Tuesday 23rd March 2010 - Flying to Lukla? Part 2

Tuesday 23rd March 2010 - Flying to Lukla? Part 2

Another day and another early start. I awake today at 05.30am, I follow the same routine as yesterday which means a shower and finishing whatever packing I didn't get to do last night. We haven't even left the hotel yet and I am already sick of packing the rucksack every night. Breakfast begins at 06.00am for us, very soon after the news starts to filter through that there has been no change in the situation, Lukla for now remains closed.

The only saving grace today is that we can do our waiting in the hotel rather than the airport. At last the first bit of good news in a few days but it still means waiting relatively close to the hotel for another six hours at least. It is extremely frustrating and even my positive and optimistic outlook were put to the test as the hours pass by slowly.

During this time I start to think is there a risk that we will miss out on something if we do not get going today? Will we have to sacrifice a Kala Patthar attempt or Base Camp due to these delays. I am all too aware that we have two days built into the itinerary for such an eventuality, however those two days were now gone so would that mean losing a day up high so that we still have a spare day at the end for flying home. These thoughts were all going through my mind during this waiting period. We are not the only group in the hotel waiting to fly, a group from Australia are also waiting to get going and they busy themselves with some yoga to pass a few minutes. Our group on the other hand are scattered, some are in bed, some in the lobby, others god knows where. Everyone doing what they can to pass the hours. I sit in the lobby, for I want to be the first to know what is happening and when.

I try to take some time today to get to know some of the other members of the group. With so many people there are bound to be some interesting stories to share. Jonas, Ebrahim and Asif are the well traveled members of the group, in fact between them they must have seen half the countries of the world. They have so many interesting stories and experiences from places like India, Borneo, Norway and other places I have seldom heard of never mind thought of travelling to.

I get speaking to Vanessa, she is living in the UK but originally from Mauritius. She tells me about treks she has done in the past with the Adventure Company. She has been to Kilimanjaro in Tanzania and Machu Picchu in Peru, some of the other places I have thought about going and since talking to Vanessa they are definitely on my radar. I was particularly interested in the Kili climb and as it can be done in ten days at a push it would mean not being away from home for so long which is a definite advantage I will keep you posted on this ;)

Its only 10.30am and now it is starting to get boring. Prackash makes calls every thirty minutes and we await good news, it doesn't come however. He told us about a group who actually made it to Lukla yesterday, sadly their luggage did not, that would probably be the worst case scenario for me so I am thankful for that.

At lunchtime we get official word that the flight has again been cancelled confirming what we already knew. Prackash thankfully told us we could use the bus for the day and get out for a few hours, tour some more sites and try to unwind. We end up going to the Bhaktapur Municipality, a city of temples from the 15th century. There is rich culture here and some amazing architecture made from metal and stone. You really feel like you are in the middle of the local culture. We had planned on coming here on our free day in Nepal so at least we got to see the area. There is a different feel to this area, it is not as poor as central Kathmandu and the people in the shops dont seem too bothered by our presence there.

We make our way back to the hotel for 5.30pm and meet Prackash at 6.00pm in the lobby. He has looked at various options for us based on a chat earlier in the day, we asked him to give us the worst case scenario if the flight is cancelled for a third day for example. We basically have 3 options available to us:

A - Flight takes off tomorrow and everything is fine

B - We redirect and do a different trek, Annapurna being the obvious choice

C - We extend the trek beyond the allotted time, i.e. it takes as long as is necessary to get to Everest Base Camp.

Instantly I am gutted, I am not even thinking about option A, B and C are all that I can focus on because those two are the only ones we can choose ourselves. One thing I notice straight away is these options seem to have caused a little rift between the group. Understandably there are some who think option C is the best course of action, I on the other hand cannot afford that luxury. I have to be home when we are meant to be home. There is no room for slippage on that for me. I have connecting flights to Ireland, hotel in London all paid for and also holidays from work to think about. C is not an option for me. Others in the group have no issues with extending the trip by a few days so are obviously pushing for that option. While I do not want to miss Everest (after all it is why I am here) I decide that if tomorrow comes and we cannot fly to Lukla I will go to Annapurna and do that trek instead.

Some of the other options for the team were to stick with the schedule, i.e eventually get to Lukla and then just try and get as far as we could to Base Camp. I ruled that out straight away, I came to do it all and if that was not on offer then I will come back another time. Relations between the group were strained for the night. Nobody was fighting with anyone but you could feel the tension.

We decided tonight we needed some home comforts, Scott and Yasir told us that a few nights before they ate in the Radisson across from our hotel and the food was excellent, all you can eat buffet for 1500 rupees. Liking the proximity and the thoughts of quality food off we went. It was good just to unwind a little, have a few drinks and try to remain positive that tomorrow we would begin trekking.