A little scene-setting is in order.
It is late September 2012 and I am 44 years old. I think it’s fair to say that over the last couple of years, I have been more acquainted with curry and red wine than exercise and physical hardship. I live in West Sussex with my wife and kids and apart from the odd leisure walk in the surrounding countryside, I have not done much to get my heart rate going, since a 2 or 3 month regular gym stint at the back end of 2010.
Up on the South Downs on a training walk.
My brother, Dan, is 39 and lives in Hong Kong with his family. We meet up 3 or 4 times a year – usually when he’s over in London on business. It was on such a trip that we found ourselves having a few drinks in the City. Before, we got too tipsy, Dan leaned over to me conspiratorially and asked me if I could get 2-3 weeks off in November so that he could take me on a trek to Everest basecamp. He told me not to give him an answer then but to think about it. The evening progressed and it wasn’t until the next day that I remembered the proposition. Being self-employed, I didn’t think getting time away would be too hard. But there was still a lot of thinking to do ….
Over the course of the next few weeks, plans firmed up and I put myself on a training regime of sorts. A decent walk (varying in length from 8 to 18 miles) each weekend and a nod to healthy eating and less beer, formed the basis of this campaign. Not exactly commando training, but the best I could do whilst also juggling my family and my business.
I think it’s fair to say that as the departure date approached, I had no idea what to expect.
This blog is largely written using extracts from a journal that I wrote whilst I was away, so hopefully it does reflect my feelings at the time. I wanted to avoid the potential for the passing of time to mellow my memories.
Read on … enjoy … and hopefully, you might even find a little bit of inspiration in there somewhere!
Nigel Ridpath's Everest Basecamp Trip 2012 