Lao Tzu said that ‘A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step’
This post covers some of my thoughts on how we took that first few steps preparing for our family trekking trip to Nepal.
Nepal has always had a special place in my heart and the idea was hatched to go trekking there with the kids. As with any long trip there were a number of things to prepare: saving up, requesting extended time away from work, flights to book and travel insurance. This time we had a number of new questions: What would it be involved in taking the kids on a trek in Nepal, how far could we expect to walk each day before we were too tired or bored and the kids wanted to stop, what kit would we need, could we carry all our kit along with the kids in slings, which company should we use for a porter and the list went on.
The next obvious step was to start preparing and to have a flexible plan. We had already done a number of camping trips, including wild camping, with the kids so it did not feel a huge step to stay in huts and walk between them.
The time off work was requested, flights booked and the focus turned to what we would need to take, how far we could walk and many other questions.
We decided we needed to have a dry run of the kind of walk we would be doing but locally to where we lived. This would give us a feeling for how the kids would take to days spent walking and how far we were likely to be able to walk.
A two day walk through the Peak District National Park was planned. Staying in a YHA hostel at Eyam overnight, parking the car in Baslow and then have a self-power backpacking trip with the whole family.
On Saturday morning we set of in the slightly damp weather with our waterproof on and our umbrella out. From Baslow first we headed up the steep hill up to Baslow Edge, on to Curbar Edge and then to Froggatt Edge before heading down through Froggatt village and on to Eyam and the hostel. There was excitement as the children climbed over gates and stiles, we spotted wildlife through the binoculars and were rewarded for all our hard work walking up hill to some amazing views. This first day the route took us six miles through some lovely bit of the Gritstone Eastern Edges, moorland and through woodland before arriving at the hostel in the early afternoon.
After a lovely evening relaxing at the hostel, cooking the food we had been carrying we all slept well. The second day after packing up, we started with an explore of the historic plague village of Eyam including a visit to Mompresson’s Well on the way to Stoney Middleton. The contrast of the limestone white peak to the previous day walking through the gritstone dark peak was stark. We enjoyed the rolling countryside of the limestone white peak and another six miles were walked; the pace was slow, with lots of stops. Early on in our adventures with the kids we learnt that stopping for regular snacks was critical in success on longer days out, they do say an army marches on its stomach and the short bursts of activities and plenty of breaks with snacks seem to suit children.
Often in life every so often something unexpected happens. In one of those moments when as we were crossing the main road in Stoney Middleton and before heading up the hill side on a foot path, one of our old University friends saw us as they were driving on their way to Snowdonia and stopped to say hi. Which made for a lovely surprise.
There is something amazing about the feeling of packing up your life into your bag and heading off on foot. It felt like what we were meant to do, walk between the villages, exploring as we went and chatting along with the kids. Ewan who at the time was four years old really enjoyed the walking, had fun climbing over the stiles and the odd rest in the sling with me. As ever Tessa took it all in her stride, she loved doing some walking and splashing in puddles.
So what did we learn?
Well firstly we had a lot of fun; secondly we realised that if we went slow and had lots of breaks then the kids could cover quite a bit of distance.
The focus on light weight kit and keeping it down to essentials had worked really well. We also started to get a clear idea on what worked, some items had really shown their worth, for example the little umbrella was great for keeping little people in slings dry. The slings themselves were amazing although we realised we were going to be so dependent on them we should take a spare sling (to leave in our spare luggage at the hotel) and spare buckles for repairs in the field. We identified items where we needed to improve what we had, in particular our first aid kit which we subsequently put a lot of thought into partly using what I had learnt on my training with High Peak First Aid, partly taking on board tips from articles like: https://paulkirtley.co.uk/2011/personal-wilderness-first-aid-kit/ and https://www.travelindependent.info/what-to-pack-travel.htm#First%20aid
Being able to comfortably carry the kids when they were tired was going to be critical. We discovered the importance of a few toys and light books, to keep our little people entertained when we were at the hostel. Most of all we learnt that being out as a family on a trip was amazing.
I had set off on this trip to prepare physically and underestimated the amount of mental preparation it would give me. I had realised that even though it was going to be hard work trekking with the kids, I was sure it was going to be such a rewarding experience to do as a family. We were now looking forward to the next part of our preparation when we had arrived in Nepal, a short trek in the foothills of the Annapurna before setting off on our 16 days in the Langtang Valley and surrounding area.
