Wednesday 24th March 2010 - Flying to Lukla? Last Chance

Wednesday 24th March 2010 - Flying to Lukla? Last Chance

Today is a make or break day for us. Either we get going to Lukla or possibly face having to go to do another trek. To make matters worse I think I have a stomach bug. I have spent almost all night running to and from the loo, it's typical, had we gone to Lukla on time I would not have this problem now. I must have let my guard down in the Radisson, of all places. My next worry is not so much the flight leaving or not, but how will I be able to manage on the plane if I need to run to the toilet.

Prackash had managed to get us booked on a later flight than the last few days so that meant a little lie in, instead of 05.30am I got an extra hour in bed. I have my routine well practiced by now, after a quick shower and packing the rucksack we head downstairs to await news. The mood is a lot more positive this morning, everyone is confident and optimistic that we are flying today. I decide not to eat breakfast today, the best way to sort this illness is to not feed it, black tea is all I go for today.

Prackash arrives soon after with his office manager, we know something is going down and instantly I think uh oh. They go over the night before, the options that were available to us. The weather is still the same in Lukla so it does not look like planes will be going today. They don't let us dwell on this fact though, there is another option, Helicopters. There are groups who are stuck in Lukla who have international flights the following morning, they are the priority but as there is no point in the chopper flying empty on one trip we benefit from the situation. It will cost us another $100 each but to get out of Kathmandu today, Ill gladly pay ten times that. As long as we all agree we can fly in a few hours. I don't think it takes long for us to decide, lets go for it.

The mood of the group is instantly transformed, everyone is sick and tired of waiting and just wants to start trekking. My concern is that the helicopter trip takes fifty minutes to get to Lukla. I really hope I don't need to use the toilet. We wait for about an hour in the Hotel, apparently there is still a chance the planes can go and until that option is ruled out we cannot get on the choppers, but either way we are going today. We load onto the bus and back to the airport where two days earlier we had made no progress, here was hoping today would be a different story. There were two helicopters made available to us, each with a five person capacity. Our group consists of sixteen trekkers and one guide, so eight people will not be going on the first trip. Prackash randomly selected the nine to go on the first trip along with himself so the rest of us would have to wait another two hours at the airport. Naturally I was not in the first group so another waiting period for me. I actually did not mind, it gave my stomach more time to settle down. Until I was on the chopper and touched down in Lukla I didn't want to get too excited.

The time passed quickly, myself and Jamie passed the time by chatting. When the helicopters got back I was lucky for a change, I got picked to ride shotgun, the best seat in the chopper. I had never flown in a helicopter before so I was a little nervous but also excited, I might never get a chance to fly in a helicopter again. It was a fantastic adventure and a great way to start off on our trip. The scenery along the way was fantastic, you could see however why the planes could not fly, the haze was unbelievably thick. We touched down at Lukla at 3.15pm and regrouped with the first gang. We had about fifteen minutes to refresh, get our rucksacks ready for the porters to carry and get walking. We had a small amount of sunlight left and a two and a half hour walk ahead of us. The scenery was awe inspiring along the route to Phakding. There is a feeling of Alpine forestry to the lower altitudes, conifers dominate the landscape. We saw some Jopke on our walk today, an interesting animal that is a cross between a cow and a yak. We also get our first look at the loads some of these porters carry up the mountain. These porters are not big guys so how they manage to carry such weight is beyond belief.

It is not a difficult walk but I did feel low on energy having not had any food since the night before. We got to Phakding at 2610m and were instantly impressed by the quality of the accommodation. I had expected it to be a lot more basic. The rooms were basic, each had two single beds and a small amount of room to man oeuvre. It is not a room for swinging cats in but surprisingly comfortable. We even had a flushing toilet.

The teahouse consists of a single restaurant area with a central fire. All the seating is along the outskirts of the room by the windows. What to eat was my next question, the following day would be tough. This trek is famous for day two and the long uphill climb up to Namche Bazaar. It is one of the toughest days on the trip so not eating tonight is not an option. I decided to have a tomato and cheese pizza, I would scrap off the toppings just in case but it was good just to have some food in my stomach. I got brave and ordered some chips too. Something told me I would need all the energy I could get the following day. While waiting for the food to arrive I got onto the internet for a while, I managed to send an email home to Laura. It has been very hard the first few days, especially with all the down time not to think of home and miss it. After dinner we talk to Prackash about our itinerary. Due to us being two days late starting the trek we have lost our free day in Kathmandu at the end of the trip. This is the day we keep back in case we are delayed due to bad weather. Unfortunately we already used that day so now we had another choice to make again, do we lose an acclimatisation day or do we keep on track with our original itinerary and hope we can get home on time.

With this option we might be liable to any additional costs as a result but given where we are what can we do, The consensus of the group is to keep our acclimatisation days, they are necessary to the success of the trek. I will have to try and forget about the flight home until the time comes, it will ruin my trip if I keep on thinking about how we are getting home. We are here and now its time to get to work. Later in the night myself, Kris, Jamie and Jonas head out for a little walk around Phakding. We end up in the front room of a family who just happen to have a pool table. It really is just a front room, their little girl was running around the whole time making a nuisance of herself, we hadn't laughed this much on the trip so far and the relief of finally being here was visible in us all. The little girl ran amuck, she kept drawing on here face, taking the pool balls out of the pockets and throwing them back on the table. Thank god one of the guys got some pictures just to prove to the rest of them it had happened.