Tom Rex Jessett

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Dreams remain dreams if you don’t step out and make them happen, right? Like most people, I have dreams or bucket list ticks that I have always wanted to complete and one such dream for me being hiking to Everest Base Camp and visiting Nepal. So when the opportunity presented itself to lead an epic adventure to the highest peaks in the world as well as volunteering in a rural community, I obviously jumped at it!

I have volunteered and worked with the not-for-profit charity, ThisWorldExists, for three years now. The ethos of the organisation is to provide education opportunities in disadvantaged communities in developing countries while also completing a personal challenge. Nepal is one of the poorest countries in South East Asia so we have focused a lot of our attention towards helping the Nepalese people, especially as the country was so badly affected by a disastrous earthquake in 2015, increasing the need for foreign aid.

My journey started just after Christmas 2017. Flying into Kathmandu airport, I had a huge grin on my face in anticipation for this epic adventure to kick off, as well as a huge level of excitement to meet the six people I would be leading on this challenge. I wasn’t worried at all about my group, as generally speaking this type of travel attracts awesome like-minded people and within just hours of meeting my team, I knew they would be absolute legends to share this experience with. After a few acclimatisation days in Kathmandu and learning more about Nepal, its culture, food and customs, it was time to hit the mountains and complete our first goal of the trip.

The Challenge!

Following in great climbers’ and explorers’ footsteps through the Himalayas is rather humbling, even if, in comparison, our challenge is somewhat minute compared to those who scale these 8,000m-plus monsters. The alarm clocks rung out at 4am in our Kathmandu hotel, we were only a couple of hours into the new year, yet off to an epic start. Blurry eyed, we rocked up at the airport in Kathmandu, the worn down old terminal filled up fast with people from around the world heading to the Himalayas. After studying some maps, liaising with our Sherpa guides and getting some snacks, it was time to fly. We jumped aboard a tiny twin propeller plane and took off with an incredible sunrise lighting up across the city and over the mountains. The sheer joy and excitement of the group looking out across the mountains was enough to forget about the potentially scary landing - the Tenzing Hillary airport has a reputation of being pretty dangerous. Fortunately for us it was a smooth and exciting landing on the tiny steep runway on the side of the mountain town of Lukla. We disembarked at a rapid pace and before we knew it the plane was loaded with passengers leaving the mountains and it was away again - I have had slower taxi drop offs!

After a quick breakfast and tea it was time to hit the trail. A relatively easy first day that would see us actually lose elevation as we weaved our way from Lukla to Tuk Tok. These lower valleys were an introduction to the mountain way of life, it was surprising how many people lived along the river edges along the trail. Small farming communities rolled from one to another, each one as enchanting and interesting as the previous. The trail we followed was the main route for all traffic, all of which incredibly is on foot. It was quickly apparent that if it’s going up, it’s getting carried - from food supplies and building materials to literally the kitchen sink! The first steps we took along the trail seemed somewhat embarrassing to take with our backpacks when you are then overtaken by someone carrying 100 kg of timber. It was an amazing insight immediately at how harsh and hard these conditions are to live in. By 3pm we had reached our lodgings for the night, the first of many tea houses that would accommodate us on our journey. After experiencing the traffic all day it immediately took me back that this whole building had been constructed by hand and materials had been carried in. It made me hugely appreciative to have a roof over my head and then even more appreciation when a delicious hot meal was served up.

Our journey continued after a chilly first night in the mountains. After a hearty breakfast and a regular check on group morale and health it was time to hit the trails for the day. We hiked all day through all types of weather, finishing up in a snow storm as we approached the mountain town of Namche Bazar. The sight of the town was mind blowing - it was so much bigger than I ever imagined. As we walked past large lodgings, cafes and even a few high street outdoor clothing brands stores it was hard to believe you were at 3500m and miles away from any road. The light blizzard conditions added extra drama and excitement to our new home for a couple of nights. We would use Namche as a first base for acclimatisation to altitude. With a high risk of altitude sickness, it’s very important to take time to let your body adjust, while also giving it a good rest. Our first acclimatisation day started early when I chose to get up for sunrise. With a clear sky and a fresh dusting of snow across the town it was pretty magical exploring the town as the sun rose from behind the mountains. I shared the morning with my close friend watching the super moon first set behind the mountains, then the sun rise across the mountains illuminating Everest itself - my first sighting of the world’s tallest peak. Even as I write this a huge smile grows across my face just like it did that morning. As you can imagine it was a very special moment, despite being out in nature like this countless times before, this instantly became one of the most special times I have ever experienced. Truly humbling. Our acclimatisation days themselves would involve a short hike gaining altitude - hike high, sleep low. Then we would have the afternoon to explore, relax and appreciate.

A sight I will never forget!

Supermoon setting in Namche

The following few days would see us hike slowly up the mountain trails from tea house to tea house and admiring the incredible scenery while chatting away to new friends. As we progressed up the valleys the distance between settlements increased, the amount of farmed land reduced and the scenery became even more dramatic. Four days later, we found ourselves in Lobuche at 5000m with the group remained in high spirits as our destination was fast approaching. The effects of altitude were starting to take effect - as we felt the strain on our bodies, it was noticeable now that every breath we took was not achieving as much as it normally would. At this altitude you only receive 50% of the normal amount of oxygen with every breath. Personally, after going out to watch the sun set, I could feel my head throbbing quite intensely during our evening meal. It almost felt like my brain was bigger than my skull, an intense feeling! With plenty of water and a good night’s rest I was fortunate to feel a lot better the following morning. I felt very fortunate as others around us clearly were struggling a lot more. The respect for those who summit these mountains soon increases at this altitude, when you appreciate how much of a toll the environment is taking on your body, largely out of your control.

Hiking through the Himalayas

The alpine glow on the worlds highest mountain range

A break in the clouds at Tengboche

Panorama of the Himalayas

Lhotse captured from Dingboche

Spot Jason taking in the huge mountains

River views to Ama Dablam

As we woke on day 8 we had Base Camp in our sights. As we climbed higher and got closer, the reality set in that we were all going to get our wish and make the goal. It may not sound like a big deal, but hearing and then seeing people of other groups drop away as we got higher put our accomplishments into perspective. As we approached, I started to think quite intently on how I would celebrate our teams unity and efforts on achieving our goal. Reaching Base Camp itself was a fantastic experience, both emotional and exhilarating. I had a tear in my eye as I congratulated our team on reaching our destination. We all had an enormous sense of pride that came alongside a huge amount of gratitude for our team around us in helping each other along the way to all reach our dream spot. I felt very appreciative of the people of Nepal because without the Sherpa, the guides, the tea house owners, cooks, track builders and local farmers, we wouldn’t have been able to complete this anywhere near as easily. This huge amount of gratitude towards the Nepalese people for accommodating our luxury of being able to holiday and adventure so easily within their country made our next component of our trip to Nepal all the more important to us.

I made it to Everest Base Camp!

After reaching Base Camp, we now knew that we had a long hike back to Lukla, before setting off to the remote Eastern Nepal foothills to start our charity work. A long hard three days of hiking to get back down from Base Camp was met with huge relief and excitement as we got back to Kathmandu. The final days of hiking back were by far the hardest and with tired legs and minds, the appeal of a hot shower and putting our feet up was high. We had 24 hours to wash our clothes, relax and prepare for our next adventure.

Mount Ama Dablam

Views back to Namche Bazar

Ryan taking in the epic Himalayas

Trent stopping to marvel at the views

Nicole enjoying the views from the Hillary Bridge

Late afternoon mist

The Monastery at Tengboche

The Charity Work!

Over the past two years, nearly 30 volunteers from around the world have come together on ThisWorldExists trips to help build a primary school in the remote farming community of Sorung Chhabise. Before the organisation’s involvement, within the area, only two western people had ever visited the village. Now, two years later, the school is open - thanks to the volunteering efforts and money raised from the awesome humans that have wanted to help. With the school officially opening in April 2017 and a local attendance of almost 70 children, we now had the opportunity to visit and work at the school for the first time since children filled the classrooms.

My personal involvement with ThisWorldExists has been over three years, volunteering in Cambodia as well as helping to spread the story online. I had followed the building of the school in Sorung Chhabise since day one, so for me to finally go and see it and give my personal support to the community was gratifying to say the least.

After a long 10 hour Jeep ride from Kathmandu we got our first sight of the village - large, dry valleys of terraced rice paddies, dotted with small rural dwellings and joined by narrow dusty tracks. It was pretty cool to think this would be home for the next week. The phone reception had long but petered out on the journey towards the village, so this was now an amazing opportunity to switch off from our normal lives and fully immerse ourselves in Nepali village life.

The rural community of Sorung

We were lucky enough to be staying with a family in the village, an experience few people would be able to enjoy while visiting the country. For us this added extra excitement to be in the area and made us feel even more privileged to get this added insight into the Nepali way of life.

As the day broke on our first morning of volunteering we took the same route as many of the local children take to get to the school, following the small river down the valleys and across the rice paddies to the school grounds. After a short walk, we were greeted by a huge crowd of children waiting for the school gate to open. We were all incredibly excited to finally be at the school, to see the hard work and progress made so far and even more so to witness the joy on the children’s faces as they proudly showed us the new school.

After a very special traditional greeting ceremony from the whole school we set to work on the tasks we wanted to carry out. With the main school building finished and in full use our attention would be spent on creating a sanitation block for the school, with two toilets and fresh water basins for hand washing. As you can imagine, this is not a job we could fully do ourselves in just a week. So, with the money that each of us had personally raised in our home countries, we hired local mistry (craftsman) and purchased materials for the works. We were then to act as support for them, helping to speed the build up. This allowed us to directly help in spending the money we had raised, while also seeing a dramatic change in the good of the school’s future. Alongside aiding the local mistry we also undertook smaller personal projects around the school site. We would combine our thoughts daily as a team and decide on appropriate uses of our time and resources to give the best outcomes for the school. This included teaching English to the children across all age groups, making subtle improvements to the school premises; we made some safety improvements to reduce the risk of accidents and made a huge improvement to the children’s beloved soccer field.

With a range of tasks to be carried out, we all worked to our individual best performance to give the most that we could, back to the school. It also gave us variety and a feel for helping multiple aspects of the school life.

The love and appreciation we received back from the children and the local community made every second of hard graft feel so satisfying. It was such a privilege to fully immerse ourselves in the village life of Sorung Chhabise. From digging a huge hole for a septic tank, to dragging rocks out of the riverbed for building walls, planting screening plants along fences and even playing soccer with the children. Every day we had smiles and positivity from our new community. This connection we built with the locals made it all the more hard when our experience in the village came to an end. The knowledge though that our efforts would last a lot longer than just a week within the community meant that really, although we were saying goodbye, the legacy of what we came to achieve would remain.

Now, as I sit at home reflecting on my time in Nepal, I feel hugely proud to have been a part of such a like-minded group of inspiring travellers. The friendships built in the mountains and the village will continue to flourish. The pride we felt of achieving our goals will be shared for years in our stories and our impact on Nepal will be felt for many years to come in the Sorung Chhabise community.

From a previously very independent and proud traveller, I can now see the advantage and feel the satisfaction of travelling with an organised group. The experiences and positive impact on the country were so much greater than just rocking up and going for a hike. It makes me excited to do it all again in the future.

The X series Kathmandu gear was amazing in the cold temperatures of the Himalayas

I would like to say an enormous thank you to Kathmandu for supporting me personally on the ThisWorldExists trip to Nepal. The gear supplied made my journey through Nepal all the more comfortable and enjoyable. But the knowledge that a company is so encouraging of your dream and the difference you want to help make in the world is the most rewarding element by far.

Thanks for reading,

Tom Rex Jessett

To learn more about ThisWorldExists or to join an upcoming adventure to Nepal - www.thisworldexists.org

To buy Kathmandu gear - www.Kathmandu.co.nz