Sad but True!!

12th October we arrived in Sapa at about 6am after a surprisingly comfortable night on the sleeper train. We were woken by a very nice man screaming "TEA....COFFEE" at 5am so not a bad start to the day.
We went to a lovely little restaurant for breakfast called the Lizzard, to set us up for our adventure up Fansipan Mountain. We got on the bus to take us to our start point at 2000 metres, when the heavens opened and we knew we were in for a wet start to the day. After getting into waterproofs, and making sure we were all equipped, we set off.
Day 1 saw us climbing to 2700 m........and when I say climbing....I mean climbing. Trek was a word used to describe this trip, but when you are on hands and knees clambouring up a sheer cliff face, trek seems too mild a description!! Lunch stop was at a very basic hut (or at this point so we thought. The facilities were to get much more basic) but there was lots of food which was most welcome. There was not a great deal of hanging around as we were so wet and getting cold. At this point we asked if the going would get harder, to which they replied "No it is about the same"......they lied.

We were also aware we were in a race against time or we would be facing a treacherous night trek, and one of the team might not make it (eat your heart out Ben Foggle!) The afternoon was tough, with everyone being soaked to the skin and trudging in ankle deep mud in between sheer cliff faces. But we did make it to base camp in a total of 6 hours, only 1 hour behind schedule. We were elated..until we saw our camp for the night. Basic is a kind way to describe the facilities. We had a long walk through the mud to get to the loo and the tents were perched on terracing with quite a drop from the front, so we all had to be carefull if taking a trip out in the middle of the night. We were told to wash in the stream, which we all did to try to get some of the mud off, only to descover the porters were washing the food downstream from us, so not sure exactly how clean the carrots were that night!

Day 2 started brighter after a stormy night and noodle soup for breakfast!!! We again set off for a "gentle acclimatising walk"....again all lies. It took 3 hours to reach the summit, and it was as tough as any of the team have ever experienced. Sheer climbs, ladders to climb and huge drop offs to contend with. However the summit was reached and although it wasn't as clear as we would have liked, the feeling of elation surely matched that of the first people to reach Everest...and we don't think it would have been any harder than what we experienced. A trip back down to lunch took another 2 and half hours ..........MORE noodle soup. Then back to the bottom base camp to spend the night. The sun set at 5.30, and so this time we lost the race against time and did indeed face a treacherous night trek into camp. We finished day 2 with a cold beer and some great food before settling down to bed, with us all sleeping in a bamboo hut covered with a tarpolin. Even our guides joined us so we all felt a bit like the waltons.

Day 3...homeward bound. Well to Sapa at least and the call of a hot shower and clean clothes.. Banana Pancakes were greeted with a huge cheer....no noodle soup to be seen. We set off for a leasurely 3 hour walk down to the bottom and the end of our adventure. This section was walked in the dry so looked completly different than on the first day.

Special mention must go to:

Mark - Mountain goat Mark, almost fell in the river but not quite.

Annete - kept the same pace throughout. Uphill, down hill and on the flat...quite amazing

John - was very confused as to why he kept being sent to bed at 9pm!!

Dani - never stopped laughing or giving us reason to laugh for the 3 days.

Jane - quiet, focused and steady, an inspiration to us all.

Janet - the loudest and fastest of the bunch. Kept us going as we were always following the sound of laughter up ahead.

Gary - always giving good advise to help everyone along

Carol - again an inspiration as she kept going, even through injury and cold. No airlift this time!

Aisha - our official photographer. There is not a single leaf we do not have a record of

Penny - our lovely hippy guide, always encouraging us to be on a "voyage of discovery"

Diane - the one to blame.

The trip has been hard, wet, cold, hot, tretcherous, dark, and a race against time, but the whole team made it and never stopped laughing for 3 days. On day 2 Dani made the mistake of asking our guide if we were the worst group ever......his reply....sad but true!! But he did admit we were the most fun. And we have since found out that a lot of people turn back at the first stop so we were the worst of the best

Tomorrow we will be posting messages from everyone. See you then