Update on work in Nepal

Hi All,

Just thought I'd give an update on where your money went, especially for those donating to the Nepal Educaiton project via Mondochallenge.

The library and roof are almost finished now and look great! (See photos below) Work on the computer lab should start soon, now that big Dashain festival in Nepal (a bit like Christmas) is over. Also, we raised so much more than we expected, that we're going to be able to build another library for another needy school, and perhaps some other projects, will keep you posted.

Ram says: "furnitures for the Patan Niketan library are ready and we have put them in library...Please do find enclosed photos of 3 book shelves, 4 benches and 1 big tables. They all really looks great. Due to the Dashain festival, we couldn't put the books at the library which we will do as soon as the Dashain festival finish..... Chaukot school: we have finished the renovation of the class rooms, changing ceilings, seperating class rooms, plastering class room walls and fixing the floor with concretes and cements. We are now plastering on outface of the class rooms..."

So thanks once again for being so generous!
Michael


[The Classroom before at Chaukot]

[Plastering the walls]


[More plastering]

[The new library furniture in Patan]

[The headmistress of Patan school in the library]

We Did It!

In the early hours of this morning we hit the French coast near Wissard, just past Cap Gris-Nez.

We started out at 10am west of Shakespeare Beach Saturday morning and completed the crossing in a very respectable 14 hours, 11 minutes and 30 seconds.

There's lots to tell about swimming in the dark, jellyfish stings, sea sickness and just general sickness, big waves, small waves, ferries and more.

We did it as a team and people swam their legs with style, with bravery, with super human-efforts and in the face of illness and adversity - however they needed to do it, when their turn came, to get the team across.

The pictures, videos and stories will appear here in due course.

Big thanks to all our sponsors, friends and family who helped us with our training, motivation, and with the words and messages that kept us going yesterday.

Channel conquered!


Click here to see out route:
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps/ms?hl=en&ie=UTF8&msa=0&ll=51.02153,1.5271&spn=0.366268,0.85968&t=h&z=10&msid=111830722398376078093.000455aaaf09592793ff3

T minus 24 hours

Well, we think the day's finally come. Tomorrow that is.

After lots of weather delays, we heard from our pilot last night, that we should gear up for Saturday morning. We still need to double check tonight, but it's looking increasingly certain.

Because of the tides and going so late in the week, we won't actually set off until about 10am. That means we'll definitely be doing a significant chunk of the swim in the dark and we'll all have a leg in the darkness. Those of us mocking Jen and Kerry about having to swim off into the scary dark before the sun was up are slightly less smug about it now.

Uncertainty continues...

We were all set up and ready to go for Wednesday or Thursday this week, but it's all change now.

The weather is getting worse, but is due to clear Thurs or Fri and there are still two teams to go before us. That means it's looking increasingly likely we won't go til next weekend - unless we take a big risk and go on Wednesday anyway, but it'll be pretty choppy and rough. There's not much appetite for that in the team.

Mixed News

We went down to Dover yesterday, as we'd heard we wouldn't be swimming until Tuesday at the very earliest.

We did between 1.5 and 2 hours for a first swim and some of us did a second swim of varying lengths. The harbour was flat calm and the sun shining. It didn't help for me - I'm just bored of swimming in that harbour now!

We got some news from our boat today and it was quite sobering. Of the six teams that attempted it yesterday, two failed. Yesterday was supposed to be the best day of the week for the weather as well.

There's not any extra preparation we can do at this stage, so it's a case of waiting until we get the call and tackling whatever we find on the day.

The Latest Word...

Potentially we could have been swimming as early as tomorrow (Sat) or the day after.
But we've just got word that it's more likley to be Wednesday or Thursday.

I was set up for doing it earlier that that but I'm pleased we've got a bit more time - it lets Chris recover from a nightmare week at work, lets me recover from a dodgy shoulder for a bit longer and not doing it on a bank holiday weekend helps the logistics quite a bit.

So a few more days of waiting yet...

Final Run-in

It's been quiet on the blog front because we've been super busy in advance of our swim - not because nothing's been happening!

Michael, Jen, Kerry and I spent a week in the Scilly Isles on Swim Trek having a great time and doing some swimming too. Water out there was considerably chillier than the south coast, so it should be good training for the bits in the middle of channel. There were many highlights of the week - not least Michael being bitten on the backside by a seal (no, seriously he was). To swim in water that was clear, where you could see the bottom and even the hand at the end of your arm, felt great compared to the usual boggyness of Dover.

Since then, Michael's gone on holiday to Canada, but we've received word from him that he's training in some very cold water now.

We've had two further sea swims - the first I couldn't make, but Kerry, Jen and Tom made our last trip to Dover week before last.

On Saturday, Kerry, Tom, Chris and me headed down to Brighton, for a change and a shorter train journey. The weather was rough and even entering the water against the surf proved a bit of a challenge. But we stuck it out and had a slow, if hard training sessions. When we got out the lifeguards were showing a red flag, warning people not to enter the water. We all felt suitably tough.

This is our final week and it'll be mostly taken up with logistics I reckon - sorting out food, boats trains, glowsticks etc.