Kathmandu!

We've been talking about exploring in Nepal, ever since we had the Everest talk a while ago - if we are going to go we need to start fundraising now and start making plans!

The outline plan is to combine some volunteering at an orphanage which has been 'adopted' by our Asiapacific coordinator and his West Lancs scouts.


Experience Kathmandu and Nepal of course!


And do some trekking in the mountains. This would ideally take about 3 weeks and ideally be over the winter period (to get nice clear weather). Volunteering at the orphanage over Christmas would be pretty fun too... However, school hols are quite short so we may have to try and ask for a couple of days out of school or compromise on how much we do. 


We could do an elephant safari in Chitwan national park too if anyone particularly wants to be with elephants...


The alternative would be to go after many of you have left school - July - and have three weeks to do everything, but it would be wetter and so we would probably not be trekking in the Everest area. I've heard different stories about how nice/pretty/refreshing/wet/muddy... the monsoon is, but Asiapacific said groups that had gone at this time had enjoyed themselves, but had less good views of the high mountains (more like Richard's mountain walks then, I guess!)



Finally, we could go for the last three weeks of the summer hols - much the same comments as the previous option but flights probably a bit more expensive and less convenient for me at work. There are festivals in Kathmandu in Aug/Sept so that could be livelier!


The explorers set a price of £500 per explorer so leaving quite a bit of fundraising to do so we need everyone to be committed to joining in! (leaders pay full cost though)

Budgets for our last big trip worked out OK with a £300 price and a £2300 cost, the balance being met by voluntary contributions and about £1000 per head raised in the fundraising. I am expecting the cost to work out at about £2000 for this too, so the same approach should work!

I propose to hold an interest meeting at the hut on Thursday 1 October. After the drop hike for explorers (as soon as they make it back to the hut (if you get lost and don't get back to the hut, it is prob not a good idea to go exploring further afield!) and parents from 9:00 to 9:30pm.