The situation has changed! Unsurprisingly our plans to go to India in October can't go ahead because of the pandemic that is Covid-19. After a lot of thought about what we should do we have made our decision based on two things - we are both determined to complete our international challenge to raise money for Springhill Hospice and it also meant a great deal to us to be able to spend time getting to know, and making a contribution to, a local hospice. We also owe it to the wonderful friends who have supported us so far and, through here and  the fundraising events that we have organised, we are around half way to our fundraising target. 

And so - in October 2021 we will now be visiting Nepal. It will be slightly different than we originally thought but perhaps even more of a challenge. We will now be flying to the capital of Nepal, Kathmandu and spending time walking in the foothills of the Himalayas at a higher than originally planned altitude. The idea was that we would stretch ourselves and we are definitely going to do that!

Our trip starts with 2 days helping out at the Hospice in Kathmandu. We will then set off to walk between 5 and 10 miles a day for 5 days and for up to 8 hours each day. This trek is graded challenging because of the combination of long days trekking over varying terrain, including some days where we will trek uphill all day. We will be staying overnight in what is described as "basic conditions" in local teahouses.

It will involve plenty of hillwalking through stony trails, muddy forest floors, rocky steps or scree slopes. In some places it will be very dusty with suspension bridges to cross. We will slowly ascend to an altitude of 2800m, then climb to the highest point on the trek at 3400m at Poon Hill before starting the descent. Along the way there are spectacular views of the snowy peaks of the Annapurnas.

We now have until October 2021 to complete both our training (to make sure our muscles and minds can cope) and our fundraising - and we'd be grateful for your continued support. There's no way we were not going to go ahead with this - want to come too???

Thanks everyone! Paula and Hilda.