David Nighy, 31, has been forced to think hard about his future, like every worker made redundant by the economic turmoil. But instead of rushing to find another job, the former stockbroker decided to team up with friends Simon Black, Frances Hopwood and Jacquetta Hayes to cycle from Lhasa in Tibet to Ladakh in India to raise money for Medecins Sans Frontieres and Motivation.
What's on your mind? I'm expecting a huge adventure on this 5,000 km cycling trip which will be very physically demanding at an altitude of 4,000 or 5,000 metres. I'm excited that I am going to encounter different people, heritage, culture and food. It's also a big challenge for me and my friends. We have known each other for a long time, but we have never come across challenges like this together. It will be great to see if we can cope. But the most important thing of all is that I hope the trip can be completed by the first week of July as I want to watch the World Cup final in Kathmandu.
Where did the idea come from? It was actually initiated by my friend Simon. We were talking about it for a long time as we love cycling and trekking. But a good opportunity came when I lost my job in January. We thought if we could raise money for charity from a holiday, then it would be great. So we rang MSF to tell them our plan and obviously they were happy with it.
How did you prepare for the trip? Honestly, I haven't done a long cycling trip before, though I've trekked in Nepal and Pakistan, close to the region we're going to, a few years ago. Now I get up early in the morning and cycle from the foothills to the top of Victoria Peak every day. I've also had dozens of different vaccines including hepatitis A and B, Japanese encephalitis, rabies, tetanus, a polio booster . . . everything, just to ensure I am healthy and fit for the trip.
What difficulties do you expect? Mechanical failure is what we do not want to see. Though we'll take along spare parts, I don't think we'll see a decent repair shop. Human failure is another worry, and we'll have to be very careful of sickness due to the climate and altitude. The last is administrative failure. Though we have done all the paper work and got different permits, there still might be something we don't know about or haven't thought about.
People wishing to support the team can make donations to Hongkong Bank account 511-119034-010 or call MSF on 2338 8277.
