Where are we? How high are we?
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 and the landscape is just every turn and even
the uphill, you just look around them and it takes away the pain I suppose and it's
absolutely beautiful.
We're here at the confluence of the Zanskar and the Indus so in nine days time in day
time we're going to come out of this canyon. Some people think coming here will be some
kind of a holiday. It is to a certain extent when you have to cycle 42 kilometres in 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 the killer of the
altitude and it's hard to breathe but definitely a must do is the sight I don't believe.
Up every morning for yoga, that's the start of the day, that's the stop and you're straight
into the walk-out, straight into the climb, straight into the everything business.
It's a bit like cut like me.
Doing it for awarding cause is a concern, 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 coalface. I think it's something like
90-odd percent actually goes towards where it's supposed to go.
The walk was a pretty tough day for some people, it was short in terms of 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 kind of happy at day four to see
the back of the bikes and start walking.
Yeah we had about a little bit more, 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, really well.
I think some of them are going to miss the bikes when the trekking starts but now that
will be exciting.
They haven't been trekking before so they don't know what's going on.
So we're on day five 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.
Casually he's riding a mule, he's already at camp.
It's very challenging but so rewarding, it's 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 big hill of everything 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 of that.
Thank you so much for joining us today.
Day eight, we've just reached the Zanska River. It's five past eleven in the morning. We've
been trekking now for three hours, dropped about a thousand 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's being pushed,
some people on the bike, some on the trek but everybody is having a fantastic time.
Tomorrow brings another day of challenge with icy cold water, lots of tough class three
and four rapids on this amazing river.
Whatever we tell you, don't decide you're doing something else yourself. If you see a
rock coming up front, but you don't want to hit it, by telling you go forward, you go
forward.
If I'm going to hit a big hole or a big rock or something like that, if there's going to
be a big change in momentum in the rock, I'm going to ask you to get down, not a dance
move. What you do is slip both feet forward and get yourself down as low as possible in
the whole area.
Ten days overall, fantastic fun, great people, great experience, one of the best of my life.
About 266 kilometres into the challenge now, the confluence of the Zanscare and the Indus
are just ahead of us. At the point marks the end of our challenge and we're all looking
forward to getting back to Leigh.
Pizza and beer.
Pizza and beer.
Oh, a real bed.
I'll wait till I shall.
No, a hot shaving massage, absolutely. You can do it anytime you want, a bit of bread
and do me. I really enjoyed this trip, great.
My trip really, really difficult because it was a lot more physically challenging than
I thought it would be, but the team morale was brilliant and everyone was helping each
other and saying, you know, whenever one person comes up to you and says, just wee bit further
or I know you can get to this bit or 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 wasn't 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 under the fifth day, having not slept
without the two problems 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 money that we all raised 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, to see where all that money is going to go
and how it's going to change and affect people's lives.
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