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On the 23rd September 2008 I fly to Nepal, then onto Tibet. I am going to ride my unicycle 1000km (620 miles) across the Roof of the World, from Lhasa, the capital of Tibet, to Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal. I will be using this ride to raise as much money as possible to help fund an NGO (non-governmental organisation) and its projects to improve the educational facilities and amenities in a remote village in the Himalayas.
The ride will be fully supported by one of the top adventure cycle tour operators in the UK, Red Spokes Adventure Tours.
After several days in Lhasa acclimatising, the ride will start by heading out across the Tibetan plateau, with an average elevation of 4000 metres. I will cross five major mountain passes, over 5000 metres, where the oxygen levels are half of what we have at sea level. Temperatures will go down to minus 15 degrees centigrade during the night. I will be camping for most of the route as the area is largely uninhabited. One of the hi-lights of the ride will be seeing the magnificent north face of Everest, the highest mountain on Earth. The route will take me to Base Camp where I will spend a day resting. Once I leave the Tibetan Plateau I will head downhill on the longest continuous decent in the world, 4500 metres of down, down, down; great if you're a mountain biker, who can free-wheel, but us unicyclists have to keep pedalling the whole way to stop from falling off.
If the distance wasn't going to be enough of a challenge, then there is the problem of breathing at high altitude. I've been told to expect back pain, diarrhoea, knee & ligament problems, headaches, insomnia, fatigue, and saddle soreness, not to mention any accidents from falling off! From start to finish the ride will take 25 days, including time to acclimatise.
Mountain bikers from around the world attempt this ride and say it's the hardest thing they've ever done. As far as I know, this ride has never been done before on a unicycle. This is going to be an extreme ride, but what an experience it will be, and so worthwhile if I can raise a significant sum of money to help these projects in Nepal .
A full write-up of the adventure will be available in a future edition on the Unicycle Magazine and a summary of the ride will be posted on this site early in November.
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