The plan

Gulp- it's the day before D-Day, and I'm 3/4 packed. But I have a TON of administrative stuff to do still, plus photos to print out, an itinerary for mum so she can follow our progress, parcels to prepare for the PO, etc. I'm quite impressed that I'm packed already- it's usually a last minute panic the night before. I guess I didn't want the cat sleeping on (or getting lost in) the pile on the bed in the spare room- he could've ended up coming with me. And I'm trying to be gentle on my back: I found out a couple of weeks ago I have a bulging disc, more commonly known as a slipped disc. I now have a corset to wear when it starts playing up!

So the grand plan is this: we fly to Delhi first, stay one night, fly to Kathmandu, stay 2 nights, fly to Lhasa (capital of Tibet), spend 3 nights there, and then begin the long journey west to the Mountain. Takes about 5 days by land cruiser (probably takes the same time in any other vehicle too) and we'll be camping for part of it. Tis a real adventure. I've been reading quite a few books on the subject- lots of people who've been there have published their journeys, probably out of relief that they made it (see list to the right).

Then we wend our weary way back to Kathmandu, stay one night, fly back to Delhi where me, Tim & Tom part from Rik and catch an overnight train up to Dharamsala (or Pathankot, the nearest station), stay a few nights, pop into Bir on our way back to teh station on Saturday to say hi to my Tiblets, then head back to the Capital to fly back home. I'm guessing we'll be quite knackered!

And just in case any of you are wondering what Tiblets are, they're some Tibetan children whom I met several years ago and have sort of been adopted by them. I visit htem every time I go to Dharamsala and spoil them rotten, if I can. They're not children anymore either, the older 'boys' are in their early 20s.
Tiblets and me a couple of years ago

Kailash

Mount Kailash...home to Shiva, home to Demchok (the Buddha of supreme bliss), the place where the founder of Jainism attained liberation, and the seat of all spiritual power, according to the Bon religion. So that's 4 different religions who consider it sacred. As such, it's not permitted to climb it. Ok, so walking round it is the only alternative, which sounds easy in itself...except that you have to take in to account that it is not at sea level. In fact when you start at the beginning of the 3 days walk round it, the altitude is 15,000 ft, going up to a glorious (!) 18,000ft (5,600m) at Dolma Pass on day 2.

And on July 24th, me, my brother Rik, and 2 of his sons, Tim and Tom, are heading to Mt. Kailash. Why? Good question. I've wanted to go there for ages, but every time I was in Tibet I either didn't have enough money or enough time. So I decided to arrange it from over here and make the time, otherwise life would flow too quickly by and I'd miss the opportunity. And bizarrely, Rik, Tim and Tom wanted to come too! So it's a Fox family outing and will be the first time we've travelled together (unless you count the weekend in the Lake District a couple of weeks ago). This will be interesting!


The Fox family up a mountain in the Lakes, having a rest

Hope Rik doesn't take a step forward absent mindedly!

Someone very kindly put some steps into this mountain for us- wonder if they'll have done the same in Tibet?

update July 07

Crikey, I haven't written anything for ages. Well, at least we know that Ama-la and Tsering got back ok, and had a great time regailing people with their stories of life in the UK.

The charity is running along swimmingly- one of the trustees very generously donated his 50th birthday monies to us, and we have a bit more publicity now as people came to hear of us through the exhibition.

Talking of which, if you are anywhere near Milton Keynes, it's on show at the Open University until August 26th. I believe it's hanging in the exhibition space in the Library, so go check it out. Hopefully I'll be there on the last day to give a talk, with Karen, our trusty secretary.

But the big news is the upcoming trek to Tibet...

more later...