We arrived at school at 8.30 ready for the build up day to our expedition, well most of us did. The late comers all arrived by 9 am and the day could start.
Our journey began at school where we were anxious to examine the kit issued by World Challenge. Tents were erected and checked to ensure no gaps or holes.
After this phase we retired back to our designated room and talked about the forthcoming expedition. Roles were issued out such as Stats on kit and equipment or Dougie and admin. The basis of our trip was laid out in the next hours, queries answered and expedition rules laid out, with myself volunteering to be leader on the first leg of expedition.
We went for lunch at the quality diner Pizza Hut with us eating all the buffet pizza's the Hut could throw at us.
After lunch we returned well fed and checked for the last time our kit. Then we began talking about how we were going to approach the tasks that would await our arrival in India such as visiting the embassy, booking busses and even longer thoughts such as food and accommodation in Manali, for the second day of the expedition.
After all loose ends had been tied up it was time to leave for the airport. The buses came and we loaded up.
On arrival to the airport the fun began with us finding and checking everyone in before sorting out all our equipment. Glad to be rid of our heavy bags we headed off in separate directions to reconvene within an hour. Off in groups of 3 which had previously been arranged at school as a set of rules, we wandered the strange and to be honest rather boring world that is Heathrow Airport.
Our next journey was to get into the waiting area past security. With the usual checks being completed with no serious incidents we continued to browse the duty free shops; many being parted with extortionate amounts of money for a simple sandwich. After regrouping and excited to get closer to our destination we were dismayed to learn we had an hour delay for our flight, and hoped this would not be a bad omen of things to come. We got on the Virgin Atlantic airways and off we set into the world of unknown.
(Ollie Wheeler: Leader for day one)