Reviews

MY COMPLACENT BUCKET LIST TICK TO EVEREST BASE CAMP!!

Gotta say, this was an absolutely brilliant trip!

The group, 14 of us in all, was a very eclectic mix with Canadians, Icelandic, Dutch, Irish, a couple of very entertaining “Cor Blimey” guys, and the rest of us were Northerners, but fortunately none of the others seemed to hold that against us!

Me and the 2 Cor Blimeys were mates who had embarked upon this jaunt in virtually complete ignorance of quite what was in store for us, so we thought our preparations of a couple of leisurely jaunts up Snowdon followed by a couple of pints of Guinness in the same PYG pub frequented by Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay 65 years earlier would stand us in good stead.

I confess that the complete ignorance I referred to above was mainly down to me not having read any of the reviews, but to be honest, I am glad I didn’t read them because it would probably have put me off going and I would have missed a truly great experience.

The other 11 people were all seasoned trekkers, who were rather surprised by our inexperience (and stupidity?) in embarking upon this full-on 18 consecutive days High Passes Trek which is widely regarded as one of the toughest available.

However, despite me picking up a dose of food poisoning in the UK even before we flew to Delhi, we ALL made it across ALL of the High Passes, due in no small part to the expertise and skill of the Trek Leader, Pasang Lama, who I have to say was brilliant at coaxing, encouraging and looking after us – not surprising really, given his 21 years’ experience in the role!

The scenery of course is second to none, and on a few practical points, supplies like toilet paper, snacks, drinks, sun cream etc. are readily available throughout the trek, plus the food available in the Tea Houses was far better than I had anticipated, which is more than can be said for the general standard of ablutions, but hey, even they were manageable.

I am 70, but reasonably fit I suppose, so my advice would simply be get fit, shed a few spare pounds, do a bit of aerobic exercise like jogging or riding a bike, make sure your boots are comfortable and go for it!

The Altitude thing is a bit of a lottery so no point in worrying about it, although it may be prudent to have a try-out at altitude somewhere before you go to see if you may be susceptible to it? Some of us took Diamox, some didn’t, but nobody had any significant symptoms of AMS apart from the odd headache, a bit of nausea, and a little bit of water retention.

Loss of appetite is quite common at altitude, and the only thing which bothered me was the inability to sleep when we were above 5,000m – which we were for 10 days in a row – so actually quite debilitating!

Everest and Gokyo Lakes

A fantastic first experience of Nepal … and hopefully not my last

Cycling Three Countries

The whole holiday was a great adventure and turned out to be even better than we hoped it would be!
So much to see and do, we packed so much in it felt like we had been away for a month!
Cycling allowed you to get to see bits of the countries that you would never normally get close too on other types of holidays -Brilliant!

Absolutely Fabulous Holiday.

Well where do I start? This holiday was one big adventure from the start, right to the end. I saw and learnt so much.

Wonderful easy walking trip in beautiful surroundings!!

Walking was lovely and easy with enough challenges to enjoy.
Group was nice. Food was amazing.
Thano our leader was brilliant. So knowledgeable and helpful. He knew his history, culture, flora, fauna and all the people we met around and about!! He cared for the environment.

Lovely Holiday

A really enjoyable holiday. Sardinia is a beautiful island and very unspoilt – no high rise buildings, good roads and in October, hardly any traffic. Our two guides were excellent and as usual take you to places off the beaten track that you would never visit if you were on your own. The coastline which we mostly followed was full of little bays , coves and gorgeous beaches. It was the last trip of the season, but apart from the Mistral wind for 2 days, was a very pleasant temperature and several of the group went swimming. Highlights were the trip to the island, the Agro Tourism stays and the fabulous food.

MAGNIFICENT COASTLINE

Cycling the Dalmation Coast has to be one of the best cycling holidays so far.
A really well run trip, with a tour guide that definitely went the extra mile and scenery that was out of this world. Well worth a try!!!

highlights of Morocco (AHM)

This was a good tour of Morocco – it gave an excellent overview of the country

Gorillas and Masai Mara

This trip is an absolute must for any animal lover.The diversity of fauna that we saw in 2 weeks was absolutely incredible.The gorillas were absolutely adorable and it was fascinating seeing them so relaxed in a really beautiful setting.The rafting on the White Nile was absolutely increible and I would recommend this to anyone who is not scared of the water and is a confident swimmer as the likelihood of coming out is very high.I came out twice !!The Masai Mara was absolutely stunning and within a few hours had seen leopard,lions and cheetahs.The setting itself is also very dramatic.Our guide was absolutely brilliant.He had a great sense of humour and constantly had us in hysterics during the trip with his banter.The food was excellent and I am sure I have put on weight.

Cycling coast to coast Southern India

A excellent trip that samples two very distinct states. You need to be fairly fit for this trip, there are some very long days of 100km in the saddle and some very stiff climbs in the middle of the tour which scale some 1200metres in the day. Initial impressions of India were the noise of the traffic horns, the anything goes rules of the road, there aren’t any but it seems to work, but you do need to be comfortable cycling in chaotic traffic. The rubbish everywhere and the cows, goats and dogs in the road and in the towns were an eye opener. Cow dung and holes on the pavements were part of the adventure that you needed to watch when walking around. Most people seemed to smile a lot and the kids always shouted welcome to these crazy white people cycling in the heat. Kerala was clearly very much more affluent than Tamil Nadu and the contrast was clear in that there was less rubbish and the drivers were a little more aggressive to everyone. You get used to the horns blasting all the time, it’s more I’m here, be aware of me. The food is an experience, interesting, very tasty and varied but always spicy. You need to like curries.