Tenzing Go-a-Hunting

Chaps,

I just wanted to post a last Blog before we all fly off to Nepal tomorrow to say a huge thanks for the support I have enjoyed in preparation for this trip.  I promise I won't sing a song or offer to take you on a windy walk; but the support I have had from family, friends, work colleagues, non-friends and people I really hate has been an amazing help and the sponsorship donations have been staggering.  Thank-you very much. 

Please don't stop though as these charities do amazing work and I aim to push the envelope on until long after I am back in the UK.

I have just enjoyed a great send-off weekend that has probably set me back, fitness-wise, until about May last year.  The Red Lion was packed on Saturday to send the ginger bastard off in style.  It was supposed to be a surprise but considering I was CC'd on most of the "Mark doesn't know about this" emails and the fact I was phoned up to make sure I was actually around last Saturday meant that the cat had definitely been let out of bag.  It was a great night though with the donation jar on the bar, simply overflowing.  Good old British Lifeboats.  I was also dressed appropriately I thought in the Bath Half spandex top - unwashed I remembered halfway through the evening but as most people were drinking Pedigree, I don't think the smell off me put them off.  I looked like the cling-wrapped Christmas Ham again with the XL sizing proving complete bollocks and it stretched over me again like the skin on a dodgy rice-pudding.  People got the idea though and thanks to Colesy and DIC for organizing the troops.  I also received some touching gifts to send me on my way - the grandfather clock, the carving set, the West Highland Terrier, the complete Encyclopedia Britannica and windsurfing lesson may not prove that beneficial at 5000m.  The thought was there though.

The shopping has been frantic with more and more pieces of kit being purchased.  I will probably just stay in the same pair of shorts and flip-flops like most cricket tours and have a wardrobe full of mountaineering kit unworn; ....or maybe not.  Our official kit looks the nuts and pink has always been my colour - real men can wear it y'know and you just have to look at my forehead after a ten over spell in June.

Tomorrow sees the start of this great adventure and, from my corner, I would just like to say a very heartfelt Thank-you to Kirt, Wes, Cuzza, Charlie, Vicks and everyone else who had a hand in getting this venture off the ground but especially Kirt, Wes and Cuzza who have sweated life-blood into this and were always on-hand to ask mundane questions like what pants should I wear and what is the draught beer like.  I have found the level of organization and effort that has been put into this trip simply staggering and, very simply, thanks guys; I hope we all do you proud.  It's been a real pleasure being part of it and it will be a little strange when we touch down again in London on the 28th.  What Next?

Until May.

Keep you posted.

I Love Pink Balls

Well. This is it.

The last few days. The final stretch. The Final Countdown. It's here.

Months of months of fitness, team bonding, team building, fitness bonding and bonding building.

The Everest Test, now called the Nokia Maps Everest Test 09, will be wheels up by 21.00 on Thursday 9th. A week yesterday. It seems weird to say that to myself, so God only knows what Leaders Kirt and Wes must be thinking now. It's been a huge achievement and quite obviously a monumental effort to get this and 60 odd people (not nearly 60 - 60 genuinely peculiar people) off the ground. If I could offer up a cyber round of applause; now's the time.

Just to go back a moment. We are now sponsored by Nokia and more precisely Nokia Maps, which is fantastic news and has brought a real boost to us all during the closing stages of the organisation to this unique event. Testament to the Herculian task of getting this trip moving is the final piece in the puzzle and bringing on board a wonderful brand.

We had our last formal get-together at Lords last Saturday where we learnt more about the finishing touches and the finer details of the trips logistics.

We had our full medical de-brief from the medical team and I have to say to say I feel very safe and secure in the knowledge that these guys are with us. They are all seriously good guys (and girl - Sorry Isla), very experienced and know their stuff. We must be able to listen to our bodies most of all but if I do have an arse full of tapeworms (seriously), we have the guys on board to be able to sort us out; that's a huge reassurance to me so many thanks for coming on board guys and fingers crossed that you will have plenty of time to enjoy the sites. Not my arse of course. I am sure you will...enjoy the sites......anyway........  I am sure too that they will be nothing like my boarding school Doctors, when even if an acute attack of Himalaya ArseWorm struck, I would have to drop my trousers and take a couple of Polo's twice daily.

We also had our final net session before departure where the Tenzing machine bared it's teeth for the first time in public, together and with the oppo in the next net. This finely honed, fully greased and bull-buggeringly brilliant team of guys I know are ready for the off and can smell victory. 

Furious bowling, combined with West Indian-esque Calypso batting must have had a few of the Hillary brows furrowed over the two hour net session. Hillsy, Butler and Toovey I think bore the brunt of the bodily contact as we had to road-test the new, specially designed pink balls that we will use up the hill. These balls misbehaved brilliantly and never have the hallowed halls of the MCC echoed with "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH you F***ing Baas**rrrrrd" quite so much as when Tooves copped another pearler in the plums. The bowlers kept hurling them down - Arms were Shouldered, skin and bone were hit and bruised, bats flung in the air, yorkers were landed on the boot laces and screaming batsmen ran around in painful circles hopping and limping to try and shake the pain away, as if they had been shot in the backside by an annoyingly stingy air-rifle pellet.  I should think the pain was heard in the Long Room and no doubt woke most of the 40 year old plus MCC members up in the pavilion who were enjoying their afternoon of farting in the Pavilion. Even the coach in the other half of the net was heard to say under his breath (whilst feeding balls into a bowling machine aimed at an 11 year olds head), "Even the Yeti will hear that........", as Toovey got another one in the clangers. Stirling work by all the batsmen really as those two hours couldn't have been easy. Pink Balls; it's the future. I've seen it.

We have also been immortalised in a computer game - www.stickcricket.com - and look for the Everest test logo. A fantastic way to while away the hours and another fantastic way for my fellow Preston Cricket Team-ers to smash me all over the, ...well....Himalaya really, without even having to get changed. Seriously good fun.

So, we now find ourselves 6 days away from the off. Still a hell of a lot to be done - more kit to buy, more kit to buy and more kit to buy. Walks to be done, sacks to be tested, boots to be broken further. These 6 days will go very quickly and I also need to enjoy the family a little before I go. Beth my daughter will be giving me a teddy to take up and stick on to my rucksack. Knowing her it will be the 7ft one she has in the corner of her room and I also have a surprise drinks evening on Saturday that I'm not supposed to know about but thanks everyone for coming and sending me off.

I can't believe its here and that next Friday I will be in Katmandu and next Saturday morning I will be on the best roller-coaster ride ever - flying into Lukla for the start of the trek. This will probably be my last Blog update before I'm back so keep you posted soon.