The power of goals

141,432, 141,433 ....... Sailed through my original target of 116,116 steps with four weeks still to go. With hindsight maybe that target was a bit soft but it certainly did not feel like that 8 weeks ago! I'll keep going with the steps but I think I'll do more hill walking in the next 3 weeks to get the knees and ankles conditioned. No doubt that having a target to aim at works for me. Its the same thing I experience on trek - each day brings a new goal, a high pass to get over, a distance to complete, a camp site or lodge to reach. Targets are not everything of course because the journey itself is really what its all about but having a goal provides motivation when its hard going.

I have always loved maps and the one of the Everest region supplied by Mountain Kingdoms really takes some beating. It's jam packed with terrifically evocative features and place names. Lukla, Namche Bazaar, Thyangboche, waterfalls, bridges, high passes, monasteries, chortens, rhododendron forests and of course a multitude of Himalayan giants. I noticed there is also an intriguingly named mountain called Peak 41 - an accountant's mountain perhaps? I have traced the route we will be taking using the detailed day by day itinerary from MK. Our first sight of Everest should come on Day 5 as we approach Namche Bazaar. That should provide quite a lift to spirits as we move ever upwards. If the descriptions in the itinerary are anything to go by then there are some truly great days in prospect - really getting excited now!