Himalayas, here we come! I blame Sarah and Peny!

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Well a new adventure begins, trekking 41 miles through The Himalayas in November. I've always wanted to visit India and The Himalayas happens to be one of the regions I want to see. I'm also very interested and very affected with Buddhism and in particular with the Dalai Lama. So when Sarah (a friend that I have known since school) phoned me and asked if I would be at all interested in a trip to the Himalayas with a visit to Dharamsala (the home of The Dslai Lama and the exiled Tibetan Government) to raise money for Penny Brohn Cancer Centre in Ham Green, I nearly ripped her arm off!



We have signed up to the challenge and are very excited about it. We will be trekking for 5 days through The Himalayas, climbing to a height of 3500 feet, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed I don't suffer with altitude sickness. We will be walking through areas of extreme beauty as well as visiting villages and nomad hill tribes. we'll be walking for about 7 hours a day and then camping in overnight, which apparently will be cold so we need good sleeping bags.



The information told us that there would be toilets at the camps, but they would be holes in the ground and if we needed toilet stops during the days we would have to go in the wild. They advised that we took toilet paper with us and buried anything we left behind, so nappy sacks would also be helpful to take away any rubbish. Well, Sarah (bless her) thought that if you wanted to go to the toilet en route then you had to do it in the nappy sack!!! Think I've got my work cut out there!



We've started our training and walk every Monday together, Nordic Walking on a Tuesday and walk with a group once a month. We have to build on this obviously to get to the point where we can walk every day, but we are taking it steady at moment. I walk 3 miles every day with my dog and Sarah has other commitments, but we will get to a point where we have it planned better. Any encouragement and support will be very gratefully received.



We have some fund raising events coming up in the future which we hope will be well supported. There will be a Shindig at Clarence House hopefully in May when Flash Harry will perform and also a Ladies Night at The Rudgleigh, date to be confirmed. We both need to raise as much money as possible for Penny Brohn, which is a fabulous place for anyone who has been diagnosed with cancer, undergoing treatment or has had cancer in the past.



I will be updating this blog over the forthcoming weeks and months with our training progress and news of planned events. Please contact me if you think you can help or if you want to make a donation. Many thanks

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