The Everest Saga!!!

Hey gang

Thank you all for your patience! We finally have the Everest saga up and working, you'll find it at:

http://web.me.com/lesleyandpaul/Everest

Couple of things you'll want to know: I've put the first few videos up here as well so you can refresh your memory, I've done the blog in reverse (usually the most recent post comes up at the beginning, in this case day 1 will be the first post followed by day 2, etc... so you can follow the adventure in order - it will make sense when you see it) and a happy reminder that this stuff is by no way professional demo material - it's strictly a giggle for friends and family. Feel free to share the link with others who may be interested

I'd love to hear your comments

Enjoy

Lesley

Sorry for the delay

Hi all

Ok we've been having some serious technical issues. The movie has been ready for over a week, but it seems to have a bit of a bug (and yes, I've reexported it several times) and refuses to post.

In light of the headache, what I'm going to do for this one is type the contents of the film with some pics so you have an idea of what's going on...

Everest Day 6 & 7

Hi there, this is both the day 6 & 7 report as on day 6 my camera battery cacked out on me. I've just been able to recharge it now, it costs about $5 for the use of an outlet for 1 hour. Things up here in the mountains get pretty expensive that way.

(cough) Health is still not great. In fact, we just adjusted the plans of the hike unfortunately around my health. Because of the fact that I'm still dealing with this cold and we're getting to higher and higher altitudes and to top it off, and old knee injury has come into play as well.

(laugh) It's very humbling being up here in the mountains. Whether it's the mountain itself you have to deal with or just the physical limitations of your body. I'm generally in good health, I'm the type who'll stick around at the gym and do a second class. But up here, if your body just decides ; no, that's not happening, then it makes up it's mind and that's the case.

so right now, Sandy and our guide are off on a day hike. Our guide was desperate to get me to come with them, but as I explained; the reason we're spending a second day here is for me to rest and get better. and a 5 hr day hike defeats that purpose. So I'm just taking the day and resting today

But yesterday was about a 6 hr hike, it was a good long one. Toward the end we were literally walking through the clouds. as our elevation changed, so did the scenery. We went above the tree line, so there is nothing more than small shrubs at this point. The place has a bit of medieval feel to it with the stone fences and such at this height. As we were coming through the clouds coming to this new kind of landscape, it reminded me of the land of Modor from Lord of the Rings.

so far, so good, I am feeling a little better today (although visually, I look terrible) and if all goes as planned it should be 3 days to Everest base camp so I'll keep you tuned

Namaste

note: we woke up the next morning to the sound of a shovel, yes, they had an unseasonal snow fall during the night on the little town - and yes, that first pic is of someone's laundry!

Everest Day 5

Hello, well here we are on day 5 of our trek. We hiked about 5 hours from Namche Bazzar to a "village" (can you call a monastary & 4 buildings a village?) called Tengboche. There we got to see a yak tussle and the second photo contains the yak I named "skunk yak"!

I had forgotten to mention that a little side quest of mine was that in order to help drive Sandy a little over the edge, I had been promising/threatening to sing showtunes all the way up the mountains. So in that spirit, each day I have been singing a different tune from a different show. Some old, some new - some appropriate for the events of the day, some just popped into my head.

Thus far in the trip I've done "We're off to see the wizard" as our day one, "Send in the Clowns" regarding our frustration of trying to get around a particularly slow tour group, "into the woods" as we entered the park itself, "Chitty chitty bang bang" as it just kind of went with my wheezing that day and day 5 was "I just Can't wait to be King" as a nod to my Disney pals and our ongoing teasing to our guide that we were waiting to see a snow leopard any time now. (if you're not familiar they are probably one of the most elusive creatures on the earth, and people who make finding them their career often spend weeks or months searching for a glimpse). As part of our joke on Sandy, when we entered brush, our guide Naresh would let out a pathetic meow, I'd yell "snow leopard" and point at a shrubbery (even though we were still at too low an elevation to see them). Sandy was not amused, but we thought we were pretty funny. Upon the line from the song, "working on my roar" - to my surprise Naresh let out his meow on cue!

Shorter video today, enjoy

Namaste

Everest day 4

Namaste

Well we made it to the big town of Namche Bazar, last stop of civilization in the mountains.

Some people have asked me what kind of medication I've required for this trip. In many parts of India I needed to take pills to avoid catching malaria. At this point in the mountains I was on a large variety of things - I had caught a travellers tummy bug and food poisoning at the same time (in India) and the doc in Kathmandu put me on 3 different meds to clear it up. At this point in the trip I was also starting the meds to avoid altitude sickness.

Enjoy!

everest day 3

Yak Parking, how often do you see that????

After two days of hiking, we have finally entered the "actual park" as they have a buffer zone surrounding it.

Enjoy!

Namaste

Lesley

Everest Day 1&2

Hello all

As you've been patiently awaiting here's the first instalment of the "Quest for Everest". As I've discovered facebook's notifications are several days behind (no idea...) I'll just let you know that I planning to put a new one up at least every other day for this adventure.

I will warn you... this part of the trip truly reflects the "glamour" in the glamour tour!

Enjoy and keep those comments coming!

Namaste

Lesley

Elephant bath time

Hi all

Here's a video for you of some elephant bath time and "driving". The trainer is standing at the back of the basket just giving verbal commands to the elephant.

I've added Colonel Hathi's march from the jungle book as a nod to Rudyard Kipling being inspired from one of the national parks in this region. The two that are arguing are both in India, but Chittwan National park is just over the border from them.

As this is my first video post, PLEASE let me know if there are any technical issues.

And to those in the industry, no this is not a demo reel. These videos are being quickly put together for friends and family, please consider them as such : )

Enjoy!