After nearly 7 hours of hiking up a mountain through forests and clouds, I arrived at the 3900mtr high camp and final resting place on my trek in the Himalayas. As the sun started to set, the clouds slowly began to fall, exposing the mountains and my first clear glimpse of where I really was. It looked incredible! The last of the day’s light gently ran up the face of the peaks and lit them with a beautiful warm pink glow.

As I ran to get my camera, I turned to see a full-moon rising, that I had completely overlooked for the trip. Pushing past exhaustion and despite below freezing temperatures, headaches, nausea and waves of dizziness caused by the mountain sickness, I found myself unable to go inside, instead captivated and awestruck by the surrounding scenery and experience.

That night under the stars, above a bed of clouds, surrounded by giants I stood for hours in excited nervous wonderment. It felt as though all my travels, thoughts and decisions had been pieces of the puzzle to get me to this mountain for this moment. It was an experience I will never forget.

This picture is special to me not only because of all the ingredients needed to make it happen, but because it has been a written goal of mine and an image I’ve had in my mind for such a long time. It contains 75 minutes of star trails spinning off the North Star above a sea of cloud and Annapurna’s South Mountain. Whilst I consider it an absolute pleasure and blessing to be able to search for these amazing locations that inspire me, it really is one of life’s great gifts to watch your ideas, dreams and intentions turn into a reality.

Today I am very happy, grateful and proud to be able to present this image to you, feeling it to be one of the fruits of my labour and the reward for my journey. Hope you love it. X

Foot bridges at small river crossings.

Looking up the river valley towards my destination.

Chain bridges are used to cross larger river crossings.

Young boys play with fire on a terraced village I came across on my climb.

Elderly Smiling man takes a break from weaving to greet me.

After climbing up through clouds and uneven steps all day, I reach a clearing as the clouds start to part to show the mountains around me.

Pictures don’t do justice to how it feels being next to these giants.

Full Moon rising behind Machhapuchhre (fishtail) mountain as the sunsets at the high camp.

My Reward

Morning views were epic above the clouds

Onward to my summit

Other trekkers follow the ridge towards the top.

Made it. yewwwwwww

Only a few of my close friends were aware but before I went away I was lacking the motivation and excitement that one would expect with going on a 10 month overseas mission and i felt guilty about it. I went to a guided meditation and before we started set my intention to help me gain some inspiration for my imminent trip. During the meditation we were directed to step out of a flying capsule. As I stepped out I found myself walking along-side a flowing river in what a place that I knew to be Nepal and I was on my way to a sacred mountain. I had never really thought about going to Nepal but after my internal movie I was defiantly going and I told my aunty on the way home “I saw myself in Nepal, so I’m going to go there.” I was now filled with excitement of what cool adventures lay ahead to get me there.
Later that day I for some reason was looking into lay lines of the earth and realised the earth probably had energy points and chakras as our bodies do. A quick google search revealed the supposed locations of these centres and  soon discovered that the crown chakra was located in mount Kalaish in Tibet It was here i thought i was destined to be.

After months cruising around Asia my time had come and I booked my ticket to nepal in search of this place in my vision. Researching into mount Kalaish I discovered it was very difficult to get to and would take about 10 days overland in a 4×4 through some seriously rough terrain to access. The Chinese government were also charging some silly price like $150 a day for permits in Tibet and that was more than my budget, especially for 20 days in a car. So which much disappointment I decided against the trip and thought maybe its for another time.
In my meditation I had seen myself walking alone and most of the treks I looked into in nepal seemed really busy and full of tea houses selling coca cola and not the spiritual pilgrimage I had envisioned. As my time in Nepal was coming to an end I met a friendly shop vendor who suggested a trek away from the usual tourist traffic and that I could ride a motor bike along side a river to avoid the check posts and leave it with some villagers and before hiking by myself to the sacred un-summited fishtail mountain. I wasn’t really up for a big 3 week hike so this sounded perfect and felt right. So I hired a motorbike, brought a map and off i went.
On the first day about 2-3 hours into the hike I was walking along a river side when an unusual feeling came over me, I looked up and got hit with shock that I was in the place I had foreseen  6 months earlier in my meditation. I couldn’t believe it, and still cant, I had to sit down and just stare in awe for the wonder and connection I was experiencing as i struggled to comprehend how this was happening. It was such an incredibly special time for me where everything came together so magically that I found myself in a world full of gratitude accompanied only by tears of joy.

Mentally and physically pushing to 4300mtrs in 2 days and all the emotions of being in that environment alone living out what was quite literally a dream created one of the greatest experiences of my travels and the proudest I’ve been of myself for a long time.
Fully winged it. No guide, No permit and except for when i thought i was gonna die from acute mountain sickness- No worries.!!!!!
Let this remind us to Stay focussed on our dreams, don’t stop believing in them and chase them down because you truly can manifest them into a reality.

A moment to reflect on the dream.

Back down towards the start of my trek a young girl appears nervous crossing the unstable wooden bridge with her haul of buffalo feed.

A nepali lady poses for a portrait in her dark kitchen.

The cool local people that stored my bike and set me up with some tomatoes and smiles for my trip.