Music
Where are we? How high are we?
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When you have an idea of India, I think everybody has a certain image in their heads
and this is completely different to what you think in the landscape
it's just every turn and even the odd hills when you just look around
and it takes away the pain I suppose and it's absolutely beautiful.
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We're here at the call foods of the Zanskar at the Indus
so in 9 days time in day 10 we're going to come out of this canyon.
Some people think coming here would be some kind of a holiday
it is to a certain extent when you have to cycle 42 kilometres in a mountain country like this
that's not a holiday but it is a challenge and so far so good I have achieved the challenge.
Definitely one of the hardest things I've ever done
yesterday was a killer the first day with the altitude and it was hard to breathe
but definitely a must do it is the sights are unbelievable.
Cup every morning for yoga that's the start of the day that's six o'clock
then you're straight into the workout straight into the climb straight into the everything
it's a bit like cut life.
Doing it for a word of cause is concerned it just means a lot to see
how friendly the people are how little they have
how willing they are to give whatever they have.
And the reason I like doing it for concern is that I know so much of the money that's raised
actually goes to where it's needed at the cold face
I think it's something like 98% actually goes towards supposed to go.
Day 4 was a pretty tough day for some people it was short in terms of somewhere between 20-22 kilometres
but we rose about 650 metres and the terrain was quite tough in places very sandy
so I think some people suffer a bit from the altitude.
Some others suffer a bit from the actual bike itself through exhaustion
but most of us are kind of happier day 4 to see the back of the bikes and start walking.
Yeah we had about a little bit more yeah maybe 12 kilometres climb yesterday and then day before 15
so I think like all the training is definitely paid off.
Yeah they're a strong group they've done really well.
I think some of them are going to miss the bikes when the trekking starts
but that'll be exciting.
But those same people haven't been trekking before so they don't know what's going on.
So we're on day 5 of the expedition the first day of trekking
we've done about six hours of walking now on the way up to the Circella Pass
the highest point in our trip 4,760 metres everybody's doing really good.
Casualty he's riding a new, he's already at camp.
It's very challenging but it's so rewarding to scenery up here.
The whole trip is very challenging. You have to come out here and fish.
I am exhausted but I'm so glad to be up the biggest hill of ever in my life
and the scenery is absolutely amazing so it's good to have a nice reward once you've worked so hard to get to the top.
The first day of the expedition
it's been a great day.
I'm going to go back to the camp and see what's going on.
I'm going to go back to the camp and see what's going on.
I'm going to go back to the camp and see what's going on.
I'm going to go back to the camp and see what's going on.
I'm going to go back to the camp and see what's going on.
I'm going to go back to the camp and see what's going on.
Day 8, we've just reached the Zanska River.
It's 5 past 11 in the morning. We've been trekking now for three hours.
We've dropped about 1,000 metres, quite a tough descent to reach the Zanska River.
We've been trekking now for 50 kilometres over four days and 150 on the bikes before that.
It's a total of 200 kilometres.
Tomorrow morning we'll be starting the next leg of our journey, the final section,
which is the rafting 70 kilometres downstream from here back to the Indus ending of our challenge.
Everybody has been pushed, some people on the bikes, some on the track,
but everybody is having a fantastic time.
Tomorrow brings another day of challenge with icy cold water,
lots of tough class 3 and 4 rapids on this amazing river.
Whatever we tell you, Vik or any of the safety attackers, you take that.
Don't decide you're doing something else yourself.
If you see a rock coming in front of you and you don't want to hit it,
by the time you go forward, you go forward. I'll have you.
If I'm going to hit a big hole or a big rock or something like that,
and there's going to be a big change in momentum in the rapids,
I'm going to ask you to get down.
It's not a dance move. What you do is slip both feet forward
and get yourself down as low as possible in this little hole here.
Ten days overall, fantastic fun, great people, great experience,
it was the best of my life.
We're at 266 kilometres into the challenge now.
Confluence of the Zanscare and the Indus are just ahead of us.
That point marks the end of our challenge.
And we're all looking forward to getting back to lay.
Pete's in beer, Pete's in beer.
Oh, a real bed.
I'll wait till the show.
No, a hot shaving massage, absolutely.
You can do without any type of food, a bit of bread will do me.
I really enjoyed this trip, it was great.
I find the trip really, really difficult.
It was a lot more physically challenging than I thought it would be,
but the team morale was brilliant.
Everyone was helping each other and saying,
whenever one person comes up to you and says,
just a wee bit further, I know you can get to this,
but we'll have a break in five more minutes
to just keep going, it's what really gets you to the end
of the treks and the top of those hills.
I was quite sure how hard it was going to be,
but the ten days of the actual challenge itself were extraordinary.
I myself hit the wall on the fifth day,
and I slept an extra problem for the first four days,
and I was dragged through the end of the fifth day
by the entire group.
The work, the concern we're doing in India,
and where the wheel race was going to go,
and I suppose that just topped off the trip for me,
the challenge and everything else,
to see exactly what we went through,
see for all that money's going to go,
and change and affect people's lives.
Thank you.
