holiday plans

Careful thoughts have been running though my mind this week as to the destination of choice / choices for this years excursions out into the world. I had pretty much decided a trip back to Nepal with a short hop into Tibet in and around the high plains ... perhaps capped with a route home via northern India..... However, it looks like in political terms things have taken another turn for the worst in Nepal. It looks as if the long establish Maoist insurgence has gained some momentum again. Now the political climate in Nepal is something that's been a little tenuous for a long time, and to be honest when I was there a few years back the climate wasn't much better, I even met some Maoist gorilla's high on a trail. That said, the people of Nepal are fantastic, a warm, generous and proud people. Thus, things like this shouldn't really preclude travels like myself visiting. The good news is that despite the increased warnings associated with travel to the region, the FCO haven't raised or change the overall status or advice for the area, so the message is one of caution!.

The reality however is that events will dissuade some, and in the end the people who'll suffer are the very people that the Maoist are fighting for. Its one of life's no win situations. The good news is that the climbing season is not until September, October time, so plenty of time for the situation to stabilize. Personally I'll review the situation later in the year, since I'm optimistic things will be ok. In the meantime, I'm planning to climbing a couple of smaller scale hills in Africa, one called Mount Kenya and one called Mount Kilimanjaro - you may have heard of them?