Not Atypical Living - Day 3

I woke at 07:20, got up and put some coal on the stove, had some cereal and dressed in my winter clothing again. I picked up my laundry, and walked up to the car. Drove to Stony Stratford. Given that it was eight o'clock when I started out, the road was surprisingly packed - I did expect a lot of traffic at that time, but it was solid from Grafton Regis all the way to the A5. I got to the laundrette at 08:35, which was too early for the attendant to be there, so I drove up to Wolverton and bought myself a paper and a coke. Took the laundry in, and drove to Cosgrove, where I left my car. Started walking back to the boat, and arrived at the boat at 11:20. While walking I was thinking about this diary and simply the fact that I have been recording stuff in detail has made me aware both how little and how badly I am eating. Over the two and a half days to now, I have had some bread and butter pudding, a fruit tart, four chocolate bars, a bowl of cereal, two cokes and about half a dozen coffees. This is not terribly good.

I am waiting for the kettle to boil, before making myself a coffee, and doing this diary entry while waiting for it. I am going to start off, when I have had my coffee, back up to the water point, fill up with water (about one and a half tons) and then take the boat down to Cosgrove. I got back to my moorings at 15:30. The weather was warmer than on Saturday, and I had my anorak and fleece jacket open for much of the way, and was wearing no hat or gloves.

So, one job - getting a delivery of coal, and one tai ji class attended - total time two and a half days. This is absolutely typical of life on the canals.

Not Atypical Living - Day 2

In fact I was feeling so tired that at about 16:20 I went to bed intending to put my head down for an hour or so. I woke at 01:30, got up and had something to drink, and looked at the computer, before going back to bed at round about 03:30. I woke again at 07:00, to find the stove had gone out during the night, so the boat was very cold. I tried relighting the stove, though I think I added fuel to it too early, before going for a walk up some of the locks at Stoke Bruerne. I got back to find that, if the stove is actually alight, it is struggling very badly. If this is the case I have a problem, since I used the last of my kindling trying to light it this morning. I had some breakfast, updated this diary entry and started doing some IT system development. After a while I had a shave,

Eventually I saw the coal barge coming down the lock and went over to it to pick up a bag of kindling. I started the stove, put the kettle on, and then backed the boat up to the water point moorings ready to have the coal delivered. I had to wait for Mike to deliver to the boats on the permanent moorings at Stoke locks. Having done them, he moved his boat over to mine, and loaded half a ton of coal into my coal bunker, and onto my tug front. He then sorted out diesel for me - 84 litres which was rather more than I anticipated. I moved back onto the visitor moorings, made a cup of coffee (the stove was going by now) and had a bath and washed my hair. I picked up my stick and weapons and walked up to the car to drive to Northampton to attend the Tai Ji session Lindsey had organised. I got there at exactly 12:30 the start time.

The Tai Ji class lasted three hours, and I then drove back to the boat, buying a coke and a couple of chocolate bars en route. I was quite tired by this time, and though I did a little programming, I mostly watched TV, deliberately keeping awake until 21:00 in order to bring my sleep patterns back to some sort of normallity.

Not Atypical Living

Today was the start of a fairly normal job for me, but, it occurred to me early on today, that it was sufficiently distinct, that I would like to document it. This is therefore a detailed diary entry for the weekend.

I woke at 02:00 and got up about 1/2 hour later. (My sleep patterns become very erratic during the winter, as the short days impact quite heavily on my metabolism and circadian rhythms). Over the next couple of hours, I had breakfast - some bread and butter pudding that I had from yesterday; I added coal to the stove that is the core of my living space on the boat; I read some of the novel that I am currently reading (Split Second by David Baldacci); had a coffee and did a little more on the software construction project I am currently working on. At 06:00 I went off to Tesco's in the car, in order to have suffient food on board to last me today, tomorrow, and Monday, which is when I anticipate returning to my moorings. I got back to the boat, did the stove, which involved emptying it of ash from overnight and loading it with coal. I also, as I returned to the boat, dismounted the TV aerial from the boat. When I came to do this I found that it had jammed in place, and I had to get a variety of tools out in order to remove it. Normally this is a five second job, but this morning it probably took 10-15 minutes. As a result, by the time I got back inside the boat, I was fairly cold, so I had a coffee, and sat in my lounge until I was warm again. I then went to prepare myself for cruising the boat up to Stoke Bruerne, which involved changing into my winter clothing. This involves putting on a base layer - silk leggings, and long sleeved high necked silk vest; thick socks; a pullover, high necked fleece; fleece lined trouser; a jacket fleece, and a waterproof and windproof anorak. The addition of gloves, a silk balaclava, and a warm, insulated hat completed the outfit. This is all necessary, because it is a cold day - my estimate at 07:00 was -2 degrees C, and cruising the boat involves standing fairly motionless outside at the rear of the boat for as long as one is cruising. This does mean that one can get very, very cold quite easily.

I then prepared the boat, which only means lifting the side fenders onto the boat, removing the mooring chains and ropes, attaching the tiller, and starting the engine. I finally started off at 07:45, which was a bit later than I had intended, and it was fully light.

The cruise up to Stoke Bruerne, which is where I am going to collect my delivery of coal tomorrow, took five minutes over two hours, and I covered six miles to the bottom of the locks. It was a typical, decent winter's day - cold, overcast, and not much wind. En route I saw what I thought was a wind blown collection of reeds and debris which had heaped up to a greater height than normal. While travelling I did not see any other boat moving, and saw only one person who was walking from Cosgrove to Stoke and we were near each other virtually the whole way to Stoke. When there were no moored boats for me to pass, I was travelling just faster than he was, and when I slowed to pass moored boats, he was walking just faster than the boat.

I got to Stoke Bruerne, and as anticipated, there was not much space for mooring. In fact there were only two spaces available - one either end of a boat near the end of the mooring. I first tried mooring up at the space the far end of the boat, to find that the gap was about 55 feet long, which is a couple of feet shorter than my boat. So I had to try the other space, and found that it was exactly long enough for my boat - 57' 6" with perhaps 6" to spare. After I had shut the engine off, I had a coffee, completed reading the novel I had been reading, I then walked back to Stoke Bruerne, so that I could pick my car, so I will have it available tomorrow. Although I could have collected in one (returen) trip tomorrow, I want to go Northampton just after 12:00 to attend a Tai Ji class, where I am doing some training. As a result I need to have the car where the boat it, as there is not enough daylight at this time of year, to travel up to Stoke, collect my coal delivery, travel back to Cosgrove, and then get off to the class. During the walk back I saw that what I had thought were compressed reeds and other debris in the canal, was half of one of the very large straw bales created by combine harvesters, and which had obviously come off one of the fields en-route.

Once I had picked up the car (the walk back having taken exactly the same length of time as the boat coming up) I went and bought a fizzy drink, and some sweets, before returning to the boat, and parking the car nearby.

I sat down and had something more to drink, and sat and completed my computer based cruising log, which I keep so as to be able to record my cruised, engine hours, fuel consumption etc. and then composed this diary entry. I am now going to go on and do some more work on my software project. I will return to this diary entry and finish the description of my day before I go to bed. It is now 15:40.

Milton Keynes is 40

On Friday 12th October at about 18:25, I saw the local TV news which gave details of the festivities that had been arranged for that Friday, and the following day, to celebrate the 40th birthday of the founding of Milton Keynes. There was a Son et Lumiere, and an aerial circus act. I had not previously heard about the proposed celebrations. Living on a canal boat, as I do, I do not receive the local free sheet, which had publicised it extensively. I was sufficiently taken by the coverage to drive down into the city centre to watch it. I got there too late to see the illuminated parade which started the event, but saw the rest. I was so impressed by "Transe Express", billed as a "avant garde French aerial act" that I went down on Saturday as well, to take photographs of the event. Some of these are above. The aerial act's basis if forming, with live performers, an automaton consisting of a carillon in the form of a mobile, rotating 30-50 feet up in the air.

2009-06-03 Katmandu - London

Flew back today, with all the hassles and fun and games of long distance air travel.

2007-05-31 Thursday Katmandu

Sanjay took me sightseeing for more or less the whole day. Visited the very large and sacred stupa in the Tibetan quarter of Katmandu, and the Golden Temple at Patan, which I had missed on my own.

2007-05-30 Wednesday Katmandu

Spent most of the day in the hotel, and ended up with a prolonged, and involved discussion with Helen (one of the trek group) about religion - she is an evangelical Christian, and I am athiest. Fascinating stuff, but it did reinforce my feelings that fanatical belief in anything is very dangerous, leading to attitudes of superiority and the desire to impose one's views on others. This evening I went out with Sanjay (the Nepali who was our tour guide in Tibet, on my last trip to the far east, and with whom I have kept in contact) for a meal, which was delicious. He volunteered to take me around Katmandu and Patan tomorrow.

2007-05-29 Tuesday Katmandu

The team arrived at the hotel today at 09:00. I went into Patan and looked at the square, the museum, temples and the palace. The final get together for the team, was a meal in the hotel at 19:00. This proved to be fairly chaotic - partially because a large amount of attention was focused on persuading Fletcher (unsuccessfully) to join us - the group fragmented, got stroppy, and in general it was not very successful.

2007-05-26 Saturday Lobuche -> Katmandu altitude 1300m

Helicopter came in and took Fletcher, me and our kit - after a trial lift without our kit to see if we could get off the ground. He managed it, though it was a little hairy, as he was travelling horizontally about 10cm off the ground towards very large boulders, which were higher than the door to the helicopter. Lifting off was very slow, navigating round the boulders, and had the two off us jammed on the floor behind the pilots with the kit jammed in around us. There were no seats in the helicopter other than the pilot and copilots seats. We flew down for five or so minutes, dropping off about 400m. At this point we landed to have some more fuel poured into the helicopter from 20 litre plastic jerrycans which the pilot had left there on the way up the mountain. He had gone from this point to where he picked us up with the absolute bare minimum of fuel and the seats stripped out of the helicopter. We then flew down to Shyangboche (altitude around 3400m) airport where we took on 300 litres of fuel - all of it hand loaded - poured from jerrycans again, and lifted up from the ground to an intermediate person and then up to the person actually pouring it into the helicopter - they did not even have a hand pump. They also put the seats back into the helicopter for us to fly down to Katmandu. At this point the pilots found that the helicopter would not start, as either the battery had failed, or there was a starter motor glitch. We waited around for about three hours, waiting for the temperature to rise sufficiently to give the batteries a boost. When this did not work, they arranged for another helicopter to fly a replacement battery in, meaning we had to wait for another hour and a half. We had taken off from Lobuche at 07:30 and it was midday before the replacement battery was flown in. The pilot said that battery failure was a common problem, given the high altitude and low temperatures they encountered. When the battery arrived it replaced the duff one and we finally took off. Sitting on seats, it was possible to get a very good view out and down from the helicopter - it was a bubble dome type of helicopter. While we were at the airport, I was watching what was going on at the airfield. This airport is the highest that non military helicopters are permitted to operate, and they were using big freight Russian based helicopters to ferry building materials into the airport for new development that was going on. These had to land like an aircraft, along the runway, when the were coming in full, at this altitude. The airport is on top of a ridge that is at the confluence of three vallies. The freight helicopters were coming up one valley, curving round and struggling for altitude gain the whole time, landing on the strip. One of the helicopters came in to land and was about three feet too low. In order to make another attempt, the pilot had to make a very extended figure of eight pattern up each of the three vallies, gaining height fractionally in each valley, until he had increased his altitude by the three to five feet needed to land properly. Anyway, eventually, the new battery for the helicopter arrived; they fitted it; and we set off to fly down to Katmandu - in comfort, sitting in seats. The journey down to Katmandu was fascinating. Last night, after Fraser booked the helicopter, the locals had been speculating that the person who would be flying the helicopter would be a specific colonel from the Nepal forces, who is the acknowledged specialist in high altitude flying. It indeed turned out to be him, and he was employing all his skills and expertise on the flight back. We had to go over a couple of very high ridges between the airfield and Katmandu, and he was employing glider techniques - searching out thermals to assist the helicopter over the ridges. As we had a superb view, each of these manoevres was very obvious. In fact, I was asked if I was not frightened by the flight, given all the hazards. I was far too fascinated and absorbed by the flight and the skill of the pilot to be frightened. Eventually we arrived at Katmandu, and were taken to the hotel, and did our neurophysio tests. An interesting day!

2007-05-27 Sunday Katmandu

Didn't do much today, except mooch round the area immediatedly around the hotel, and in the hotel. There was a demonstration of teachers, who were burning tyres and stopping anybody in a car. While in the hotel I read "The ascent of Ramdoodle", which had been recommended by Mungo. It is hilarious, and made even more funny by having done the trek over the last few weeks - it is funny in the same way that "Yes, Minister" is funny - one cringes as one laughs for fear that it is actually the way things work.

2007-05-26 Saturday Lobuche -> Katmandu altitude 1300m

Helicopter came in and took Fletcher, me and our kit - after a trial lift without our kit to see if we could get off the ground. He managed it, though it was a little hairy, as he was travelling horizontally about 10cm off the ground towards very large boulders, which were higher than the door to the helicopter. Lifting off was very slow, navigating round the boulders, and had the two off us jammed on the floor behind the pilots with the kit jammed in around us. There were no seats in the helicopter other than the pilot and copilots seats. We flew down for five or so minutes, dropping off about 400m. At this point we landed to have some more fuel poured into the helicopter from 20 litre plastic jerrycans which the pilot had left there on the way up the mountain. He had gone from this point to where he picked us up with the absolute bare minimum of fuel and the seats stripped out of the helicopter. We then flew down to Shyangboche (altitude around 3400m) airport where we took on 300 litres of fuel - all of it hand loaded - poured from jerrycans again, and lifted up from the ground to an intermediate person and then up to the person actually pouring it into the helicopter - they did not even have a hand pump. They also put the seats back into the helicopter for us to fly down to Katmandu. At this point the pilots found that the helicopter would not start, as either the battery had failed, or there was a starter motor glitch. We waited around for about three hours, waiting for the temperature to rise sufficiently to give the batteries a boost. When this did not work, they arranged for another helicopter to fly a replacement battery in, meaning we had to wait for another hour and a half. We had taken off from Lobuche at 07:30 and it was midday before the replacement battery was flown in. The pilot said that battery failure was a common problem, given the high altitude and low temperatures they encountered. When the battery arrived it replaced the duff one and we finally took off. Sitting on seats, it was possible to get a very good view out and down from the helicopter - it was a bubble dome type of helicopter. While we were at the airport, I was watching what was going on at the airfield. This airport is the highest that non military helicopters are permitted to operate, and they were using big freight Russian based helicopters to ferry building materials into the airport for new development that was going on. These had to land like an aircraft, along the runway, when the were coming in full, at this altitude. The airport is on top of a ridge that is at the confluence of three vallies. The freight helicopters were coming up one valley, curving round and struggling for altitude gain the whole time, landing on the strip. One of the helicopters came in to land and was about three feet too low. In order to make another attempt, the pilot had to make a very extended figure of eight pattern up each of the three vallies, gaining height fractionally in each valley, until he had increased his altitude by the three to five feet needed to land properly. Anyway, eventually, the new battery for the helicopter arrived; they fitted it; and we set off to fly down to Katmandu - in comfort, sitting in seats. The journey down to Katmandu was fascinating. Last night, after Fraser booked the helicopter, the locals had been speculating that the person who would be flying the helicopter would be a specific colonel from the Nepal forces, who is the acknowledged specialist in high altitude flying. It indeed turned out to be him, and he was employing all his skills and expertise on the flight back. We had to go over a couple of very high ridges between the airfield and Katmandu, and he was employing glider techniques - searching out thermals to assist the helicopter over the ridges. As we had a superb view, each of these manoevres was very obvious. In fact, I was asked if I was not frightened by the flight, given all the hazards. I was far too fascinated and absorbed by the flight and the skill of the pilot to be frightened. Eventually we arrived at Katmandu, and were taken to the hotel, and did our neurophysio tests. An interesting day!

2007-05-25 Friday Everest Base Camp -> Lobuche altitude 4940m

The base camp doctor gave me codeine last night to suppress the coughing reflex which seems to have worked. There was a party last night which I did not attend, preferring to go to bed very early. At the party, they handed out Cauldwell Xtreme Everest medal on a prayer scarf. I got mine at breakfast this morning. After today we only have to do the daily diary at Namche and at Katmandu. The intention today was to start walking at 06:00, having breakfasted and done our daily diaries. We diaried OK, but breakfast was a bit chaotic and the organisation of the group into subgroups, each of which were doing something different caused further chaos so that we did not get up going unti 07:00 amid much grumbling. Fletcher proved incapable of moving at anything other than a snail's pace, and I was not much better - breathlessness and panic attacks, together with coughing fits, all took their toll. We arrived at Lobuche at 15:10 which had intended to be our lunch stop. Fletcher and I are staying here overnight and he is talking about hiring a helicopter out in the morning - a snip at $5500. He has offered me a place, but I feel like it would be wimping out and it is still not clear whether it would be counted as two flights (and two costs). Mungo suggested that the day I might have difficulty would be the last day from Namchee, but that I should be able to do it if prodded with a big enough stick. I am still waiting to find out what is likely to happen. In fact, Fletcher has chartered a helicopter and is going to be flown down to Katmandu tomorrow and I am going with him - freeloading and copping out.

2007-05-24 Thursday Everest Base Camp altitude 5300m

Night time temperature went down to -12oC. I was coughing massively throughout the night. Also even the slightest exertion brings on massive hyperventilation. The fully inflated mattress made life much better last night. I ended up doing nothing much except TESTING today. I could not complete the second spirometer test and came to a halt slightly early on both bike tests. Only managed 132 watts rather than the 150 the testers (and I) wanted to aim at.

2007-05-23 Wednesday Everest Base Camp altitude 5300m

A lousy night, last night. My mattress was only partially inflated so I was sleeping on rock above ice to an extent. My arrangements for a piss bottle did not work out too well. Ian was up and down and the ambient nosie level was high. The team summitted seven people from the team and 10 Sherpas at around 07:30 this morning. I seem to have some reaction to altitude - the smallest exertion is making me massively breathless and I am very lethargic. It took me 10 minutes to put on one sandal. The day time temperature reached 32oC today.

2007-05-22 Tuesday Gorak Shep -> Everest Base Camp altitude 5300m

My throat infection returned, and I had some difficulties in drinking. En route to base camp, I snapped one of my trekking poles, when I slipped. It snapped in two, and considering they are made of titanium, I must have exerted some massive force on it. At base camp I managed to pull the other pole out of its lock, and took about 15 minutes to replace it. I had a brief moment of "That's not the ice fall" as I saw what turned out to be a snow fall, and then saw the ice fall and had the "THAT'S THE ICE FALL (or the 2/3 of it that is visible from base camp)." It is vast, and goes straight up for 750m or more. The glacier is weird. As we got to the base camp, we set up for a group photograph. Mungo (team leader) put his camera gear down on a boulder to come over for the photo. As he moved over, the boulder turned over, deposited his camera gear on the ground, and rolled onto the camera case. Two seconds and £3000 worth of camera gear completely busted - including the metal body of an Olympus professional camera split into two. The glacier's surface melts during the day, and refreezes during the night. As a consequence the surface of the glacier is moving all the time. As a result the tents at base camp have shifted and tilted and it looks a little like a refugee tent city. The manager at the hotel in Katmandu, who expedited the logistics of the expedition, said that they had shifted 25 tons of equipment up the mountain, most of which has ended up at base camp. The Xtreme Everest team are attempting to summit tonight.

2007-05-21 Monday Lobuche -> Gorak Shep altitude 5140m

Very hard trek mostly up. The altitude is leading to fatigue problems. We came over the moraine left by the glacier, which is enormous. Met trek group K coming down from base camp as we ascended. Again tonight will be a personal record for sleeping at altitude.

2007-05-21 Monday Lobuche -> Gorak Shep altitude 5140m

Very hard trek mostly up. The altitude is leading to fatigue problems. We came over the moraine left by the glacier, which is enormous. Met trek group K coming down from base camp as we ascended. Again tonight will be a personal record for sleeping at altitude.

2007-05-20 Sunday Periche -> Lobuche altitude 4940m

We started at 07:45 and arrived by 14:00. It was a very hard haul, with the last part of the trek being exacerbated by the lack of oxygen - I was certainly noticing it, and I think many of the group were too. I arrived with an extemely severe headache that lasted four hours; had a sore throat; eustachian tube problems and a dose of earache. I saw the doctor here, and he reckoned I had an ear infection, and prescribed fairly tough antibiotics for it. In many ways the first part of the trek today was like going up to Seathwaite from Seetoller, in the Lake District. It consists of a very flat, very rock strewn wide valley. Obviously it is on a very much larger scale - it is enormous. We are starting to meet people who have summitted. The lodge here (which is well known to the guides and sherpas as a place that extracts the absolute maximum of cash out of its visitors) is absolutely packed with people going up and coming down. One of them is a French woman, who summits solo, who has been moving up at more or less the same time as us, was questioning us about the expedition. She was intrigued up to the point where members of our group described the summit expedition as taking a exercise bike up to the South Col. This she just found silly, and was giggling for much of the evening. Sleeping here was a new altitude record for me.

2007-05-19 Saturday Pherich altitude 4306m

Professor David Howard was taken very ill overnight. He had seemed OK until about 16:00 yesterday, had to be evacuated out by helicopter, with AMS and severe complications. He has been up and down the mountain a few times, and is running the ENT experiments, He had been ascending the mountain more or less with us, and I think the suddenness and the severity of his illness has sobered all the members of our trek. The measurement team evacuated him by stretcher and with oxygen. They had been up all night with David, and so the testing was late in starting and the team were all absolutely shattered.

2007-05-19 Saturday Pherich altitude 4306m

Professor David Howard was taken very ill overnight. He had seemed OK until about 16:00 yesterday, had to be evacuated out by helicopter, with AMS and severe complications. He has been up and down the mountain a few times, and is running the ENT experiments, He had been ascending the mountain more or less with us, and I think the suddenness and the severity of his illness has sobered all the members of our trek. The measurement team evacuated him by stretcher and with oxygen. They had been up all night with David, and so the testing was late in starting and the team were all absolutely shattered.

2007-05-18 Friday Pherich altitude 4306m

Up early taking photos in an absolutely beautiful morning with no cloud. By the time we came to do our diary entries the cloud had drifted in. Feeling really good this morning. The Jagged Globe summitted today. There are approximately 37 teams at base camp and 11 on the other side. Two members of the Korean expedition were killed today, swept away by an altitiude. David Coastes (?), the guy that is running up and down the mountain doing the calibration of all the testing equipment is a friend of the farmer at Grafton Regis - whose lands abut to the canal just above where my permanent mooring is.

Canal Cruising in the High Season

I have been moving about on the boat, to go to a VHF Radio Operators course in Kenilworth, and (now) heading down towards London for final testing for the Extreme Everest trip. This is the cruising log entry I made yesterday (Saturday, 11 August 2007).

Started off with all the locks giving off mist. Initially my boat was on its own, and what (little) traffic I met was going the opposite way to me so things worked out very well. The only fly in the ointment was on the second lock where a hire boat saw I was in the next lock, but closed the gate on me; which in turn meant water flowed into the lock; their boat stopped very close to the lock and I was forced to do some heavy manoevering. In the process I lost my lower front fender, and broke the chain on the upper fender. (I also found, when I eventually stopped, that most of the books had come off the bookshelves). Got to the staircase, and learnt that in a broad staircase, you can take two boats up and one down (or vice versa) simultaneously. At the next lock the boat that had been behind me caught up, arriving at the lock as I left, so I waited for them at the next lock, and did that, plus the Stockton flight with them. The meant that we did that flight very quickly, as they had three crew, and were an experienced live aboard. Beyond Stockton, there was a live aboard reversing, so I stopped for them and went aground in the process. It took me quite a while to get off, and at that point I started encountering a lot of traffic. Arrived at the bottom of Calcutt locks at 11:30 which I thought was very good going. However this is where the trouble started. There were a couple of boats going up in front of me, with a little traffic coming the opposite way. As I entered the first lock I was joined by a wooden cruiser, who understanderbly was concerned about the movement of the two boats. However, the other thing they brought to the party (one male, one female, and one child) was nary a gorm between them They were hopeless, and I ended up doing these locks considerably slower than I can do on my own. Anyway, proceeded down to the junction, where I found my klaxon was kaput, and onto the shared section of the Oxford and Grand Union. There was a boat going across the junction as I got there, so I ended up in a procession of three - bad enough. However, the real problem was the level of traffic on this section - between the junction and the first bridge (a distance of less than 1/2 mile); I met 13 boats coming in the opposite direction! This decided me to moor up for the day, though I had intended to carry on to Braunston or thereabouts.

2007-05-16 Wednesday Namche Bazaar -> Debuche altitude 3740m

Trekking with glorious weather. Ended the day at Debuche This was the first day I have enjoyed the actual trekking. Ended the day in a very basic lodge, where there sleep was something of a problem, as noise reverberated through the building. Had a light headed moment as we arrived at the monastry at Tengboche and learnt from this that I need to carry energy food (such as chocolate bars) and to eat at regular intervals.

2007-05-15 Tuesday Namche Bazaar altitude 3440m

Testing day today, and I am feeling irritable at the stupidity of those around me, and rather depressed. I don't think I am performing very well, and my guess is that even good adaption to altitude which I conned myself I had, is an illusion, though I haven't been on the bike yet. When I got on the bike it was hard work, and was interrupted by an interested spectator. My maximum work rate was 200w, compared to 230w at sea level, and 240w at Katmandu.

2007-05-14 Monday Namche Bazaar alt 3440m

Met up with David Coates, who is doing all the calibration of all the testing equipment, up to and including base camp, and possibly higher. He spends his time going from testing station to testing station, with his calibration equipment which is carried by two porters - one lump is an unmanageable 45k. He is good friends with the farmer, Robert Weston, at Grafton Regis, whose farm is just up the canal from my moorings, and which is much larger than I realised. Went into Namche to buy a few odds and ends including a kerchief in order to block the dust from my mouth and throat. The lodge is very good, and the owner, who has a sherpa museum in the base of the hotel is very accomodating. He is completely deaf, so communication can be difficult, but he is very willing to please. The grounds of the hotel have a crashed helicopter as part of the decor - not a very usual form of decoration.

2007-05-13 Sunday Monjo -> Namche Bazaar alt 3440m

Today was a straight ascent of 1000m. We started at 08:00 and finished at 14:00. I found I was hitting the wall - getting very fatigued, to the point that my body would not do what I was telling it to do. I was also taking very small steps. Namche Bazaar is a market town, as it lies at the point (in altitude) where rice and wheat growing meet. It is a town built on a hillside in a semicircular valley.

2007-05-12 Saturday Katmandu -> Lukla alt 2840m Lukla -> Monjo alt 2830m

04:00 start, in order to do our diaries; have breakfast; have our luggage collected; and be driven to the airport to catch a local twin engined Beaver to Lukla. These planes only took about 14 so we needed to use two planes. The one I was on was flown by Yeti Airlines - I was so taken with the name that I retained the boarding pass.

Once we got to Lukla, we went to the Jagged Globe depot, where we met the Sirdar, Sherpas and porters. We had tea, sorted out our day sacks, and eventually started out trekking Lukla is a ribbon town, on the main path up the valley. Most of the shops seemed to be selling trekking gear, or tourist souveniers, or both. The group spent some time purchasing odds and ends before moving on. The trekking was downhill for a considerable way, and then lots of ups and downs, ending up at virtually the same altitude we started at. I found the trekking very tiring, and by the end of the day I was extremely tired, though I had no aches or pains for my trouble.

2007-05-10 Thursday Bahrain -> Katmandu

The expected delay in Bahrain was six hours but there was a further delay (again!) on top of that with multiple changes of gate and expected arrival time. Eventually got off about 02:00 local time and arrived Katmandu 08:45, which was only about 1/2 hour later than scheduled. Summit Hotel is pleasant enough with swimming pool and outside veranda stocked with chairs and tables, and is used for meals as an extension to the dining room. This provides feeding for the resident hooded crows. If one left a meal for only a minute or two, they would swoop down and pinch food off the plate. Turned down an opportunity to go into the shopping and tourist area as I was sufficiently tired that I thought it would be a chore rather than a pleasure. Spent the afternoon reading, taking photographs and lounging about.

2007-05-09 Wednesday Heathrow -> Bahrain

Up at 05:45 and caught the Hoppa bus to Heathrow. Met up with the trekking group and checked in. Bought a replacement alarm clock at Heathrow. There was nothing notable about the flight to Bahrain, it was the usual long haul flight - long, tedious and boring.

2007-05-08 Tuesday Boat -> Heathrow

Left about 09:45 - later than I had intended, but not too bad. I woke up at 06:00 and did many of the jobs I intended, including writing to my sister, and to a friend in Norwich. I need to record that I did 1 1/2 hours Tai Ji for yesterday - I ran the class at Braunston with only 5 people. Managed to leave my travel alarm behind after all my mental notes to the contrary.

Extreme Everest Trek

I am posting my trek diary, now I have returned from Nepal. The entries will be dated according to the original date my diary entry refers to.

2007-05-17 Thursday Debuche -> Pheriche altitude 4306m

Another glorious day with enjoyable trekking. It really has been good today and this evening. I feel really good. I spent part of the evening bringing this diary up to date. I still have not broken my personal record for sleeping at altitude, which is 4400m at the hotel on the Tibetan side, last year.

Xtreme Everest IV - Wales weekend

Last weekend was the preparatory weekend for the Everest trek in Wales. This consisted of general get to know other participants on the trek I am on; a series of lectures on kit, altitude sickness, trekking hygine, and a slide show showing the route we will be taking up to Everest Base Camp. In addition there was a trek up a Welsh lump which approximated the worst day's trekking that we will do - though of course this was at low rather than at high altitude. All in all it was an enjoyable and worthwhile weekend, and I learnt some things about the adequacy of my kit, and the level of my fitness. I knew I was not as fit as I would wish, but it was a bit of a shock to find that I was not even as fit as I had been kidding myself I was.

One of the couples who are going on the trek following mine, William and Sylvia, were on a trip I made to China and Tibet in 2004. Small world syndrome.

The trip over to North Wales was horrible - taking over two hours longer than I had anticipated, but the weekend was glorious, and the journey back was very good - under four hours including two stops.

Heros

I spent the weekend (Thursday to Monday) attending and participating in the Heros Advanced Squad Leader tournement held in Blackpool. I drove up to Blackpool from Milton Keynes in a very leisurely way on Thursday, arriving about 13:00. I had eaten lunch at a motorway service station before I arrived, so I was able to book into my room and then go out for a long walk along the seafront and then the beach towards Lytham St Annes and back. The weather was glorious - a far call from the equivalent weekend last year, which was snow, sleet, slush, bitter winds, and all in all not very nice. The difference in weather made a substantial difference to Blackpool too. Last year there were virtually no businesses open, and very few people around. This year most of the businesses, including the big dipper, were open and there were a lot of people around (including unfortunately, hen and/or stag parties which were disturbing the peace between 02:00 and 03:00 some of the nights).

The tournement proper started on Friday, Initially I increased my unbroken sequence of losses from 11 to 13, but then won one game, lost another, and then won the last one. As a result I ended up the tournement with a record of 2-3 for the event, which will, I am sure, shift me off the bottom of the ranking list. The selection of scenarios at the event was really interesting and presented a variety of knotty problems.

I had managed to leave my mobile phone - my only phone - on the boat. This did not help as I had an auction going on ebay for the sale of my old boat engine, which terminated on Saturday, and the travel agent for the Xtreme Everest expedition required payment for the (small) outstanding balance by Friday. Trying to use the bed and breakfast's pay phone revealed that one of the keys on the numeric key pad was not working, so I could not use that, and attempts to use Skype by one of the attendees did not work for a variety of trivial, but annoying reasons. I ended up borrowing the under desk phone from reception at the bed and breakfast, and duely made my calls. Then somebody needed to get back to me in respect of the engine sale, and this was another farrago of problems.

The good news was that the engine sold, for an amount that I considered reasonable, and I have subsequently arranged for the engine to be collected from the boat yard where it is currently held.

Life, The Universe and Everything

Today, one of the broadcasters on Radio 4's news programmes quoted from H L Mencken. It struck me as so apt, funny, painful and in general apposite that I thought I would post it here.

"Self respect is the comfortable feeling that arises when, thus far, no one is suspicious."

I, and friends of mine, have described the feeling that what they are doing is in some way an act, and that they live, expecting to be found out.

As I said, an apposite quotation.

Xtreme Everest III

The testing day for the Nepal trip was interesting. I had to get to North London for 09:00 which was easy enough. However, I had looked at a Google map and satellite photo of the area on the web, based on postcode. Trying to go to the point indicated on the map put me in the middle of the large hospital rather than on the university site, which is where the testing was being held. As a result I arrived for the testing with absolutely no time to spare.

The testing started off with a presentation of the project, followed by going round a number of testing stations. None of the tests (except one) were particularly difficult - the intention was to obtain a sea level base line for each of the guinea pigs.

There were psychogical assessments of concentration, memory, verbal fluency, and other aspects of mental activity, that are likely to degrade in low oxygen situations. There were also various static metrics taken - height, weight, and skull measurements. Also retinal photographs and measurements of visual acuity.

Then on to the dynamic tests. These consisted of VO2 measurements and maximum air flow through the lungs and then the exercise bikes. Wired up with multiple sensors; for blood pressure, oxygen concentration in various parts of the body, heart activity. and (for all I know) seismic activity; the first test involved cycling for about 40 minutes at varying (low) workloads. The final dynamic test was maximum work load, again on the bike, with steadily increasing loads until one reached the physical maximum that one could do. This was the only difficult test.

Then a welcome lunch - in a typical hospital canteen. Final items in the testing day included the completion, with a paired volunteer of the daily diary one is expected to fill out - blood pressure readings, respiration rates, symptoms and feelings.

Many of these tests will be repeated every three or four days, at various increasing altitudes up to Everest Base camp.

All in all it was an fascinating day.

Heros Advanced Squad Leader Tournement

I have been looking at the scenarios for the Heros ASL Tournement in Blackpool in March. I currently have the distinction of being bottom of the UK tournement ladder - having lost 11 games in a row. Cheer up they said - things could be worse; so I cheered up and sure enough things got worse. I enjoy playing ASL which I find a fascinating game; but as I am not particularly competitive I enjoy the game, and the simulation it provides; but am not too bothered about the actual results of the game.

Travel Itineray 2006-08-28

I still have not fully catalogued my photos from my last trip to the Far East, and to finish that task I am finding it useful to refer back to the itinery that was produced for me by my travel agent. I did post the itinery, but as far as I can see, it is useful for me and no use at all for anybody else, so I have deleted it.

Xtreme Everest II

Today I have been chasing up on odds and end arising from my recent decision to take up one of the slots that came available on the expedition. It has mainly been paperwork - booking form; visa form; insurance form; and discussions with the insurance company. Then filling the holes in my equipment, as I have not trekked in such extreme conditions before, though I have been at altitude before - not least last September when I had a major trip through China, Mongolia, Tibet and Nepal.

At the end of my fuse

I have spent a totally frustrating day. I live on a narrowboat, which has a 12 volt DC electricity supply. Some time ago, a fuse went, losing me the lighting and cigarette sockets at the front of the boat (under the tug front). The description the previous owner and constructor of the boat left me says that there are four fuse locations on the boat - one multi fuse in the engine room; and one for each spur of wiring he had installed; one in the airing cupboard to supply the bedroom area; one under the sink to supply the lounge area; and one in the stereo alcove supplying the front lighting. I have located and checked all the fuses except the last - which is the one I am sure has gone. But can I find the last fuse! I have spent today removing equipment from the area of the stero alcove, investigating every dark corner and crevice I can find with a powerful torch, looking for the fuse. It is nowhere to be found. So tomorrow I will have to start shifting all the items I have stored in the tug front to continue my investigations - which of course are hampered by the fact that there is no light in any of these areas because the fuse has gone. Grrrrrh!!

Xtreme Everest

Last August I heard about the Xtreme Everest expedition, from I think, a New Scientist article. I emailed them to express an interest; had no response; and more or less forgot about it.

All this changed, last Friday, when I received an email at 16:00 which said that they had not contacted anybody whose application to be a subject was unsuccessful. It went on to say that a few volunteers had dropped out, and that if I could commit to attending a day of testing yesterday, and could commit to one of the list of dates from April to May, there were a number of slots available on a first come, first served basis.

This provoked a great deal of activity, thought and investigation on my part, which I conducted over the course of the weekend, and a number of phone calls and emails. It culminated in me speaking to the project manager at 14:15 on Monday, 12th February, 2007 to confirm that I had a slot and that I would be attending the final testing day on Tuesday.

I went for testing yesterday, and will be posting my impressions of that a bit later.