me.
And so, it came closer and closer, until we got to the 18th July 2010. The leaving date. It’d been a date etched into our minds for over a year, and it was suddenly here. We were to leave the school at 1pm, by minibus. So, that left me the morning to finalise getting ready and to say a final and meaningful fairwell to everybody I was leaving behind. And so it began, with a three hour or so ride to Heathrow’s Terminal 4. Once there, we waited a short while for check-in to open for our flight, before doing so, waving goodbye to our baggage, which we wouldn’t see until Kathmandu the next day. I got randomly checked at Customs, which didn’t help me much, I was already confused and slightly nervous because I had never done it before without my parents guiding me. We then spent a few hours in the vast departure lounge, buying things like sweets, before regathering to board our plane.
9W121 was on a 777, which is quite big. I was sat in the middle of the plane, between Caitlin and Jack. We were impressed by the entertainment system, which had the normal movies and television programmes, as well as games, flight info (which I spent most of the flight looking at!), and inter-seat messaging and telephone! I went to the back doors to take photos, even getting a good one of the sun rise at about 1am BST, somewhere over Russia/Kazakhstan.
About 7 and a half hours later, we arrived in New Delhi, at Terminal 2 of Indira Gandhi airport. Security there was a bit intimidating for me, they hardly spoke English and had guns. Fun. We passed through fine though, and sat in the plain and not very exciting departures lounge. This is where we met Andy, our leader from Far Frontiers. He was a pretty cool chap.
We then got on a bus, which took us to the hard-stand and our waiting 737-800, 9W262, which would get us to Kathmandu. Next to our aircraft was a very official looking business jet belonging to the US Government. We still don’t know why it was there! On the hour and a half flight, there was enough time for a beer and another meal, which was surprising to me.
After the bumpy flight, we descended into Kathmandu Valley, landing at Tribhuvan Airport just after 2pm. We collected our bags, and was greeted with a flower garland, and people trying to carry our bags for money. It was complete madness. We climbed into our private bus, and set off through the monsoon rains to our hotel in Thamel, the main tourist hotspot of Kathmandu.
Kathmandu is a huge city, and the streets are chaos, utter chaos! The traffic laws are there, but they aren’t really obeyed, and so it’s pretty much a free for all. Oh, and there aren’t seatbelts on the bus! Horns also go off everywhere, Will even had the theory that the horns wore out faster than the brakes did. After a frankly eye-opening ride, we eventually arrived in Thamel, and our hotel, the Hotel Marshyangdi.
The hotel was rather fancy, and we were due to stay there for 2 nights, before heading off to the Everest Base Camp trek. We were allowed to explore Thamel without adult supervision, and so went out to explore and find something to eat. It was a pretty scary place to walk around for the first time by yourself, I didn’t like the fact that we were lost either, but luckily, we found our way back to the hotel safe.
The next day, our first full day in Nepal, was spent mountain biking. After a long bus ride up a winding narrow road, we got to the top of a hill, where there was a big observation tower made from scaffolding. Health and Safety doesn’t really exist there, and so we were climbing this almost vertical ladder about 20ft off the ground, with only a handrail or two! We then went down and set off on our bikes down the hill.
The hill was actually quite steep, and so acceleration and speed were phenomenal! It reminded me of Bruno Senna’s video of him going down the hill at Goodwood in the MP4/8, it was that fast! Adam managed to fall off the edge of a small hill, taking a tent with him. Luckily, it wasn’t a massive cliff and he escaped with a few bumps and bruises. And so, an hour or so’s biking later, we arrived back at the bottom of the hill, with a stop for lunch half way down. We stood because a leech came out of the ground after Andy! Lunch contained a large cheese sandwich and a big bar of Dairy Milk, made in India with sugar cane instead of beet. It was pretty melted! I think I only had to pedal on three separate occasions, and even then, it was hardly anything. We then headed back to the hotel, then out for the afternoon in the famous Durbar Square, full of people pestering us Westerners with offers of tours and strange curios, all for money, of course. After which, we got lost getting back to Thamel, so got rickshaws back to the hotel, a bumpy ride indeed!
For the next couple of days, we woke early and rushed to Tribhuvan airport only to hear that Lukla, the airport at the start of the Everest Base Camp trek, was closed due to bad weather, something that had been going on for 6 days in total, which was incredibly uncommon. I was incredibly upset at the threat of coming all that way and not getting to the one place that mattered to me most. Andy let us have a third attempt at trying, before we would have to give up and go for the Annapurna circuit instead. So, that Friday morning, we woke early as usual, and were told that Lukla was closed. But, we were to wait in our rooms for further instructions, and we’d be called as soon as it was open. 45 minutes or so later, we were on the bus to the airport, cheering! Within the hour of being called from our rooms, we were boarding the little Dornier Do-228, ready to go!
I got the front seat behind the pilots, as I love aviation and flying, and Dave recommended I sit there. I got to see into the cockpit and watch the Captain do all the flying by hand, which was cool, as well as enjoy the scenery as the hills got taller and taller. Lukla is famous for it’s tiny runway, and the fact it’s on the edge of a hill! Landing, you’re facing the hill, taking off, you’re running down towards the 200m drop! It was impressive, and we sat there for an hour, drinking tea, and watching the aircraft come in and out.
And so, we set off on our long trek to Everest. I struggled with altitude on the first day, and ended up sleeping all evening in Monjo, trying to shake off a migraine. The second day was tough on the legs, climbing to Namche Bazar, a big market town on the trek. It was a lovely place, and very colourful too. It was a shame that we missed the market day, which we would have arrived on if we were on schedule.
We then had a rest and acclimatisation day in Namche, which involved a small climb up the hill behind the town and coming down around it, a short walk of only a few kilometres. Before that though, we went to the Sagarmatha National Park visitor centre, where we had a well timed cloud move away, giving us our first ever view of Everest. That was a pretty special moment. Anyway, we continued, going up the hill, and finding the dirt runway of the airfield there. It’s too high to fly into directly from Kathmandu, because it’s over 3000m above sea level, which poses a risk of altitude sickness to those not acclimatised. We then took a look in a small monastery on the way down, before being given the whole day to relax, as we had finished 3 or so hours out walking by 10:30 am! We looked around the town, buying a few souvenirs before heading back to our lodge.
The next day, we made our way to Tengboche, home of the famous monastery. It was a massive climb after a descent to the river at lunch. I was suffering with illness that day, and so struggled up the zig-zagging climb. I managed though, and we dropped down the other side of Tengboche to Dingboche. From there onwards, it was more gradual climbing, going up the valley side, before climbing a hill towards the end of the trek to Pheriche, where we had incredibly poor visibility on the final stretch! By this point, we were higher than the tree line, and the place was starting to look like how I imagined the Himalayas, a barren landscape, interrupted by small villages.
We had another rest day in Pheriche, where we had an early morning climb up the hill behind the lodge, called The White Yak. It was a steep walk, followed by a plateaux, then another incredibly steep climb up a rounded edge of a hill, to a set of prayer flags, at almost exactly 4500m above sea level! We took in the incredible views of the mountains around us, Ama Dablam being the closest. We also saw Lhotse (4th highest mountain in the world), Island Peak (a trekking peak, where no climbing is needed, just a good pair of boots, warm clothing and a set of crampons!), Mehra Tse and others. This was really impressive, and exactly the sort of place I came to see, which made me happy. We headed back down to the lodge to enjoy our day relaxing. I caught up on my travel diary, while others went out and enjoyed the rare sunshine. I did also get a chance to eat my Minstrels that I bought in Heathrow Airport.
We had two more days climbing to get to Base Camp. The first day saw us walk alongside the river in the mostly flat valley past Pheriche, before turning up the terminal moraine of the Khumbu Glacier, which was a steep climb. From there, we walked through poor weather to Lobuje, where we warmed up for the night in the lodge, made of plywood, mostly! There was also a pool table at the back, and we spent a few hours playing on it, I won a couple of times, and was actually getting good, potting some cracking shots!
The second day was a long day. We walked up the median moraine of the Khumbu, climbing steeply at one point, but then had to climb across a rocky path, and also a waterfall to reach Gorak Shep. We arrived earlier than expected, so we only had soup as a mid-morning snack, instead of having a full lunch. We then got handed a packed lunch each to take with us.
This was it, the final push to Base Camp. In a couple of hours, we’d be at the famous place, where dreams come true and shattered. Anticipation was rising in me, and powering me along stronger than before. In fact, I was at the front the whole way up that morning/early afternoon! The final part of the trek to Base Camp was a descent down a pile of rocks to the glacier itself, and then scramble across part of it to the boulder marking EBC. We had to be careful that there were no rocks falling on us as we walked, and were asked to keep 5m away from each other, to minimise risk to many of us if a rock were to fall. The scramble across the loose stone on the glacier was a bit tricky, but we made it.
At around 12:20pm Nepali time, I stepped up onto the flat area that was Base Camp, marked by two large boulders covered in prayer flags and the photos of people and their loved ones that had been left behind. It was an emotional moment. I had tears in my eyes because I had done it, I had achieved my dream that I had for so long, and despite the fact that I didn’t think I’d be able to afford it all. I was there, and no matter what, not even the fact that the weather was bad, or the fact there wasn’t much to it, I was overjoyed. I just wished my parents were there too, as they had sacrificed so much to get me there. My thoughts then turned to people back home who knew me. Would they be proud to say they knew someone who’d done this? I hoped so. And so, 25 minutes later, we headed back down to Gorak Shep to recover and sleep.
We got woken early because it had snowed overnight, and a thin layer covered the roof of the lodge! And so, as the clouds around Everest were clearing, we headed off for Kala Patthar, a big hill just by Gorak Shep, to watch the sunrise. It was another steep climb, most decided to only go halfway up the climb to the ridge, but Andy, Dave, Jake and myself continued on to the ridge, where we were greeted of amazing views of all the mountains around us in the early morning sun. And then, a few minutes later, the sun rose right over Everest’s peak, which I managed to get a great photo of with my cheap little camera! That was my favourite sight of the whole trip, and something I will never forget.
We then headed down the trek once more. We were aiming to get from Gorak Shep to Lukla, about 45km in total, in three days. The first day saw us go from Gorak Shep to Pangboche, below Pheriche, stopping at The White Yak for lunch. At Pangboche, we got our first meat in over a week! Yak steak and chips was brilliant!
Day two of descent was from Pangboche to Namche Bazar. We were going slightly slower than expected, fatigue was starting to hit most of us, and so we didn’t go to Monjo like Andy hoped. My knees were also killing me as they didn’t like the steep drop from Tengboche to Phungi Tenga. Namche was a good place to stop though, arriving early afternoon. We then had a chance to sit down and relax properly (or run round the town, dodging the rain, like Jake, Will and I did!) and maybe buy a few nice things. I bought myself a Buff (Google it if you don’t know) before heading back to the lodge.
Day three was down the steep climb to Namche. Luckily, my knees held out this time, and we soldiered on to Phakding for lunch, where we stopped for lunch on the first day, and then to Lukla in torrential rain! Poor Alex was severely ill that day, and had to be carried down, first on a Sherpa’s back, then on a makeshift stretcher. Fortunately, he recovered as we had our last night with the Sherpa team that served us so well. We gave them each a tip for their kind help, and said words of thanks, before signing Sarah’s t-shirt to pin up on the ceiling of the lodge. Dave then presented each of us with our own ‘Everest Base Camp’ badge, to congratulate us on our fantastic success!
We woke early to perfect flying weather, and so rushed through breakfast. The Sherpas gave us each our trekking pass and a traditional Nepali shawl, which was lovely. Then we walked about 20 metres to the airport ‘terminal’, ready to board the first flight out of Lukla! By 9:30 that morning, we were back in the luxury of the Marshyangdi! We relaxed, went out into Thamel a bit, had showers, and had a meal together out in the garden. I had a bottle of Everest that evening, which was nice.
The next day was Caitlin’s birthday, and so we celebrated at breakfast with animal shaped balloons and a small present from the group. We then got on the bus for the long journey to Sarauha, on the edge of the Royal Chitwan National Park. It was a long and slow ride, and we had to stop at one point because the fuel hose split. We had also stopped for a rest at a restaurant by a river called The Blue Lagoon. Luckily, they got hold of another pipe, and the bodge job lasted until the hotel.
The hotel was nice. The rooms were in separate groups of 4, surrounded by a pond. The most important thing about the rooms though was the air conditioning and giant ceiling fan to keep us cool! The food was also good, we got fresh mango at one point! There were also lots of lovely little lizards everywhere.
We ate, I had a nap, and then got rudely awoken to be taken off for a walk through the village. This made me grumpy, but it was still alright. Houses there are still made with reeds and mud walls, and grass roofs. We also saw some camels and a Marsh Mugger crocodile!
The next day was busy! I started off before breakfast, watching a rhino across the river. Then, after breakfast, we set off in dug-out canoes, made from just one piece of wood, obviously. From the canoe, we saw a Gharial crocodile, several White-Throated Kingfishers, a few Pied Kingfishers, and some Egrets. We also saw a wild elephant walking along the river bank. We then got off the canoe and went walking through the forest. We found a massive termite mound, taller than me! Also saw tiger paw prints, but unfortunately, no tiger. We then arrived at the Elephant Breeding Centre. I didn’t like that, because the elephants were chained up, and they were being brutally trained for military purposes.
We then went back to the hotel for lunch and a rest from the hottest part of the day. Then we were picked up from the hotel by elephants and taken off on a safari through a community forest. It was amazing to do, I was excited because I’d never done it before. We saw a deer before coming across a one-horned rhinoceros and its baby, which was incredibly cool. We got within about 10m of it, because we were on elephants. The other tourists in the jeep were at least 40m away! We also crossed a couple of deep rivers, yet another fun experience on an elephant, before heading back the the hotel for our last night in Chitwan.
The next day was spent getting back to Kathmandu on the bus. Andy said that last time he went from Sauraha to Kathmandu by bus, it took him 12 hours! We hoped that it wouldn’t for us. The traffic was smooth, and we made good pace. We stopped at The Blue Lagoon restaurant for lunch, a buffet meal of various curries, rice, noodles and more, paid for by Bhanu, generously. And from then on, it only took us another few hours to get to Kathmandu, and we were back by mid-afternoon.
We spent the time relaxing, and wandering around Thamel for our last time. It was sad for us to think that the trip was coming to a close all of a sudden, and although we were looking forward to home, we knew that we would miss Nepal. I had another bottle of Everest beer to relax with in the hotel room before dinner.
That night, we went out for one final meal together as a team, me being slightly wobbly from the beer. Dave took us to a Thai restaurant in Thamel, where he was paying! It was some lovely food indeed, and of course, another large bottle of Everest (I’m not an alcoholic, honest!)! It was all very lovely, and there were a couple of small speeches from the teachers. We gave Andy his thank you present, signed by us all, which he loved. He then said we were a fantastic group, and showed yet again that our school was top!
We then slowly headed back to the hotel, soaking up the evening atmosphere of Thamel one last time. We stayed up together a while, chatting about the trip, and what we were going to do when we got home.
Our flight was early, so we had breakfast and got to the airport for 7:30 that morning. After a long queue to get in, we checked into our flight, got sent through many security checks before finally getting into Departures, half an hour before boarding. We climbed aboard 9W263, after yet another security check, and headed off to New Delhi once more. It was sad to say goodbye to Nepal though, it held so many memories now.
In New Delhi, we were treated to the new terminal, T3, which had only just opened since we arrived there 19 days ago! It was built for the Commonwealth Games in a few months, however, not much else has been built, like stadiums! We transferred through and spent time in the new Departure lounge. It was a massive improvement on T2, although I wasn’t happy seeing a McDonald’s there. I did, however, pay WHSmith a visit, and bought F1 Racing as a treat, with some of the last of my hard-earned money, which was in USD by this point. Then, we got our call to board the plane for the final time to London!
We settled into our seats on 9W122, and I saw a Gulf Air aircraft with the F1 Bahrain GP branding on it! This pleased me massively. Then we set off. The Captain initially said it’d be an 8 hour flight, longer than our inward flight. However, this turned out not to be the case, and we landed half an hour before the schedule said we were due to land, which was good!
Britain was a shock. We actually breezed through Customs! I just handed the woman my passport, she checked it, was rather friendly and loved hearing about our trip, and then I was off to collect my check-in baggage. And then, we didn’t get searched, just walked straight out of Terminal 4!
It was also here that we said goodbye to Andy, our beloved leader. He was a pretty cool chap, and he helped us through and got it all done. He hugged us all in turn (by three weeks together, you’re pretty friendly with people!) and we said fairwell. Then, we eventually found our mini-bus back home to Suffolk.
The journey was quick, although that could have been because I was asleep most of the time. At 9pm, we stopped at Chelmsford to stretch our legs, and our driver said that we’d be back home by 10:15.
He was right, and so at around 10:15, we pulled into the car park of Sir John Leman High School, where we left our world, and our families, 20 days ago. We stepped off the bus, and collected our bags. We then slowly found our parents, waiting to see us. I said goodbye to everyone and got into Dad’s car and off home. And that ended it. Nepal 2010.
Looking back, it seems unreal. Nobody can surely have a holiday that fantastic, surely? Apparently, I did. Against all odds, I achieved a dream. I could suddenly relate to Jenson Button back in October 2009. I felt like a World Champion myself and I was on top of the world. It’s also given me a few lessons in life, about the world, and more.
But what can I take out of this for all of you? To you, I will say one thing that I have proved, and I strongly believe you should follow, and that is this:
Follow your dreams, no matter what might try and stop you, for when you find them, it’ll be the best moment of your life.
I personally guarantee it. There was a time when I thought I wouldn’t be able to go to Nepal, because of money. I didn’t let it stop me trying though. And when it looked like we couldn’t fly to Lukla, I never gave up hope that we’d get there. It was a difficult trek, but I let none of it drag me down, and the reward was worth every penny, sweat, hard work, and tear.
Lastly, I’d like to thank Mr Dave Cassell and Miss Sarah Woodhouse for arranging the school trip, and the fundraising, everyone who’s donated to the fund for the past year or so, the whole of our Nepal 2010 team for being fantastic people to live with, not to mention great friends, and especially my parents, who sacrificed so much to get me there. I couldn’t have done it without them. Also, thanks to the friends who were moral support. You were there with me on that mountain.
