In late October we (Dave Shaw, Josh Hoole and Mike Thatcher) will be completing a 5 day cycle in the Nepali Himalayas to raise funds for the charity 'Support Nepal UK'. The charity does great work in rural Nepal relieving the effects of poverty upon children and young adults.

The funds we raise will be used to in support of the Welfare Centre that the charity have been building in the remote village of Dandaswara in Syangja district, Nepal. 

Our route starts at a village called Kagbeni which is at 2,800 metres altitude. For scale this is about twice the height of Ben Nevis or a third as high as the summit of nearby Everest. From here we'll wind our way along the gorge of the river Kali Gandaki over a couple of days, then go cross country, and, assuming things go to plan, we'll end up at Support Nepal UK's Welfare Centre in Dandaswara in 4 or 5 days. You can see our route by pasting this link into your browser: https://tinyurl.com/2p88u32k .

The ride is likely to be a challenge for all three of us intrepid non-cyclists for a number of reasons: Mike will be bringing along a recently broken and then pinned and plated left ankle; Dave will be introducing the Himalayas to his notoriously bad attitude towards cycling up steep hills; and, by popular consensus, Josh will be responsible for dealing with any of the tigers we encounter along the route. Just to spice up the cycling we also plan on completing the 'World's Longest Sky Cycle' which just happens to be in the middle of our route. This involves cycling on a cable running across a 228 metre deep gorge. Seriously. Google it.

The inspiration for this sponsored challenge came when Dave recently re-connected with a Nepalese friend Navin Gurung, with who he had lost contact in the mid 90's, and found that Navin had established Support Nepal UK in 2016. As Navin was the catalyst for Dave's initial two fantastic trips to Nepal in the 90's it seemed only reasonable to return the favour by offering to do some fundraising. Mike T was an obvious conscript as a longstanding school friend of Dave's who had previously met Navin several times when visiting the the Ealing Tandoori. Josh was another obvious conscript as an occasional partner of Dave's in some lengthy, but very slow, cycle rides around the coast of Cornwall. Josh also has family connections to the Gurkhas and the Indian Himalaya. Nobody was selected for their prowess on a bike as Dave definitely didn't want any proper cyclists steaming ahead.

So please donate generously and in return we guarantee that we'll keep you updated on our (no doubt laborious) progress.

Dhan'yavad,

Dave, Mike & Josh