I'm back....I survived, but still hoping climbing towards my target!

I'll write the full story in the next few days but this is what I wrote in the middle of the night while I was away.......

“If there’s been one downside of Nepal so far, it’s probably the complete lack of sleep. As someone who prides themselves on their ability to sleep ‘come what may’, it’s strange to say that the best sleep I’ve had in a week was on the plane.

So, it’s 4am and I’m wide awake. I’ve concluded its a combination of cow, chicken and general animal sounds coupled with the cramping muscles…but then again it could be the adrenaline. There’s been a lot of that over the last 3 days, but most of all on Wednesday.

Before we came out here, we kept getting asked how far we are riding each day. The answer today was 92km, but what you might really need to know is that this is over terrain where only adrenaline and energy bars count.

Having camped over night, we were on our bikes by 6.30am, just after first light and essentially peddling up and up until we had reached 2500m up into the most incredible mountainous scenery imaginable. The climbs were never ending and the gears straining…but some of this was on loose gravel, sand and the most unpredictable surface of all: Nepalese Tarmac! It’s really quite simply: brutal.

I know there’ll be a few people counting themselves out as they read this, but don’t forget this…

A few months ago most of the team weren’t cycling regularly and half didn’t own a bike. A few weeks ago, many were straining to get their fundraising to the huge £5k target we set over a year ago…

But today, by 1pm every member if the team stood on top of the mountain and looked out as far as the snow-tipped peaks of the Everest Range with a true sense of awe! Every one of us shared a moment…of relief, achieving what seemed just too difficult, of views that exceed the imagination, of pain and exhaustion…and the total support a group of strangers had for each other.

I might be a long way away, but somehow I feel strangely at home…