I went out last night with some friends, but I had to leave early because I felt so ill. I was really dizzy and I found it difficult to focus, my arms were also aching from the jabs and countless people bumping into them throughout the evening.

I don’t know whether it was the cocktail of injections I’d had which made me feel like this, or perhaps I had heat stroke, but I had to leave. Feeling loads better today though!

I’ve just had my appointment with the nurse to have my jabs. I think I mentioned in an earlier post why I got them all together in one go – diphtheria/tetanus/polio, hep A/typhoid and meningitis.  

I have plasters all over my arms, and they’re aching quite a bit. The worst by far is the hep A/typhoid which is making my arm feel very heavy and there’s a constant dull ache.

There was a pre-departure meeting and social on Wednesday evening for the Leeds group going out to Everest on the Base Camp Trek. It was good to finally meet some more of the group that would be going up the mountain with me.

The meeting was informal, held in a room upstairs in a pub opposite the university. We went over bits and pieces such as medical forms, booking forms, insurance (which I still haven’t got!!!! – but I will get very soon) the itinerary, and general questions. We saw some pictures and video footage of the trek. It’s all getting very exciting!

There were nine of us at the meeting. In addition to Dave and I, there was Chris who I went bag packing with, Lucy, Jack and Paul who I met at the last social and some new people I hadn’t met before: Hannah, who’s Irish and studying at Edinburgh university but is going out with the Leeds group; Alex, who’s American; and Andy who’s on the Leeds Uni film/TV crew and will be making a documentary while we’re out there!

After the meeting we went downstairs to have some drinks and get to know each other better. Everyone’s very friendly and we all got on immediately, sharing our anxieties/excitement about the trip and how our training’s been going. I’m really looking forward to going out!!!

Sorry about the lack of contact! - I’ve had my final flute recital yesterday so it’s been quite stressful week but I’ve now finished everything for my degree!!!!

I went on a trip to the Yorkshire Dales with Dave last weekend. It was such a beautiful day, perfect weather! We wanted to get the train over but being a bank holiday, there were very few trains and they only went at awkward times - so we drove over on Dave’s motorbike. Sounds pretty cool, but sitting on the back of the bike with only yourself to talk to is quite boring and you get an exceptionally numb bum, but the views once we got out into the country were fantastic!

We didn’t go walking for very long, but it was great to go for a proper walk up and down the mountains, after all, that really is the best training you can do. It also gave me an opportunity to try out some of the new hiking clothes I’ve recently bought which are so much more appropriate than what I was wearing in the Lake District!

I’ve just seen Monday’s episode of Everest ER which I downloaded off iPlayer. It’s a good show and it was great to see the BBC’s film of the place where I’ll be trekking.

(http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00ktb46/Everest_ER_Episode_1/)

The programme follows the doctors at the Base Camp on the southern side of Mount Everest, and how they deal with the injuries and illnesses of the climbers tackling the mountain. They deal with climbers with frost bite and fluid on the lungs – even swelling of the brain – all “without the facilities of a modern hospital”.

And this is where I began to worry.

Next they showed a lone volunteer doctor in a small clinic at a village about 4240 metres’ altitude. She was waiting for a helicopter to collect a patient that she was unable to treat. Apparently, she has to deal with “hundreds of trekkers that fall ill on the trek to Everest Base Camp”.That could be me!The narrator (David Tennant – Doctor Who!) went as far as saying “even trekking here can be lethal”.

Lethal!

Perhaps the show was just exaggerating the dangers to make things seem dramatic, but now I can’t stop thinking about what might happen if things go wrong.

Rosanna

PostScript: 

Hi folks,

Just a note to say that since I wrote this I’ve had some reassuring advice from Kirsty at Mountain Kingdoms, and I’ve posted it for everyone to see:

http://www.mountainkingdoms.co.uk/blog/experts-corner-kirsty-on-altitude-sickness-part-1/

Check out what she has to say. It made me feel better.

R

With the Everest Base Camp trek in a few weeks, I’m getting quite excited about the prospect of tackling the massive mountain, but I’m also rather worried about my lack of climbing experience! This weekend I’ll be going to the Yorkshire Dales, but so far this year, so far I’ve only climbed one mountain. That was in the Lake District with Dave …it was an interesting experience.

We climbed up Red Pike Mountain which is 826m (2710ft). I found it pretty tough partly because it was raining the whole time, but also because Dave decided to make his own route up – we didn’t follow a path/advised routes. We started by climbing past a sign saying ‘Danger! Do not climb’ and then proceeded to scramble up a waterfall! I wasn’t too impressed, especially when we got to the top of the waterfall and there was a demented sheep in our path!

Half an hour of climbing felt like two hours. It was exhausting, but getting to the top felt amazing and so worth it, especially for the spectacular views! At the bottom of the mountain it was very lush and green, but as we climbed closer to the top it got colder and once we were there, it was amazing to see that the lake had frozen and it was snowing!

I wouldn’t have been able to manage the walk had it not been for Kendal Mint Cake – a fudge textured energy bar made almost entirely of sugar (100% carbohydrate!) but tasting like peppermint. It was used in the first British expedition to the summit of Everest. Dave introduced it to me about half way up the mountain – it was a saviour! I’ve got an incredibly sweet tooth so I am a massive fan of the Mint Cake.

Although I was wearing walking boots, the rest of my attire wasn’t particularly suitable – jeans, a pashmina, and a hoodie, topped off with a ski jacket. The rain and moisture made the red dye from my scarf run all over my top. I borrowed Dave’s waterproof trousers (which were massive and wouldn’t stay up!) but they helped all the same.I’m very glad I had this experience as it gave me a very small taste of what it may be like on the way to Everest Base Camp, which will be much tougher!

I’ve reached my target! - Well actually I’ve exceeded it having raised £2,450! Everyone’s been so generous and supportive. I really thought it would be very difficult to get the money and convince people to donate but it was actually much easier than I thought.

I raised the money through a combination of writing letters and pestering everyone knew to help out. I visited my old school and spoke to past teachers who were interested in supporting me, and the head teacher told me to put an advert in the school newsletter to spread the word. I also put a post in my synagogue newsletter about the Everest base camp challenge. The bag packing at M&S was successful, and before I knew it, my target had been reached!

I had planned to phone up some big supermarkets in Leeds to organise sponsored carwashes, put on a few fundraising concerts and dinner parties, and I also wanted to do some pub crawls, collecting in each pub along the way. However, by the time I got round to thinking about doing these events, it wasn’t necessary!

One of the easiest fundraising activities I did was busking. In February, I played a double flute concerto from memory in Leeds town hall. The concerto is very showy, and the other flautist I did it with happened to be down in London one weekend. We’d talked about busking for some time and we thought this would be a perfect opportunity. Over that weekend we went to some bustling markets around the area I live in London. We spent one morning making a big, eye-catching poster, explaining what the money would be going towards. The weather was fantastic and there were so many people sitting outside pubs listening to us play.

We played the concerto over and over again (it’s about 25 minutes long), people listening would walk past and not realise that we’d been playing the same piece for the last hour! In just under two hours we’d raised £40!

I’ve started to research about Nepal and Everest. Dave gave me two books to read to start me off - Coronation Everest by Jan Morris, and Everest: A Trekker’s Guide, by Kev Reynolds.

Coronation Everest is a novel by a journalist for The Times who went on the first ever successful expedition to the summit of Mount Everest. Morris describes in detail the journey up the mountain. Recounting details such as where they stayed, what they ate and drank, the effects of the altitude, and the people they met including the company of the porters and Sherpas. It was interesting to read the journey told by someone who was not an experienced climber – like myself – and how he found the trek/coped with altitude and weather conditions etc.

Everest: A Trekker’s Guide is an informative guidebook explaining facts about the mountain, the routes and trails, the culture of the Nepalese and the people living on the mountain. How to go about preparing for the journey and what to expect on your travels are also explored and there are photos and maps of the mountain. The photos are particularly useful just to see what sort of clothing the trekkers are wearing.

It’s a really useful book to read and so easy to dip in and out of. I learnt things such as: we’re travelling up the mountain just before the monsoon season and the mountain will be infested with leeches! I am not looking forward to that at all! It was also useful to read that it’s important to get a dental check up before going out, as even minor tooth problems/loose fillings/decay will be badly affected by high altitude.

I’ve booked appointments for my jabs.

I’m getting the Hep A/ Typhoid, Diphtheria/ Tetanus/ Polio, and Meningitis at the beginning of June. I’ve decided against the rabies jabs as apparently we’ll have very good medical insurance so in the unlikely event that I get bitten by a rabid animal, I can get quick medical attention. Now I just need to sort out the malaria tablets.

My foot feels a little better now, but you should notice that the nerve barometer is set to panic.

 

I’m going to go on a jog this evening and see how it goes.

I went for a jog this morning for the first time in Leeds – I don’t like jogging anywhere that I know I’ll bump into people I’ll know! However, I’ve found a park, the opposite direction from where all the students live that’s nearly always empty. I think I’ll start jogging there more often!

Fundraising’s going quite well. I’ve got a couple of weeks until the deadline and just got around £500 to make until I reach the total!

If any one fancies contributing to this fabulous cause just go to www.justgiving.com/rosannaterberg and click on ‘sponsor me now’ to donate online.

I’ve just realised that I haven’t mentioned anything about how I got involved with Childreach. My boyfriend, David Milton, is the student fundraising manager for the charity. He organises the events and volunteers for every challenge event the charity offers i.e. climbing Kilimanjaro, cycling across Death Valley, hitch-hiking to Dublin etc.

Dave is going to be the group leader for the Everest base camp trek once we’re out there on our travels – the link between the porters/guides and us. (Just to clarify - Lucy, who I wrote about earlier, is the group leader for the Leeds group whilst we’re in Leeds). 

To say that Dave likes to trek occasionally is an understatement…I reckon he is the most active, outward-bounds person I have ever come across!

  

Before I met him, I had always thought that the idea of doing something like climbing to Everest base camp was absurd, but his sheer enthusiasm for hiking is very inspiring, and also seeing the incredible photos of some of the place he’s been to has really motivated me to want to do it!

There was a social last night at the pub. I was really looking forward to meeting everyone I’d be going to Everest with. I got there quite late as I had a rehearsal to go to that didn’t finish until 9.30 and everyone had been in the pub since 7.

By the time I had got there, there were only three people still left in the pub! It was quite disappointing, but at least I got to know a few more members of the group. Lucy, the group leader reckons that we won’t actually be able to all meet up properly until we’re at the airport to begin our Everest base camp journey.

I’ve just been to possibly the most intense yoga session of my life! Previously, the yoga classes I’ve been going to have been relaxing and energised, but never hugely challenging. The class teacher is an Eastern European guru, who works all the students so hard! Sweat was quite literally dripping from my body. I think I’ll be taking her classes more often…

I’ve just come back from seeing the travel nurse. It seems that I’m going to have to get a fair few injections before heading off to the Himalayas. The nurse advised me to have a diphtheria/tetanus/polio booster and a meningitis jab, and also one for Hepatitis A/Typhoid. She gave me a map of Nepal and showed me how some of the country is considered to have high risk of Malaria, whilst in other parts there is a low or no risk at all. I need to see whereabouts in the country I’ll be travelling through as even if I’m on a train going through a ‘malaria zone’ I’ll have a high chance of catching it because of the crowded conditions.

She also told me that I should perhaps consider a rabies injection. I was told that the possibilities of me getting bitten by a rabid animal are very small, especially as I’ll be travelling with an organised group trek, but even so, it only takes one bite or scratch to get rabies and if there’s no advanced medical help within 24 hours you will die!! I’m not sure what to do as I’ll have to have 3 separate rabies vaccinations costing £40 each, and it may not even be necessary… I think I’ll have a word with the tour company/charity and see what they advise.

The nurse gave me a selection of leaflets to read with health advice for travellers, so I’ll have to get reading up on those. I haven’t had any of the jabs yet as I was told that especially with the Hep A/Typhoid my arm will get extremely numb and I’ve got a four hour music rehearsal to sit through tonight – I don’t fancy attempting to try to play the flute with a deadened arm/fingers. Apparently I can’t be injected into my bum as it’s not effective enough there!

I had a thought today – what am I going to wear when going up the mountain?!!

The temperature and weather conditions are going to change so much…At the foot of the mountain, I’m assuming it will be quite warm and dry but by base camp, there’ll be snow! I’m obviously going to have to pack quite light as I’ll have to carry everything with me on my back whilst trekking.

I’ve already got a pair of good walking boots that are thoroughly worn in, which is fantastic as it will reduce the possibilities of blistering. But I don’t think I have anything else suitable for trekking. I think I’m going to have to do some research into what’s needed in my kit bag, and it’s probably going to be VERY costly!

I’ve found that there are some songs/artists/genres that help my training more than others. Anything lethargic and slow, makes you feel lethargic and slow - so that’s definitely off the list – i.e. Coldplay, who I love, but just don’t do it for me whilst skipping!

 

Here are a few more additions to my training playlist: 

 

• I’m Sitting On Top of the World – Bobby Darin 

• I Say A Little Prayer For You – Aretha Franklin  

• Ain’t No Mountain High Enough – Diana Ross
  

I’m now back in Leeds and there’s disappointingly no swimming pool at the university. So, I have decided to make a new regime: I skip every day for 20 minutes and then go to the gym and do an exercise class (either aerobics, circuit training, ‘legs bums and tums’, ‘Fab abs’, or yoga). – I really don’t like going to the gym unless it’s for a class as I get incredibly bored after about 15 minutes. But the classes really make you work hard.

 

When I first started skipping each morning, I thought it would be really easy as I used to do it all the time for what seemed like hours as a kid. However, it is really one of the hardest kinds of exercise I’m doing – way more exhausting than jogging! I thought that once I started, I could be on a roll for about 20 minutes (like with the jogging), but after an intense non-stop 3 minutes, I want to collapse on the floor. It’s also incredibly painful when the rope thrashes your legs – it feels like you’re being whipped!