Monday 28th 11am, Kathmandu. (EST is 11 hours behind Nepal)

The expedition begins!

Diary by Terry Kell

Everyone has arrived safely, on time, with all our equipment. We are rested
and in good shape.

We had a very interesting flight over from Bahrain where a Saudi sheik joined the flight, complete with a falcon and the falcon had his own seat to Kathmandu! When we arrived we were met by the head of the Sherpa team, who took all our baggage and made us feel very welcome.

We have been testing the technology for the back up and disaster recovery infrastructure and are taking the satellite communications to the hotel rooftop this afternoon.

The research teams have already started their work. One met with Dr Keith Burgess from the University of Sydney in Australia to start the analysis of sleep patterns. And the Ryerson University team met up with the student team from Kathmandu University to start the tourism research, with surveys already issued.

This morning we are going shopping to buy supplies for the Child Haven
orphanage. With the money raised by the expedition so far, we are able to buy equipment, school materials and toys for the orphanage and we will deliver them at 2pm this afternoon. The orphans are apparently going to put on a show so we look forward to seeing that.

After the show we'll have a hockey practice in the parking lot of the hotel. There was some concern when we brought the collapsible, full-size nets to Ottawa International Airport on Friday and found that they were too big to get on the plane. But Air Canada did us proud and the nets arrived, safely!

I am getting Blackberry withdrawal feelings! My thumbs are resting but it feels very strange. The king has shut down all cellular towers and communications are limited.

Kathmandu is absolutely fabulous. It's hard to take everything in and the sights and sounds are beyond my expectations. It's unbelievable to be here.

I expect to be on email later and will talk more.

Terry