In 24 hours I will land in Kathmandu. 

The days, weeks and months are over and today is the day I depart on my latest and potentially greatest adventure to date. I have enjoyed months of build up, including the fundraising, the challenges, the endless trips to Cotswold outdoors, the training weekends and attempting to learn Nepalese! 

I am sitting at the departure gate looking at the airplane that will hopefully take me to Istanbul then onwards to Kathmandu. I have already endured the mild peril that goes with a trip of this nature. I found out yesterday that my return fight in December had been cancelled by the airline which resulted in a dozen frantic calls to various agents! I wouldn’t have minded but being so close to Xmas I didn’t want to be arriving home just as the crackers were being pulled! Fortunately I managed to secure an earlier flight which will mean an overnight stay in Istanbul but at least I will be headed home. 

I then found out that there will be a general transport strike on Sunday in Kathmandu pretty much putting paid to my pre-expedition night of luxury in the Backyard Hotel. No sightseeing for me, I will now be heading straight to Raleigh fieldbase from the airport! I have been promised a cup of tea on arrival so not all bad! 
I hope to try and keep a blog going whilst on expedition. Writing it up directly from my I phone is not ideal so apologies for any typos or predictive taxt gaffes! 
Thanks again to all those who’s support, love and encouragement has got me to this stage. In a multi media global context It’s a small thing that I am undertaking but I am determined to try and make a positive difference to the lives of others. It’s only through education and combined united efforts that we will save this planet and ensure future generations will survive and thrive. There are 7 billion people on this planet. Just think what we could achieve if we all worked together……