Monday, 31 October 2011
Blogs
Just got days 10 and 11 - sound rough. Glad you're on the way back
down!! Looking foward to the pics.
Love M & D
Day 10
Day 11
Saturday, 29 October 2011
Fw: Fwd: BE CAREFUL WITH CHOCOLATE!!
From: "merckate121@aol.com" <merckate121@aol.com>
To: Ranworthkaran@aol.com; tina_mac@hotmail.com; trinacoventry@hotmail.co.uk; cherylandroyclark@gmail.com; nannybag@btinternet.com; LSapsford@aol.com; thesharonclark@btinternet.com; m.cole@phoenixhospital.co.uk; mjt1960@hotmail.co.uk; john.lieberman1@btopenworld.com; vin.rouge@live.co.uk; fernewicks@btinternet.com
Sent: Friday, 25 February, 2011 21:53:16
Subject: Fwd: BE CAREFUL WITH CHOCOLATE!!
From: ruth.juniperking <ruth.juniperking@bt.com>
To: lucy.2.banks <lucy.2.banks@openreach.co.uk>; merckate121 <merckate121@aol.com>; steve.crisp <steve.crisp@openreach.co.uk>; alex.sanderson <alex.sanderson@bt.com>
Sent: Fri, 25 Feb 2011 12:24
Subject: FW: BE CAREFUL WITH CHOCOLATE!!
Fw: Fwd: Essex Hurricane Appeal
From: "merckate121@aol.com" <merckate121@aol.com>
To: Ranworthkaran@aol.com; tina_mac@hotmail.com; ruth.juniper@bt.com; cherylandroyclark@gmail.com; charlie@lakesidepm.com; thesharonclark@btinternet.com; LSapsford@aol.com; m.alexander@talktalk.net; keely@lakesidepm.com; vin.rouge@live.co.uk; fernewicks@btinternet.com
Sent: Tuesday, 25 October, 2011 21:41:51
Subject: Fwd: Essex Hurricane Appeal
Essex Hurricane Appeal
A major hurricane (Hurricane Shazza) and earthquake measuring 5.8 on the Richter Scale hit Essex in the early hours of Tuesday with its epicentre in Basildon . Victims were seen wandering around aimlessly, muttering "Faaackinell".
The hurricane decimated the area causing almost £30 worth of damage. Several priceless collections of mementos from Majorca and the Costa Del Sol were damaged beyond repair. Three areas of historic burnt out cars were disturbed. Many locals were woken well before their Giros arrived.
Essex FM reported that hundreds of residents were confused and bewildered and were still trying to come to terms with the fact that something interesting had happened in Basildon. One resident - Tracy Sharon Smith, a 15-year-old mother of 5 said, "It was such a shock, my little Chardonnay-Mercedes came running into my bedroom crying. My youngest two, Tyler-Morgan and Victoria-Storm slept through it all. I was still shaking when I was skinning up and watching Jeremy Kyle the next morning."
Apparently looting, muggings and car crime were unaffected and carried on as normal.
The British Red Cross has so far managed to ship 4,000 crates of Special Brew to the area to help the stricken locals. Rescue workers are still searching through the rubble and have found large quantities of personal belongings, including benefit books, jewellery from Ratners and Bone China from the Pound shop.
HOW CAN YOU HELP?
This appeal is to raise money for food and clothing parcels for those unfortunate enough to be caught up in this disaster. Clothing is most sought after - items most needed include:
Fila or Burberry baseball caps
Kappa tracksuit tops (his and hers)
Shell suits (female)
White stilettos
White sport socks
Rockport boots
Any other items usually sold in Primark.
Food parcels may be harder to come by but are needed all the same. Required foodstuffs include:
Microwave meals
Tins of baked beans
KFC
Ice cream
Cans of Special Brew.
22p buys a biro for filling in the compensation forms
£2 buys chips, crisps and blue fizzy drinks for a family of nine
£5 buys fags and a lighter to calm the nerves of those affected.
**BREAKING NEWS**
Rescue workers found a girl in the rubble smothered in raspberry alco-pop and were worried she had been badly cut...
"Where are you bleeding from?" they asked,
"Romford" said the girl, "woss that gotta do wiv you?"
Please don't forward this to anyone living in Essex - oh, sod it, they won't be able to read it, anyway.
Blogs
We have had about three blogs thru in one go, so before we could start
getting worried that you weren't feeling well we could see on day 9 that
you were feeling better!! Hope this continues - tell the boys that
Arsenal just beat Chelsea 5-3. Dad says tonight is cancelled!!!
Love M & D
day 9
performed the usual warm up routeen and then set on our way to Lobuche. Headache tablets and diamox on board the going for
the first hour was tough, climbing directly up from Denbosch about 150m. Steps are small and slow at 4500m. Once over the
ridge above Denbosche the walk leveled out and we folloewd the valley for about 2hours till we arrived at Dugle 4620m for
lunch. Lunch consisted of Noodle soup followed by fried rice. Stu and Martin managed to eat theirs while I still not feeling
great only managed a small amount. Skankness excelled herself again by dropping her sunglasses down the toilet
(a hole in the floor)
The after lunch the trek took us immediately up around 200m, again slow hard progress. Once over the ridge we came across the
churum which is a memorial for climbers and sherpas that have died in the mountains. From here on the going was fairly easy
(or as easy as trekking can be at 5 kilometres up) We were pleased to find a nice warm Tea House waiting for us.
It's 4.35 now. Dinner is at 6:30 tonight and we will by having an early night as it is an early start in the morning for
our trek to Everest Base Camp.
day 8
consulted with the trek Doc and have taken the appropriate measures, However I am a little worried about my ability to
carry on. Today we trekked up to 4700m for lunch then returned back to Denboche at 4350m for the night. Stu and Martin seem
fine so no worries there. Despite not feeling great I still enjoyed the great views that the Himalalas had to offer.I guess
I will just have to see how I feel in the morning. A night of cards in the Tea House awaits us again. Despite feeling under
the weather today I still managed to take the micky out of Simons (our trek leader) Chicken legs.
day 7
though. The reason for the early rise was so that we could see the sunrise catch the surrounding mountains. from here some
of the group went to the monastry for the Morning prayers. Me and Stuart saw this as an oppotunity to go and use the girls
facilities, which were far superior to ours!!
The warm up was led by tash this morning. After a game of stuck in the mud and some mobil stretches we set off on the long
trek to Dengboche. The early part of the trek was dominated by some amazing view of Amadabla. The trek took us from Tenboche
at 3950m to Denboche at 4350m. We are now trekking higher than at any point on the Inca trail!! The Mornings are colder for
longer now and the evenings are getting colder earlier.
This evening we are being entertained by the locals outside our tea house singing and dancing celebrating the Hindu festival
Dwali.
We will be staying at this Tea House for two nights as part of our acclimatisation. We only wish are accomadation was better.
The girls in Tenko had it better and they were in a warm climate.The lads seem to have got the shitty end of the stick with
Martin, Dave, Jimmie, Jerry, Stu and myself all being shoved in the annex to another Tea House. Nevermind we will solider on!!
Tomorrow we will be trekking up to around 4700m as part of our acclimatisation preperation. We are now very high!!!
Day 6
by Jerry and Jimmie. We assembled in a circle in the village square and Jerry kicked off the warm up with the hokey kokey
followed with light stretching with Jimmie. The trekking today started with a downhill walk of about 400m to the valley
base where we had lunch of noodle soup and vegatable curry with a naan/yorkshire pudding thingy. From there we crossed the
bridge and started our 500m assent up the Nepalese flat (very steep) During the trek it has become a regular activity to
sneak off the main path for a jimmy riddle. This activity however is frought with danger as many people have taken this a
step further and dropped the occasional H.A.T into the bush. It was Ness's turn today to to come back from her visit with
her boot covered in a H.A.T. In the process of removing the said H.A.T from her boot Ness(now known as Skankness)
performed what is now known as the Shitflick Dance. The walk up to The monestry at Tengboche was a hard slog but with the
reward of further great views of Everest and its chums we were driven on. We are at around 3900m now and getting ready for
a long trek tomorrow to Dengboche 4450m. The three of us are in great shape and as yet unaffected by any altitude ailments.
Amongst the oh so many highlights of this trip I experienced the delights of Lemon Meringue Pie at 4000m :)
Revalie is at 5:45am on the morrow on order to arise in time for sun up.
Evenings seem to be following a reglular pattern now. This consists of coffee or black tea and playing cards with the
sherpas(who cheat). Apart from cheating at cards the Sherpas have been brilliant and are great fun on the trek!!
Evening meal is generally served at about 7ish and after that we often play some more cards and retire to bed around
9 to 9:30.
It's 7:45 now and I am blogging away. This will more than likely be posted in a few days
The warm up tomorrow morning has been put into the hands of Jade and Tash !! we await their routine
Day 6
(Prize to who gets the acronym first) The day really had a trekking feel to it as we left Namche 3450m at 8am
and trekked up to the right hand side of the Namche Airfield 3730m which we had visited yesterday. Whilst we were there we
were lucky to not only see a small plane landing and taking off again, but also see 4 skydivers land on the runway.
After a small walk up of around 100m we turned a corner and were treated to some amazing views of the highest
mountain in the world Everest 8848, and its chums Lhotse 8516m and Nuptse 7864.
A further climb and we arrived at the Japanese owned Everest View Hotel where we stayed for around 30 minutes and drank
Masarla tea and soaked up the atmosphere. From here we trekked down to the villages of Khumjung 3790m and Kunde 3810m where
we will be staying the night.
To my disappointment in Khumjung I saw a small group of Nepalese children playing football (at nearly 4 Kilometres up this
is no mean feet) and two of them were wearing Arsenal Shirts. Scum is global!!
On the plus side I did see the skull (alleged) of a yeti in the monastery.
Khumjung is home to the Khumjung High School which is attended by around 300 pupils who travel from far and wide to attend.
The School was sponsored by the Hillary foundation.
On the downside Big Dave took a rather spectacular tumble on the route down to Khumjung. Luckily he is ok but he is covered
in shite.
silence
You have been quiet for a couple of days and we are assuming that you
are out of wi fi contact. Hope all is well, getting tough now I guess -
no lemon meringue pie!!! Base camp tomorow!
Love Mum and Dad
Wednesday, 26 October 2011
Amazing
Day 6 25th Khumjung 3860m
Day 7 26th Tengboche 3867m
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In case you have trouble sleeping Steve!
we have learned is not prepared to be this lender. Jurgen Stark, resigned from
the Executive Board of the ECB due to the controversial bond-buying
programme...blah...blah..blah.....The ECB has to be given/or take on this role of lender of last
resort and if Germany can't accede to this, then they will have to be the one
to be first to leave the single currency!?... best gibbo."
Route
Still reading the blogs with great interest. We are following the route
on your old school atlas!! It's way out of date but the bit you're in
doesn't seem to have changed hands much.
Take care all of you. Mum and Dad.xx
Tuesday, 25 October 2011
everest dream team
Day 5 Namche 3450m to Khunjung 3790m
(Prize to who gets the acronym first) The day really had a trekking feel to it as we left Namche 3450m at 8am
and trekked up to the right hand side of the Namche Airfield 3730m which we had visited yesterday. Whilst we were there we
were lucky to not only see a small plane landing and taking off again, but also see 4 skydivers land on the runway.
After a small walk up of around 100m we turned a corner and were treated to some amazing views of the highest
mountain in the world Everest 8848, and its chums Lhotse 8516m and Nuptse 7864.
A further climb and we arrived at the Japanese owned Everest View Hotel where we stayed for around 30 minutes and drank
Masarla tea and soaked up the atmosphere. From here we trekked down to the villages of Khumjung 3790m and Kunde 3810m where we will be staying the night.
To my dissapointment in Khumjung I saw a small group of Nepalese children playing football (at nearly 4 Kilometers up this
is no mean feet) and two of them were wearing Arsenal Shirts. Scum is global!!
On the plus side I did see the skull (alleged) of a yeti in the monestary.
Khumjung is home to the Khumjung High School which is atteneded by around 300 pupils who travel from far and wide to attend.
The School was sponsored by the Hillary foundation.
On the downside Big Dave took a rather spectacular tumble on the route down to Khumjung. Luckilly he is ok but he is covered
in shite.
Monday, 24 October 2011
back from Potters
great to catch up with the blog. Sounds fantastic, can't wait to see
photos. Dad, Adam CJ and I had a great time at Potters. Take care. Love
to Stu and Martin.
Mum and Dad
Day 4 rest day well sort of
Me thinks you should be running Steve ...
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Sunday, 23 October 2011
Day 3
After a short walk we entered the Sagarmatha National Park. once in the Park we made our way down to the base of gorge
where the River Dubh Koshi runs.From here we trekked along the valley until we reached the point where the Koshi meets
the River Bhote Koshi, passing over the river on three scary bridges in the process. once ofer the third bridge we made
our way up towards Namche.Once again the views during the trek to Namche have been stunning. We also had our first view
of Everest today albeit a tiny peak. We arrived in Namche for a traditional Nepalese lunch of vegatable curry rice and dahl. After lunch we
went off to the Irish pub to watch the Final. At 4 o'clock we took a short walk up to the top of Namche to visit the
Monestary where recieved a blessing from the Monk which on on on.....but at least now we should have a safe adventure!!
Tomorrow is an acclimatisation day in Namche where we will stay for a further night.
Day 2
then off back to Kathmandu Airport for our 8am flight to Lukla. What an amazing experince this was for the three of us.
With the plane full to capacity with only 11 of us and our Nepalese Sherpa Leader Gigme plus two pilots and one air hostess
we set off for a 30 minute flight through the Nepalese mountains to the tiny slopeing airstrip of Lukla pearched on the
side of the mountain.
Once landed we meet the rest of he sherpas and the yaks thatwould be assisting us on our trek.Wit5h everyone now
starting to get to know eachother we set off on our 14k trek to mongu. The trek took us down 500m following a river
gorge then back up to 2800m and the village of mongu. During the day we passed through some amazing scenary, I hope
to post many of the pictures that i took as soon as possible.
neither of us seem to be suffering from any altitude related problems. Which is good as a couple of people have struggled
wih headaches and sickness today.
Everyon in the group is quite tired after the trek and all the traveling we have done over the last two days and most have
gone to bed straight after dinner. Alarm at 6am in the morning off to Namche Bazzar
Saturday, 22 October 2011
Friday, 21 October 2011
Day One
Thursday, 20 October 2011
For the Everest Dream Team
Monday, 17 October 2011
for Compo, Foggy & Clegg to sing en route!
Climb every mountain,
Ford every stream,
Follow every rainbow,
Till you find your dream.
Sunday, 16 October 2011
Everest
Sent from my BlackBerry® smartphone
Saturday, 15 October 2011
Wishing you all God's speed
Kindest regards
Maria (Stuart's Ma in Law)
Thursday, 13 October 2011
Washing lines
Wednesday, 12 October 2011
Bon courage and the best of luck to you all!
Hi, I’m Stuart’s sister in law, just wanted to wish you all the best and say what a fantastic challenge you’ve set yourselves. You’ll no doubt be changed for life by the experience – good on you all!
Best wishes, Lisa Crossley, France
Friday, 7 October 2011
Email Direct to Blog
Wednesday, 5 October 2011
Where we should be
Day 2 21st Kathmandu 1300m
Day 3 22nd Lukla & Monjo 2850m
Day 4 23rd Namche 3449m
Day 5 24th Namche
Day 6 25th Khumjung 3860m
Day 7 26th Tengboche 3867m
Day 8 27th Dingboche 4343m
Day 9 28th Dingboche
Day 10 29th Lobuche 4930m
Day 11 30th Everest Base Camp 5332m
Day 12 31st Kalla Pattar
Day 13 1st Nov Descend to Tengboche
Day 14 2nd Descend to Namche
Day 15 3rd Descend to Lukla
Day 16 4th Fly to Kathmandu
Day 17 5th Day in Kathmandu
Day 18 6th Fly home
Tuesday, 4 October 2011
Monday, 3 October 2011
Everest Base Camp trek 20th Oct-6th Nov 2011
On 20th October 2011 Stuart Wicks, Martin Wray and myself (Steve Johnson) are off to Nepal to trek through the Himalayas to reach Everest Base Camp at 5362m. Over the 13 days trekking (9 up 4 down) we will be covering around 120km and taking in some breathtaking scenery. As and when we can get WI-FI along the way we will be posting all our thoughts, comments and pictures on this blog. Your thoughts, Best wishes and comments will be most appreciated along the route.
Jonners (Steve)