Holiday News and Offers

Our final winner for 2022 is Chris Holland with this superb photo of Ama Dablam in the Everest region of Nepal. Not only has Chris captured the beauty of this magnificent mountain but the stupa in the foreground (with its slightly cheeky expression) adds real interest and character as well as a sense of symmetry and scale between the man made and natural worlds. Many congratulations to Chris who wins our last Water-to-Go bottle of the year.

Christmas has come and gone, and we do hope that yours was a merry one. You can see us in our Christmas hats in our December newsletter, along with a jaunt up Kilimanjaro, some spring holiday inspiration, a tribute to our departed friend Kev Reynolds, and a triumphant winning entry for our November photo competition. Happy New Year, and in the words of the late Kev Reynolds, let's make 2022 the year to live the moment and live it well.

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If you're still searching for that perfect Christmas gift, then look no further then this poetry anthology by Peter Gibbs. Aside from being a wonderful poet, Peter is also a journalist and longstanding friend of Mountain Kingdoms.

His poems are inspired by his hometown of Clevedon in North Somerset as well as his extensive travels around the world including Europe, the American Rockies and the Himalaya. ..'The multi-faceted themes of love and life, time and travel, sorrow and happiness, nature and spirituality are distilled here into a delightfully-varied series of inspirational and nuanced poems, many with illustrations.'

Let the Good Rhymes Roll: A Poetry Anthology can be purchased in from Amazon in paperback or Kindle fomats.

It was with great sadness that we recently heard that our dear friend, Kev Reynolds, passed away aged 78.

Kev led treks for Mountain Kingdoms to Bhutan and the Indian Himalaya, and he also held a series of presentation evenings for us in which he shared his passion for the great mountains of the world with a rapt audience. Nepal was one of his favourite trekking destinations, especially Manaslu which he regarded as the ‘most beautiful walk in the world’.

Many of you though will ‘know’ Kev through the numerous Cicerone guidebooks he wrote over a span of 40 years including classic trekking guides to the Pyrenees, Alps and Himalaya. He also wrote walking guides to his beloved home region of Kent and Sussex, and had a collection of poems published in 2020 which he wrote as an antidote to the Covid lockdown.

Kev inspired many people through his writing and lived a wonderfully fulfilling life doing the things he loved the most. He was also the kindest, warmest, most generous man you could ever wish to know and a devoted family man. Our deepest sympathies go to his wife Min and their two daughters, Claudia and Ilsa.

Congratulations to Miles Cresswell-Turner who won our November Walking the World photo competition with this joyful photo of Everest taken from Kala Pattar. The photo was taken this October as Nepal re-opened to visitors and Miles was lucky enough to have the trail to Everest Base Camp all to himself – a very rare privilege indeed. Our December theme is Simply the Best, so send us your favourite images before the end of the month for the final chance to win our 2021 photo competition.

Our November enewsletter brings you the latest news from Nepal as it re-opens for tourism. We also share some of our favourite views from the Himalayan Kingdom including the stunning panorama from Gokyo Ri and breakfast in style in the Annapurnas. There's an update on the work being done to support porters by the charity CAN plus details of the winner of our October Photo Competition.

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