Blogs from Clevedon, Somerset, England, United Kingdom, Europe - page 2

And so I breathe under a leaden sky again... Long flights home through the loosely organised mayhem that is Kathmandu airport, Delhi airport, and finally dear old Heathrow. Both mentally and physically exhausted by the time I arrived at Heathrow so very grateful to dear friends for collection and delivery to mighty fine dinner (it's amazing how good real food tastes after three weeks of bland carbs) and bubbles - Rob, Annie - you are sanity-savers :) I leave behind a Nepal in a confused mess. It feels like the whole country is slipping out of its own control. I really hope the near future is not as grim as I fear it might be for Nepal and the Himalaya. I feel privileged to have been there, to have walked amongst the greatest mountains in the ... read more

The day dawned cold. The cloud once again hanging around 1800ft but much more active than yesterday. The wind temperature was rather low. The legs felt tight but rested. Drive up to Ogwen Cottage and park the car. Slide the boots on and the feet complain a little but I'm on the trail by 9. The wind picks up steadily as I start the long trek up to the ridge route to Y Garn. By half way up, I'm arming myself with waterproofs and windproofs from head to toe before heading into the cloud. Steady pace up through the cold and swirling murk. Visibility down to no more than twenty metres but I'm confident of navigation here. Already decided it won't be worth the lengthy march along the tops as they're all in cloud so I'm ... read more

Less than two weeks to go. Sore knees again but not unusually so. This is supposed to be a weekend off / social. Despite that, I managed a few miles in the open air today but progress was rather slow. The week's endeavours are humble though: * Monday night - football - good game, good goal, good win, bad right ankle made a wee bit worse than it was on return from Glasgwm * Tuesday was a slave to exhaustion and hoping to allow ankle to recover a bit * Wednesday out running again and a thousand steps on return - ankle just about ok * Thursday rest - ankle crunchy * Friday - a welcome social escape to some kind of reality in the Cotswolds And so it's Saturday. Somehow, I need to work even ... read more

Three weeks to go. This weekend is a training weekend and it looks like the weather is going to be cold and clear which sounds near perfect so I'm off to the southern most hills in Snowdonia for a hike up Cadair Idris (and some of the surrounding summits) tomorrow and Glasgwm and (some of) the Aran Ridge on Sunday before heading back in time for a hot bath and some sleep before Monday morning happens again. If the weather truly does behave as predicted (-4 overnight tonight) then there may even be some ice out and about tomorrow (sadly no snow forecast but - despite centuries of rampant inflation - one is still not allowed everything). I expect freezing winds even during the day but I have a wee inn to warm up in ... read more

Greetings. I feel I owe you an apology - it's been too long. I got back from the NZ trip on Dec 29th and have been living in what passes for normal life since. However, there's never anything normal about life and there's perhaps even less normal about my life - but you can be your own judge of that statement. I returned to the UK from a firmly enriching trip in December. I arrived back feeling much more humble than when I left. Unsurprisingly, I also felt much, much more tired than when I left. Both physically and mentally. Strangely, it took only a couple of days back in the artificial world of the office for life at low altitude to send my thoughts out to travel again. My legs ached as I did it ... read more