Everest Base Camp Trek

We made it! Both Peter and I made it to Everest Base Camp with the rest of our group and returned safely to the UK with no major mishaps. When I thought about writing our blog for this trip I decided that a day by day account of the trip would be highly boring for you readers so I have instead decided to talk about general areas to give you a little feel for what it was like.

The Trek

In general the actual walking part was pretty much what we were expecting. There were a lot of sections of "Nepalese Flat" which consists of short uphill sections followed by short downhill sections with little indication of if you are going up or downhill overall. There were a few hard days of all uphill or all downhill. On the uphill I struggled with being a bit slower (unfit) and on the downhill my knees eventually gave me some pain but not enough pain to be too much of a problem. Our group generally split into a front group and a back group, I was in the back group going up and the front group going down. Peter would have been in the front group all the way but ever the gentleman he was never too far away from where I was which at times was annoying for me as I knew he wanted to go faster but it was also a great comfort to know he was nearby.

The views and scenery were incredible and hard to capture on camera or to explain. At some points you look around and it seems like any other alpine area, then you remember that you are at 4000m and the mountains are another 3000-4000m above you and it brings it back into perspective. I did find it strange that as we were walking in a valley for a lot of the trek you got a lot of views of the tops of mountains rather then whole ranges of mountains. All that said the views were amazing.

Noise, well lack of should I say. I recall one day when we were walking on a high pass well above the river and the group was quite well spread out. There was no noise at all, complete silence, no distant hum of roads or machinery, no talking, no animal or insect noise, just complete and utter silence, something I don't ever recall hearing. Over the whole trek the most common noise was the bells of the yaks/cows which is very helpful to know to get out of the way! For the whole two weeks of the trek there were no cars, motorbikes, bicycles, only people or animals walking, easy to get used to not having all that around, but a shock to the system when we got back to Kathmandu.

The other occupants on the trails were other trekkers, porters, yaks/cows, donkeys, sherpas, sirdars and the local people. Other trekkers were a wide group of people from varying backgrounds and levels of fitness. Some obvious mountaineers and some Sunday walkers. On the way back down it was also easy to spot the clean hikers and the ones that had been up high for a long time. The porters were incredible, carrying huge loads everywhere we went. They mainly seemed to carry them on their necks and back and often carried a t shaped stick to rest the load on. There were numerous porter rest stops along the trail and some special paths (steeper and shorter) for them to overtake the tourists. They had a habit of creeping up behind you and waiting until you realised they were there before passing you, so polite. Our bags were transported by a cross between a yak and a cow, there were a lot of these animals on the trek and further up there were proper yaks. Also used were donkeys. All of them had bells on so people could hear them coming and move out of the way. The animals get priority, partly because they are bigger, but mainly because they are carrying wide loads and have big horns! The general rule is to keep to the uphill side of the paths and find a nook/cranny to protect yourself. Another trick is to use your hiking stick to guide them away from you. Our group didn't have any major issues with any of the animals we passed and by the end of it we were all quite happy to be passed by them. The sherpas and sirdas I will talk about later, but on the trail, they all knew each other and many other people along the way, often found singing or on their phones, but always watchful of the clients. The local people were often found around the villages and not very often in between. Lots and lots of small children playing with anything and everything they could find always with a big smile on their faces.

Accommodation, Food and Water

Better then we expected. We had in our minds NZ tramping huts, very basic, wooden, toilets (long drops) outside. However they were luxury compared to that. We always had a twin share room, complete with pillow and one place even had carpet. The toilets varied from flush sit down toilets to squat toilets with a bucket of water to flush. Some smelt awful as the toilet paper doesn't go down the loo but sits in a bucket and sometimes these weren't emptied that often. Other places were quite pleasant. We were both surprised that the rest of our group in general expected higher quality, better not send them on the NZ great walks! The teahouses (which is where we stayed) were generally freezing in the rooms (not much different to what was outside) with a central dining room with a powerful heater. So post dinner most people were found in the dinning room sitting there in T-shirts then putting on their down jackets to go to bed. Hot showers were a luxury and generally consisted of a shower room with a concrete floor and a shower and limited light. They cost extra and most were about £2-£3 (not time limited). At the higher altitudes there were no showers so a lot of our group went for 5-7 days with no shower.

The food was also far better then I was expecting, lots of rice, noodles, soup and potatoes. I'm sure the Nepalese make the best hot chips! In general our meals were chosen for us and we all ate the same. Occasionally we were allowed to choose our own. Breakfast consisted of porridge, and omelette of some sort. My favourite thing by a mile was Rara Noodle Soup (which is pretty much 2minute noodles!)

Water was not drinkable, so each morning and evening our Sherpas would boil up a massive kettle of water and top up our water bottles. Even with insulation on our bottles, they were still cold in the morning.

The Trek Staff

These guys made our trip possible and kept us safe and well for the whole trip. We had a Sirdar (Sherpa leader), Lakpa, who was employed by the trek company in Nepal and given a set amount of cash for the Trip. Lakpa then hired some other Sherpas, a porter, and the yaks (and driver) to ensure the trip went well. He also kept an eye on the budget and organised all of the accommodation and food. The other Sherpas took it in turn to lead the trek and then the others were generally spread out between us, as we were in two groups we generally had a leader and follower for each group. Occasionally a Sherpa would disappear only to reappear at lunch or tea stop having gone on ahead and ordered lunch or tea so that it was ready when we arrived. They were friendly and chatty and always very happy and smiling. They seemed to know everyone on the trail and often stopped to chat with them. They never ate with us and would always wait until after we had finished until they ate. They had an amazing ability to spot when you weren't your best and would offer to carry a bag, your sticks or stop you for a rest. These guys really made our trip what it was and they deserved the tip we gave them at the end, without a doubt. At one stage we changed our trip plans to spend an extra night acclimatising so one of the Sherpa's had to RUN ahead four days of our trek and back in a day to rebook all of the teahouses, absolutely amazing. There was also an afternoon where we went on an acclimatisation trek a little higher and then returned, on the way there Lakpa looked at me and said in a firm way, "you have come far enough, Gombu will take you back now." I wasn't feeling the best but it was great that he could tell from the way I was walking and how I was that I needed to go back and rest.

Our Group

Our group consisted of 13 trekkers and one leader. In general on the trek we all got along great and there was a perfect team attitude about sticking together and arriving at our goal about the same time. We had two VERY fit 20 something young men and their dads, an 18yr old and her mum, another couple in their early 30s, a single (well on his own) man and another pair of 50 yr old men, so we had a range of ages and fitness levels. The evenings were spent playing cards (thanks Deborah for the Kathmandu cards) generally simple games that our brains could deal with at high altitude. Once we returned to Kathmandu the group generally stuck together and spent the rest of the trip together with the exception of two guys who did their own thing. Peter and I generally spent a lot of our time with Ed and Kevin (the two young fit guys), Roger and Kim (their dads), and John (keen outdoor enthusiast). Overall a totally lovely group of people who also made the trip what it was.

Affects of Altitude

I was affected much more with the altitude then Peter was. From day 2 I lost my appetite and it didn't return until day 15 (this worked out well fro Ed and Kevin as they ate my left overs). I had nausea and really felt the difficulty with the reduced oxygen. We both had headaches at various points but nothing major. Peter suffered from disturbed sleep, whereas I slept like a baby for the entire trip. We both decided to take Diamox to help with altitude sickness so it would have been interesting to know what we would have been like without that. One of the side affects of Diamox is pins and needles in hands and feet, which was very bizarre. Our whole group seemed to cope OK with the altitude and we all made it to base camp. The strangest thing at the high altitudes is you notice how much effort it takes to brush your teeth or get dressed and you have to have a rest part way through. Walking is actually OK if you walk slow enough so that your breathing can catch up, lots and lots of short rests are required. The thing that worried me the most was my loss of appetite. I felt that as I was exercising I needed fuel but I just couldn't stomach it or I would fill up very quickly. Lunch was about the only meal for a week and a half that I could eat. Once our trip leader had explained to me that it wasn't a big deal if I wasn't eating a lot then I stopped worrying about it which improved my trip, I also noticed that others weren't eating either so it wasn't just me.

Party Night

Our last night of the trek consisted of LOTS of dancing (which was surprising that we had energy as our last trek day was a 5hr trek). At one point I shared the dance floor with Sherpa Tenzing Norgay's grandson who has been to the top of Everest six times. We had met him on the way up and had a long chat with him about his Everest trips and those of his six brothers who have all been to the top of Everest. He was a totally lovely person and it was very cool to have a dance with him!

Kathmandu

What a shock to the senses having some time in Kathmandu after a peaceful trek. Every taxi ride was a roller coaster ride. There are no lane markings or road rules of any kind it would seem. We were hassled everywhere we went to buy something or pay a guide. We spent an afternoon getting lost in Kathmandu and wondering the streets with no footpaths. One day we went to a temple to have a look round and there happened to be a cremation taking place. On one side of the "river" was the cremation, on the other were some children playing in the river, downstream was a boy collecting the burnt funeral pyre logs in an old coffin and a dog looking for food. All VERY surreal and strange.

Training Progress

To help with my training I purchased a heart rate monitor that I now wear on all of my training sessions. Here is the results for the first four weeks. Bar charts are showing duration and the line is my average heart rate. Week four was technically a easy week as I didn't do as many gym sessions during the week, however it terms of time it looks like I made up for it.

Costa Brava

Travelling to the Costa Brava from the Pyrenees was perhaps one of the strangest days weather wise I have had. We left St Beat and it was drizzly and about 10-11 degrees, not too bad really. We finished the trip in bright sunshine and about 26 degrees (that's more like it for a summer holiday!) however in between these two we were driving through snow, yes it was snowing, there was snow on the ground and it was below 0 degrees, crazy. Anyway, Costa Brava = lovely and hot, not much to report as we mainly sat on the beach, well I did, Peter went windsurfing a little bit and we ate lots of yummy food. All good and a lovely end to our summer holiday

The Pyrenees - In Training

"In training for what?" I hear you ask. Well as Peter and I are both not in our 20's any more and as we have always both wanted to do some trekking in Nepal we have decided that we are going to trek to Everest Base Camp in October of this year, so we thought we should get some training in before the trip on some proper mountains.

We stayed at a wonderful bed and breakfast (that also served dinner) run by a lovely English couple who were the most social, friendly hosts I have ever come across in paid for accommodation. So week 1 of our two week holiday was spent around the Bagnères-de-Luchon area hiking up and down a fair few hills. Day 1 we thought we would start easy and get used to hiking again so following the suggestion of our host Ron we walked up a stream, along a ridge and down to the house. I was thinking a four hour hike to start with would be good but we returned back to the house 8hrs(!!!) later feeling a little worse for wear, but not as bad as I had thought. The great news was that Peter's knee (which he has been having problems with) was just fine with his new fancy brace that he was wearing.

Now I'm sure many of you are thinking, France in June, us hiking, the weather has got to be good right, sunshine and fab views, well.... think again. Day 2 was a day to test our wet weather gear and test it we did. Can't recall a great deal about the walk except not being able to see more then about 50m ahead due to the fact that to start with we were walking in rain then in the clouds. Lovely, but we were all nice and dry which is great to know that all our gear will keep us dry for our trip. The rest of the week was filled with more walking and a fair bit of reading. We ate a couple of meals at the B&B as Ron was a fabulous cook and Peter enjoyed a fair few glasses of wine while watching some of the football world cup. Towards the end of the trip, my knees started to give me grief so I was glad that we were off to Costa Brava next!

A bit of an update...

30th Birthday

So for my 30th birthday this year we went to a pub in Oxford for pies and drinks. I was stoked to discover that the pub I had chosen served steak and cheese pies! Perfect. It was a lovely night shared with some work friends and also a couple of friends from NZ (Nivi and Alistair) and my dear friend Lisa. It was a lovely evening and a great way to celebrate.

For my birthday weekend Peter took me to Bath to get some boots, however that was a failed mission due to my 'muscly' legs (the less said about that the better!) On the Sunday we went to Cheddar George, the home of Cheddar cheese. It was a bitterly cold day and we were very glad to get into the caves that stay a nice warm 11 degrees (it was about 2-3 outside). Inside the caves were some stunning reflective pools, a 9000 year old skeleton and some cheese being matured. This area was also very interesting for me as there were lots of water supply things around that are all modelled using the software I sell.

Austria

We went to Austria for a week. Peter went snowboarding. I didn't. Not a holiday we will be repeating. It was for a friends 30th so it was lovely to be there for that. But other then that, nothing for me to report. I think Peter had a great time. In future he will go off snowboarding and I will go away to the coast with my friend Lisa... There are a few photos here, if you are wondering about the costumes it was a furry animal day for the birthday celebrations.

Burst Water Mains and Shopping

Well we are still surrounded by snow and a lot of it. More is forecast for tonight and once again we have a weather warning for snow. So a couple of my kiwi friends are asking how it is affecting life for us, so here is a little tale (and also an excuse of way we still have no photos).

Peter and I thought that today would be a good day to go and do some food shopping as a) we were running low and b) it hadn't snowed for a few days so we hoped it would all be OK before the snow comes again. So we are sitting at the dinner table eating breakfast and making a shopping list when we look out the window to see our neighbour (the one who moved) running around his other neighbours knocking on doors looking in a bit of a panic. I (because I am a nosey neighbour) noted he was in trousers and a t shirt and had no shoes on. Thought he looked a bit odd. Then they rushed out spades at the ready and began digging. When I got a look at the front of him, he was soaking. Peter and I left our breakfast and went out to find out what was going on. They had a burst water main inside their house (or perhaps someone elses house, as today was handover day) and it was the wrong side of the internal stop tap. We needed to find the meter and the outside valve. However our road and grass verges are covered in 15cm of snow. So we started digging. Luckily one of the other neighbours helping remembered seeing the water guy reading the meter so we knew where abouts to look (English water meters are not easy to find!) We found something that looked like it could be it, but it was full of water. I couldn't think what it would be but we (as a group decided) that it wasn't it, so the search continued. I decided it would be a good idea to call the water company as I knew they have information on where exactly the water meter is. So after being on hold for forever I finally got through, explained the situation and the lady said she would need to talk to the account holder. He said something along the lines of tell her what she needs to know and leave me out of it. He was too busy trying to stem the vast flow of water in the kitchen, still soaked to the bone. So she described to me where the meter was. Then we followed the directions and it turned out it was the thing we had found in the first place. So we started emptying the chamber to find the valves. Finally we got to a point where we could see them but we could reach them. Even with Peter lying on the ground with his arm and shoulder in the ground. We got a few monkey wrenches and eventually found one long enough to reach it. From inside the house was a scream of joy! Mission done. However we still had one soaked neighbour and one soaked neighbours mother in law. A change of clothes were sourced and we made them a cup of tea. They had been running around in freezing temps (I don't think we got into the positives today) so I hope they don't get sick. What an effort and we felt so sorry for them. They had come back to do some final cleaning and this happened. So snow lesson one, always know where your water meter valve is!

As for daily life, the snow on our road and the fact that it doesn't get gritted means that it is difficult to drive on. Peter's car is a rear wheel drive car and the Nissan needs a couple of new tyres so it has no grip in the snow. We can drive Peter's car but it can't make it up the hill to our house. So we have to park it down the bottom of our road. This isn't and hasn't been a major issue, but today we wanted to do the food shopping. Off we walked, stopping to push a couple of stuck cars on the way and off we went. As it turned out it was the first day the supermarket had opened as they had been clearing the car park, so everyone was shopping it was busy! We came back and then had to walk up the hill with our shopping. Not a real biggie, I know lots of people can't even get to supermarkets with cars so we were lucky in that respect. It does make you appreciate being able to drive up to your house.

As for getting around, the roads (main roads) get gritted and snow ploughed daily or before a big snowfall so driving on those roads are fine. Getting to those roads is interesting. The footpaths are not clear of snow, they are getting well compacted and icy so Peter and I have been going out in our hiking boots every day, they are great in the snow/ice. Tonight we walked up to the Indian for a curry, bit of a mission but after this long everyone is getting used to it a bit.

The other thing that has struck me is how much more pleasant life would be if we talked to random strangers the same way we do when we are in a 'crisis'. You end up having so much more integration with people and there is a real sense of community, all in the same boat and all that. One of my friends started digging out their drive and all of the neighbours came out to help as it is a communal drive. He said after living there for two years it was great to finally meet his neighbours. I agree, it has been great to meet our neighbours, but alas we met the ones that aren't are neighbours anymore.

So where to from here, the snow will take ages to melt, especially all the mini snow mountains that have appeared from digging. Peter has to swap his car on Monday so we are hoping he will be able to get there OK. The Nissan will be serviced on Tuesday and hopefully get some new tyres so I should be able to drive a bit too. I'll probably work at home for the next little while, cause I'm a wimp when it comes to driving in the snow, although I am a LOT better!

So hopefully I'll be able to get out tomorrow and get some pics. I was planning on going today but with the water thing I was a bit tired and they was little daylight left :-(

The Big Freeze (to steal the BBC headline)

Well the snow fell and now we are stuck with it and freezing temperatures. The day after the big snowfall Peter and I both worked at home. Day 2, Peter spent an hour digging his car out and made it to work. I worked at home. By the end of the day a lot of our neighbours were digging out drives and the road. When Peter got home he said some of the neighbours were out digging the bottom of the road and we should go and help. I wasn't so keen having spent a good hour digging out our own drive, but off we went. We discovered that they were doing this as one of our neighbours is due to move today and they were expecting a truck.

Anyway, we are doing fine. The house is nice and warm. We are still using our summer duvet and turning the heating right down during the night. I am working from home and Peter is making it in to work (as long as they don't run out of grit). Hopefully we are able to do a food shop on the weekend. I think now people are just getting used to this snow.

I suppose I should take some pictures...

New Year - New Snow!

I know this may all be a little boring for you southern hemisphere people basking in that hot sun but I thought I would share with you the extreme weather warning that we have in place. You can read the full report here but if that has changed then this is what it said...

Outbreaks of snow will turn heavy this evening and overnight giving fresh accumulations of 10-15 cm in places and perhaps locally in excess of 20 cm. This could cause widespread disruption to transport. The public are advised to take extra care and refer to the Highways Agency for further advise on traffic disruption on motorways and trunk roads.
Issued at: 1150 Tue 5 Jan

Additional to that we have this...

There is a high risk of an extreme weather event affecting parts of Southern England this evening and overnight. A period of exceptionally heavy snowfall is expected with accumulations of 15-30 cm and perhaps in excess of 40 cm. This is expected to cause widespread disruption to the transport network and could lead to problems with power supplies. The public are advised to take extreme care and refer to the Highways Agency for further advice on traffic disruption on motorways and trunk roads.
Issued at: 1633 Tue 5 Jan

I am so glad I am home, ready for this 24hrs of snowfall that is forecast. I can't remember being in a place where it has snowed for 24hrs!

Drive home: Average Speed 2.6mph (~4km/h)

Reason: Snow

Perhaps you may recall last winter when I wimped out driving to work in the snow as I skidded at the end of our road. Well that stuck with me a little but today I thought I really should get over it. I can't live in a country where it does snow and not drive in it, so I jumped in my car and headed off to work. Our road was fine (with a lot of explanation from Peter about what to do) and the drive to work was interesting but OK. The roads had been gritted and as long as you didn't drive like an idiot it was cool.

Got to work, worked, and then the news came in. Roads where closing all around Reading due to heavy snow. I thought, that's it I'm going to leave now so I have a chance of getting home. All was going well until I hit the actual snow falling in Pangbourne. Then there were no cars, strange I thought, but OK. Then I found the end of a very long queue...

When leaving a destination and you think you may need the loo, go! Otherwise you may end up in my predicament, stuck in a queue of traffic with what seems to be a lot of builders and van drivers! After 3hrs I couldn't stand it any longer I had to go. So I planned it carefully, I was now on a duel carriage way (still surrounded by vans) and I realised that if I went in front of my car then only the people in one lane would see me and if I timed it right no-one would as I would be obscured by the surrounding vans/cars. So I waited, first gap wasn't good enough, second one was. I got out the car and realised that we were moving again, got back in the car. Third gap, again not good enough. Fourth gap, not ideal but I had to go. So out I hop, do my business and the other lane of traffic start moving, so really quite a few people had a look. Anyway, I think they could all appreciate it! It was snowing but now I can say I have done something that some people will never get a chance to, pee on the A4 in the snow!

Anyway, I threw caution to the wind and started to text some friends I knew would be in the same strife as me to see how they were getting on. Most people were home and dry, even Peter had given up and got a hotel (great move that one!) One of my friends had abandoned their car and walked an hour home in the snow. Me, I had another 6miles to go...

I was starting to get hungry, and thirsty. Thirst I could live with for a while, hunger was annoying. I hunted round and found an old boiled sweet, man was it good. Then the traffic started to move, and it kept moving pretty much all the way home. Driving along the M4 was interesting, lots of black ice, trucks parked on the hard shoulder all 6miles of the M4 that I had to go on. I should point out I was on the primary routes here, all were gritted and I had it good really. There is a tiny stretch from the A33 to our house that isn't gritted, it was slow, slippery and interesting but I made it an managed to park the car in the drive (easily found between the houses, snow's not that deep yet!) So, YAY I am home, 7hrs after leaving work.

I will try to take some pics from around here and all the snow tomorrow. Working from home and who knows when Peter will come home, maybe he'll have another night in a hotel in Woking tomorrow.

Greece

We were supposed to have gone to Greece in June/July but due to our relaxed style of booking stuff we ended up going in October as we had left it too late to go in June. This worked out well in some respects in that it wasn't too hot and there weren't too many tourists and not so well in others in that some of the things we wanted to see and do where shut.

Peter organised this entire trip so full credit to him for a wonderful holiday, which was planned perfectly!

We flew into Athens and headed into the city centre to dump our luggage in a locker and find some lunch, and what we found was YUMMY! I love Greek food! We had a little wonder round the centre then headed out to the ports to catch our ferry to Paraos, one of the many Greek Islands. We arrived at Paraos at about 10pm and we were told that our hotel owner would be there to pick us up, but he was not with the rest of the people who picked people up. There was lots of people 'selling' accommodation and they jumped on us as we looked a little lost, however once we told them we had booked somewhere they asked where and said he's that way, and pointed off in some random direction. Eventually we found him and after a short drive we arrived at our hotel and went straight to sleep.

When we woke up we opened the doors to our balcony and we were faced with a lovely view over a little bay just off the front of the hotel. It was so quiet, there was very little noise at all. We got dressed and had breakfast with about three cats sitting by the sea. We spent four days in Paraos, mostly relaxing and eating. For two days we hired a scooter and rode round the island. At one point on a very steep hill, I had to get off as the poor little scooter could cope with the two of us on. Peter thought this was a good reason to take it back and get a bigger one but I didn't really like that idea! Paraos was hot (well 25-27 degrees) and quiet which was just what we were after for our October break.

After Paraos it was back to Athens for some old stuff! Our hotel was pretty reasonable, except you could hear everything everywhere as there was no carpet anywhere to absorb any sound. Athens is also pretty noisy so after Paraos it was a shock to the system. We spent a few days walking round the city visiting all the old stuff that people usually go to. I think something I found very cool was some of the buildings had been built over old ruins, so they had glass floors so you could still see the ruins. It was very cool, but a little strange when you are in the loo of a restaurant and looking at the ruins beneath your feet!

There are lots of photos on our photo page

And that was it our last trip for 2009.... What will 2010 have in store for us I wonder?

The Netherlands or The COOLEST TRIP EVER!!!!!!!!!!

Well, OK, we have had some pretty cool trips while we have been here, but from a civil engineers (who likes all things water) point of view this really was the coolest trip ever.

August bank holiday we headed over to the Netherlands for a long weekend. The holiday started with a night in a very bizarre hotel with a shower and toilet in the same room as the bedroom, but enclosed in frosted glass cylindrical floor to ceiling wall things. Citizen M if you are ever in the area. Then we picked up our trusty hire car and drove to our campground in Amsterdam. Talk about a dodgy area of town, we were in it! Anyway, we pitched our tent then it was off for an explore around the town. First stop was of course the sex museum which was pretty interesting and surprising busy. Perhaps I should point out that we didn't plan on going there but it was raining and we were passing so we thought why not. We then spent a few days walking around, looking at all sorts of random stuff and eating in all sorts of random places. We visited the Anne Frank house which was really enlightening and interesting. We did a canal boat tour, and we also went to the Van Gogh museum where we randomly ran into a friend of our from NZ who had stayed with us a few weeks before. I think Monique was as surprised as we were! We also wondered the flower markets...

Look at the pic above for some interesting seeds to buy....

Here is out little tent surrounded by a few other tents and you can't see this, but bathed in a fog of hash smoke. I was glad to get out of this place!

After Amsterdam it was on to the Hague and the main reason for a trip here was the MC Escher museum. I was totally thrilled with the amount of his work here, this in itself was worth the trip! While we stayed in the Hague, we hired some bikes and had a ride around a little bit. To be honest, I think I can control a bike quite well, however if it has back brakes (the ones where you have to pedal backwards to stop) then I can't ride a bike. Peter couldn't understand why I was getting frustrated and kept riding out into traffic or not stopping when going down hills (or getting off to walk down the hills). I was also not impressed that I couldn't get a decent map in my head of where we were which always throws me. Not the best part of the holiday.

Then, after the Hague it was on to THE most EXCITING part of the trip... The delta works!!!!

I could go on for hours but I wont bore you non engineers too much. The delta works are a number of large storm protection barriers to protect the Netherlands from storms. A large percentage of the Netherlands is below sea level and after a massive flood in 1953 the government invested a lot of money to protect the country from flooding.

So quite randomly we stopped at the first barrier and tried to find somewhere to take a photo and get a better look. We happened across an 'information' centre that doubled as a restaurant. We asked about the barrier and if there was somewhere we could take a photo and they charged us 6 euro each, I was like, well pay the money I want to get a closer look! So we paid out money and we were led into a room (still with no decent view of the barrier) and we waited... On the wall was this map of some of the barriers...

Then a man came in and showed us into a smaller room and said there was a half hour video to watch then we could go on the tour. So we watched a video about the floods and then about the construction of the barriers, I was in heaven and we hadn't even got started! Once they were finished we then got a private tour all the way up to the barrier and then inside!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The photo above is us inside the big triangular section behind me in the photo below. For the engineers in the crowd there are two sets of radial sluice gates, one on the sea side and one on the estuary side. They usually remain up to allow the seawater and river water to mix. Check out the grin! Oh and the size of those radial sluice gates!

Then it was on to barrier number two. This one had a whole water park with exhibitions and demos and all sorts of other things. So this barrier is also a sluice gate but this isn't radial. It is big!!!

As part of the tour there was a boat ride which gives a better view of the gates...

And of course there is a kids water playground... I want one of these! Peter did get a little embarrassed that I was the only 'adult' playing :-)

Then sadly it was time to go and find a bed for the night. Alas we couldn't find a decent campsite so we stayed in a hotel. The staff there were a little surprised to get English speaking people, let alone English speaking people from NZ! We headed over the 60m sand dune to the beach for a little look at the sea.

And I couldn't resist building a dam while Peter took pictures.

Then the last day of the trip before heading home we stopped off to see some windmills. Imagine my delight when I realised they were all just an elaborate and fancy pumping system for water!

Now can you see why this was the COOLEST TRIP EVER!!!! It's going to be hard to beat this one I think.

There are a few more photos on our photo website...

A hare, a field mouse, the great British summer and some very cool machines!

I know, I know, what on earth am I talking about... The Royal International Air Tattoo of course.


We have wanted to go to this pretty much ever since we came to the UK, so this year we got organised and got us a pair of tickets for the Sunday and off we went. The air field is about an hour away from us and we got about half an hour from home (nicely timed to see the start of the show) and I realised I had forgotten the sunscreen, no wait, I mean my rain coat (the great British summer). This was a big big bummer as heavy rain (proper rain) was on the forecast and there was no way I wanted to stand around in a field without it, so it was back home to get it.

Eventually we made it to the air field and parked our car in the sea of other cars and joined the crowds to the entrance. Once inside the massive air base we were faced with too many choices, thankfully we are not shoppers so that cut out looking in all the stands (but I must remember if I want to buy a car or some garden furniture, I must go back there! I'm sure there is logic in there somewhere, but I struggled to find it!) We took a look at all the grounded machines (helicopters, jets, planes etc), which was all very cool. The rest of the time we spent watching the airshow, which was spectacular despite the heavy rain, and boy did it pour!

So I hear you say, what about the hare and the mouse? Well firstly the hare. We were sat on the edge of the rails waiting for a rain shower to pass when a hare did a full sprint the length of the runway, speedy! The mouse was almost trod on by us on the way out. I thought it was quite amusing that Peter and I walk about in the country a fair bit and never see a hare, or a field mouse and then with all those people and all that noise (I was even wearing ear plugs all day), that's when we see them!

I was touched with a bit of national pride as we left (although ashamed to say we were leaving). It was pouring with rain and had been for the last hour, we were freezing and wanted to get home. As we left the RAFNZ had a Boeing 737 (I think) there and it took of just as we were leaving and I have never seen a plane that big do such sharp turns and maneuvers, it was very cool and someone around us said "Wow look at that!" and I thought, Yep that's our Air Force!

A great day out and we would love to go again sometime, when it's not raining!

A week in the Lake District

Once again I have fallen well behind in my blog posting, so much so that Peter has managed to upload photos of two events that I haven't blogged!

First of which was a week spent in the Lake District. After much debate about where we would stay we found a little flat that we could rent for the week in the lovely town of Ambleside. It was a lovely little place, but again not a place I could stand to be in on my own (because I get scared easily!), so I stuck close to Peter. Anyway, the place had cream carpets and within the first night we had managed to spill red wine during a heated game of mini snooker.

The main purpose of this trip was to gauge how fit we were, the result, we're not that fit. Well correction, Peter is less fit then he was but still WAY fitter then me (even though I'm the one that goes to the gym, thus proving that gyms don't make you fit, hence why I haven't been for ages, anyway I digress....). We did have a lovely week with a few good days hiking. I was most impressed with my new boots a insoles that are supposed to help with all sorts of things with my posture and breathing. The boots still need a bit more wearing in before we use them for anything serious like climbing Everest!

The Lake District is a lovely area with some beautiful walks. We did one walk and as we were going up I looked ahead and saw a rather jagged edge ahead with people climbing all over it. I asked Peter "Are we going up that way?" to which he answered, "No of course not". An hour later Peter took this photo of me almost at the top of the said jagged edge. Peter knows me pretty well by now. If he had said yes when I questioned him earlier he knew I would have refused to go up the edge, so he lied, knowing that I could handle it and that I would enjoy it. I was not so happy coming down the other side which is much the same terrain but lets not talk about that.

Other highlights of the trip was the friendly chook outside a village shop that we stopped at and a trip across the lake on the steam boat. We also made a little trip to see Beatrix Potter's house which was pretty cool.

Swimming in the Thames

After four days of very hot weather and much talking of going for a swim in the Thames (usually after an areobie session) it was finally organised on pretty much the last scorcher of a day before normal British summer weather resumed. A fairly good turn out really, Claire, Sue, Amy, Mick (from Australia), Richard G, Simon and me. All the others were in well before me, for a number of reasons, first they all jumped off the boat and although I did a fair bit of wharf jumping in my time reason two stopped me following suit, we had an audience and I just didn't really feel like stripping down to my togs with some people as an audience (the other girls were all kitted out with shorts and t shirts). So I scuttled off to the boat ramp for a more lady like (audience free) entrance.

All of us in the water, nice a refreshing, not too cold (we were trying not to think about the sewerage treatment works upstream)

Preparing for a boat jump (note the name of the boat, we are based at Howbery Park and it's an electric boat)

Jump!

Me in the water

Susan and Amy (these two have NO fear and will do almost anything!)

Claire and John's Wedding

Some friends of us that came to our wedding got married in June. It was a lovely ceremony and reception, however after quite a long period of sunshine, the weather choose that day to rain, and rain it did!

There were quite a few people from work that came along which was really nice to be able to spend some social time with them outside of work. Also I gather the weddings here are slightly different then what I am used to. After the ceremony it was off to the reception for drinks nibbles and then the wedding breakfast at about 3:30pm. After that there was more drinking and dancing and then out came the bacon rolls and dessert (umm chocolate covered strawberries!) It was a really lovely day and you could tell the bride and groom really enjoyed the day.

Prague

Ok so I'm a little behind in my posts again! A few big changes at work, but I'll come to those in good time :-)

So Prague...

We decided to go for a long weekend and ended up with a whole four days there, which as it turned out was about a day too long as once again it slipped my mind that museums etc are closed on Mondays in Europe.

So anyway, we arrive and found our hotel (not that hard as we were delivered to it by a hotel shuttle!) and set out to explore straight away. We stayed within walking distance of the old town and so it made getting around easy but with a lot of walking. So on our first day we pretty much just walked around getting a feel for where things were. For those that don't know I don't normally drink coffee may be surprised to know that I now drink Mocha's as I had a really nice one in Prague. Anyway, on the evening of the first night we were there we went to see some musicians, playing some music in some building (This is exactly why I shouldn't wait four months to update my blog!) I think it was Mozart and I think it was in the town hall. The evening ended with an evening stroll to the main square with a bonus show of some fireworks.

Day 2 we went and explored the other side of the river again with a lot of walking after a ride in the Petřín funicular we arrived at the top of Petřín hill and walked to the Petřín lookout tower which is a mini Eiffel tower (very strange) and again a long walk to the top. It was well worth is as the views over Prague were lovely. We then had an extremely healthy lunch of sausage with tomato sauce and mustard (yum!) while watching a marble tournament, yep how civilised to play marbles on a Saturday morning with your fellow marble players, ages ranged from young to old. I never really knew how to play proper marbles, now I do! After that it was another walk (are you getting the picture that this was a major walking holiday!) via a place that had books with covers made of wood (as in actual wood not some wood derivative) of the tree that the book was about. Then finally it was on to explore the castle area, which was very old and cool.

Day 3 we ventured out of town to go to Hrad Karlštejn which is a far more impressive castle outside of Prague. Again it was a bit of a walk to the castle but well worth the effort. Our tour also included lunch in a traditional Czech restaurant, unfortunately we all had to sit inside and it was a lovely day. The food was lovely though. Back in Prague, we went for a late afternoon stroll and watched some people out on the boats on the river and then found somewhere to eat dinner.

Monday, day 4 we were at a bit of a loss with what to do really so it was out with the lonely planet to check we really had explored all areas that we wanted to and we discovered that we hadn't been to the Jewish quarter, so after a little exploring we found the area and had a look around and had a very very yummy lunch in a slightly posh place. On the table next to us were a group of four ladies who obviously had a fair bit of coin as one of them seemed to be their private guide. I was greatly amused by watching the waiters try to change some of the light bulbs over the bar. After that it was back to the UK.

And of course our photos are here

Winchester

About an hours drive from us is the lovely town of Winchester. So one day we thought we should get out and about and so we decided to head to Winchester to have a look see.


We arrived and managed to find a car park, first stop was the information center, which also sold some yummy tea and cake, so we had morning tea to keep us going until lunch. We had a little walk around and found ourselves at a National Trust owned property which was a working flour mill, right in the town centre. Now I have heard of mills and seen a fair few old mill houses while in England, so it was quite a treat to be able to see a working mill. However on the day that we visited the mill wasn't working as the sluice gate was being repaired. The bonus, we got in for child's price, the downside, the mill wasn't working so I still haven't seen a working mill! However, Peter and I did take the time to actually work out how it all works and we did also see a lovely hydraulic jump (I think I was more excited about this then Peter!) It was such a lovely little mill and the staff were so friendly and nice. I even found a book on National Trust Housekeeping that I secretly (well not so secretly now) want to buy, how slightly sad :-)

After that it was up the hill for the view over Winchester complete with dope smoking vandals who had just spray painted the information board, ahh England...

Then it was down the hill and off for a lovely walk by the river to St Cross Hospital and Village. This place was built to house some of the starving people and there was also a food hall that fed some of the starving. A very quiet and tranquil place really. Then with sore feet it was back into Winchester and with some fuel in the form of ice cream we had a look round the castle and then the cathedral. The cathedral was lovely and I think for me the interesting bits were the fact that for some of the year the crypt is flooded and that a corner of the cathedral sunk a bit and they had to send divers into the crypt to fix it. The stained glass windows were cool too. I really must remember to take tours more often as you learn so much more then just wondering about! Finally at about 4pm it was lunch time and then off home.

Lots of photos are here

Bib Fortuna

So Peter's in a band, as I'm sure many of you know. He plays in his band a lot, and I, not being much of a drinker, don't go to his gigs that often as I am also not a huge fan of sitting in a pub on my own. So anyway, trying very hard not to sound bitter that Peter's band book a lot of gigs and for the last two months I'm struggling to remember a weekend when Peter was with me on a Saturday night. I never really thought that my first year of married life I would need to book in time to see my husband!

Well one weekend our good friends Ben and Rowena came to stay and we went to watch Peter's band. It was much better watching with some friends. Anyway, some pics of the band and one of the traffic cone girl are on our photo page...

York and Yorkshire Dales

People at my work got Peter and I some travel vouchers for our wedding present so we decided to head to York and The Yorkshire Dales for Easter. It was a bit of a drive really, here is the route map (from Google Maps) of our travels, as you can see it was a bit of a tour of middle England!

F marks our start and end point, then it was up to B, Sherwood Forest to see well Robin Hood of course! Robin was actually out and about doing good deeds so we just had a look round the forest really. Not that it was much of a forest, the highlights were this really old oak tree (about 1000 years old I think) and the carrot cake and tea!

After that quick stop it was on to York, marked C on the map. We stayed here one night and had a look round the town centre, the Minster and of course the National Train Museum (yes I did get hassles at work for that one!) I figure when you are from a country that doesn't really have that many trains then a train museum is actually quite interesting!

After York it was off to the Yorkshire Dales for some walking. Day 1 we walked for about 3hrs, easy really. Day 2 was a 7-8 hike up and down and all around 20km in all. Boy was I tired after all that (I didn't let Peter post the post walk pics, too unflattering!)

Lots more photos of our trip are here

Rarotonga

On Monday we headed to Rarotonga for our honeymoon. We were after a nice relaxing holiday in the sun and that it pretty much what we got. Admittedly we arrived to a cloudy day which turned into a wet day and it stayed like that for the next three days. It turns out that we were on the edge of a tropical cyclone so we were quite lucky to escape the worst of it really. Despite the rain and wind the temperature remained in the high 20's and we were still able to snorkel and kayak without too much discomfort.

Our first stay was at the Royale Takitumu Villas which were lovely. The hosts were excellent and we would highly recommend this place for a romantic special get away! After that we moved down the road to Muri Beach Cottages at Muri Beach. This place was a lot cheaper but it was still lovely (if a little hot!) Just down the beach were some lovely restaurants and we certainly ate well while we were away. I think our favorite local food was the ika mata, being keen sushi lovers the thought of eating raw fish was not a problem for us and I would recommend this dish to anyone, yum!

For some more photos click here

Our first beach house in the rain

The 4WD trucks used in our tour of the island

The view of the lagoon

A half built hotel, very spooky and been like this for 20yrs!

One of the 4WD tracks, what a fun one!

Beach house 2, hot but lovely!

Us on the deck of beach house 2

A pretty flower.

Peter diving, I had a go too but freaked out in the swimming pool :-(

Lightning storm from the deck of beach house 2, fantastic night!