This week I am off on my travels again! :)
I'm heading out to Nepal for a couple of different adventures; two weeks of Mountainbiking, followed by three weeks of high-altitude trekking.
As you might imagine, I am looking forward to it.
This time around I will be travelling with friends again. Mitch Bryan is coming out for the first part of the trip which will see us out in Eastern Nepal, around Ilam & Kanchenjunga, recce'ing new routes for an upstart tour company called ThamBikes.
After that I am meeting up with Wilco Voulon for the trekking part.
The ThamBikes route recce'ing trip is going to be a really interesting adventure.
ThamBikes is a new collaboration between my friend Jo Chaffer (Korakoru) and Thamserku, and they are looking to put together some different from-the-norm mountainbike tour packages.
Thamserku are a big cheese in Nepal, in terms of trekking & adventure holidays, and have high-end logistical support, lodges, and infrastructure, to provide something a little bit special.
Check them out here; they even have their own airline!
The plan is to get out there and GPS a bunch of epic new trails, check out facilities, and generally get loads of images and GoPro footage to help sell it. Jo wants to incorporate a host of other stuff too including visiting Tea & Coffee plantations amongst other stuff, so that they can offer not just an attractive mountainbiking experience but an immersible cultural experience too, something that showcases Nepal to international visitors and makes them want to go back for more.
Another plus, for me, is that I get to ride my new bike for two weeks in a largely unexplored region with friends; Mitch, Jo, and my good friend Santosh Rai from Himalayan Singletrack.
It might also lead to opportunities for guiding future trips, I'd like that!
If anyone out there is interested in joining one of this years route recce's Jo has a simple questionnaire that you can fill in and apply to come along. All you have to do is get yourselves out to Kathmandu, after that most things during the recce will be covered by Jo.
Ideally you will need to be either involved in mountainbike/travel media, or have an active on-line presence with a blog and social networking, or similar. But it's not imperative; if you have the right attitude and skill set you could get invited along anyway; and you could end up leading groups in the future, what have you got to lose?
Anybody from any country.
Jo is particularly interested in getting a few more female riders involved too.
In the first instance you should email Jo at info@thambikes.com
Hopefully I will see some of you out there in the future! :)
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| My new bike. Pivot LES 29 complete with wide bars and a dropper seat post specially for this trip! Yeehaw! |
Around the beginning of April I will be meeting up with my old friend Wilco Voulon. Yes, him again! :D
We are going out to trek/climb the highest trekking peak in Nepal, Mera Peak 6476m above sea-level, with a group of adventurers from The Netherlands. It is a trip that has been put together by a good friend of ours Eddie Sevink from RUN2DAY in Zwolle, and Wilco and I were invited along for the ride.
We plan to trek in on The Old Expedition Route from Jiri together, and then meet up with the group in Lukla. We will then head for Mera Peak under the guidance of Snow Leopard Adventures. Summiting the peak will be a pretty tough undertaking but I am looking forward to the challenge, and especially to doing it with Wilco & Eddie. It's going to be a lot of fun.
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| "Mera Peak 9925" by Indra Rai - Own work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons - http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mera_Peak_9925.JPG#mediaviewer/File:Mera_Peak_9925.JPG |
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