http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap030831.html

Click on the link above or copy and paste it into your browser. It is a wide angle 360? of the world from the summit of Everest. Note that the sky is blac, even during the day, due to the lack of air in the atmosphere to reflect light, giving the sky its blue colour.

As the time to take off draws nearer, I start to realise the immense proportion of this project and its far-reaching effect. With 24 sleeps left, I find myself looking, often with tired eyes, at what is left to be crossed off my list before I am cleared for take off. Although this list is unrelenting and tiresome, it is still over shadowed by what has been accomplished to date. It’s a good feeling as I realise how much has happened since I started typing the first proposals to sponsors.

But now as I wade a path from the bathroom to the bed, through a pile of mountain gear, I get the hint of a butterfly in my stomach as it dawns on me that in 3 1/2 weeks from now I will be walking the streets of Kathmandu, the monastery bells in my ears.

I saw this print advert in a presentation we did the other day.  It hit home, and I smiled.