Sunday 4th April 2010 - Lukla to Kathmandu on the world's worst plane journey

Sunday 4th April 2010 - Lukla to Kathmandu on the world's worst plane journey

Today is the day I have been worried about for so much of this trip. I've tried to put it to the back of my mind until today. If we do not take off this morning I am not sure what I will do. Our flight is the third of the Tara Air flights due to leave today at approximately 08.30am. We get to the airport and it looks as if the flights are taking off, thank god. In all the time I was worried about it not taking off I am now actually nervous about the flight taking off. This has been dubbed the world's most dangerous flight and I have already had the privilege of seeing how steep the runway is so naturally I am a little nervous. I am not normally nervous with flying but this one has me edgy. The look of the plane we will by flying on does not really help.

I have to be a little anti social today and the only thing I can only on is plugging in my mp3 player and listening to some Keane, Snow Patrol and try just to relax. We have to wait for longer than expected which adds to the tension. Also, as our plane is only 17 seater and each flight has an air hostess Prackash has had to take an earlier flight out of Lukla. The actual take off does little to ease my nerves. The plane takes off like a bat out of hell thanks to the slope of the runway and we are wedged into this tiny prop plane, engines screaming into my ears and again I wonder how did I pay for this. I think everyone was nervous but show it in different ways. I don't recall ever being as afraid of anything in my life as I was taking off in that plane. The anticipation was worse than the reality, knowing the runway just stops and you either sink or swim is not a comforting thought. Landing was another experience I will not forget too soon, the plane feels like it is going to Flip over tail first when coming in for landing. Disembarking in Kathmandu I was a happy bunny. I think next time I will walk from Lukla, its only another week.

I was relieved for two reasons on landing in Kathmandu, one I wasn't dead and two I was a step closer to home and the doubt of will we wont we leave Lukla was gone. We had a long way before we were home but once in Kathmandu I knew I would get home. We arrived in Kathmandu early morning still so we had to find something to pass the day. We had been planning for ages to go to the Radisson for dinner again when we got back to Kathmandu. Its funny, I could not wait to leave this place but now I am so happy to be back here. I have a quick shower once we get back to the familiar territory of Hotel Tibet. I collect my belongings from the safe store downstairs including my clean clothes. Its great to change into shorts, they are a bit more weather appropriate now than trekking clothes. A few of us head to Baskin Robbins just around the corner, I get a vanilla milkshake, magic. The next port of call we have been talking about for several days now, ever since we started coming back down we have been planning our next location and salivating at the thoughts of it, KFC. It has only recently opened in Kathmandu and is apparently really clean and spotless inside. Kris,Jamie, Myself, Jonas, Yas and Scott, the other guys have even gone so far as to plan what they will order. KFC didn't know what hit it id say this day, six of us ordered enough food for sixty. I have never enjoyed a meal so much as I did this one. Definitely worth the wait.

We go to the local supermarket and stock up on some beer for the afternoon, our plan is simple, drink beer on the rooftop of Hotel Tibet, pass away the afternoon until dinner time. At one point the waiter from the hotel came up, saw the bottles of beer so I asked him for a few glasses, when he came back I gave him a more than generous tip to keep quiet so to speak, worked a treat. We go to the Radisson tonight and bring Prackash along with us. We have all contributed towards a tip for him and someone has gotten him an English flag and asked us all to sign it, I had some problems signing a flag that is not of my own nation but I bit my lip. Prackash had certificates for us all for making it to Base Camp, they are tacky but these things normally are. We have a great night, have a lovely meal and after dinner we head out to the Irish Bar and then onto Thamel to sample the bars. We dont stay out too late though as we have a long flight the following day. Earlier in the day Jonas and Asif had gone to a local tailor to arrange to get us some memorable tee shirts, hand sewn and made to commemorate the journey. They cost us 700 rupees each which to be fair is nothing for a hand made tee shirt. On the back is the route we took to Base Camp, they are very impressive shirts and thanks to Jonas for coming up with the idea.

This has been the most memorable trip I could have imagined. I have met some great people on this trip and I like to think I have made some lifelong friends as a result. We shared a special experience on this trip, our journey to Base Camp, Kala Patthar and back over the last 18 days. I hope to see some of them again.

Saturday 3rd April 2010 - Namche Bazaar to Lukla, the last push

Saturday 3rd April 2010 - Namche Bazaar to Lukla, the last push

It is time for our last day of trekking. The time really has flown since we actually landed in Lukla, sure there has been lots of downtime but it never seemed hard to pass the hours. Everyone is buoyed by the fact we are going home in a couple of days. Six hour walk downhill to Lukla, piece of cake right? Wrong. We set off at our usual time of 08.00am after my tried and tested porridge breakfast. We start off by going back down the steep Namche hill, this was so difficult on the way up and now we are flying down it. Whoever said going downhill is easy needs to come here and try this hill. It places a lot of pressure on the knees and by the time I get to the bottom of this particular one my right knee is shaking from the punishment. It is at this stage I wished I bought that trekking pole for 1300 rupees in Namche, I saw it on the way up and thought no way, that's too expensive. Most of the ground to Phakding was either flat or uphill, how come I do not recall going over this. We plod along now at a good pace, something my body later does not thank me for. After three hours we arrive back at where we stayed on our first night in Phakding. Normally we would have stayed here but due to losing our day its just a lunch stop now. I go all out and have a mushroom and cheese pizza, it was actually delicious.

The guys who really have to be flying out of Nepal on the 4th are visibly worried now and I am one of them. I dont have the luxury of going home a day or two later. I have connecting flights and a hotel in London already booked and will not get money back for either if the plane does not fly out of Lukla tomorrow morning. I have a more pressing concern for now however, the last two hours of this trek to Lukla. Bogged down by pizza I struggle to keep up with the guys. I think my body knows I am nearly there and has gone into hibernation a few hours earlier than it should have. It is a real slog, the uphill sections just seem to keep coming no matter how many of them we get to the top of. Finally, mercifully the final fifty steps appear. I had dropped behind the guys a little, only by a couple of minutes but they waited for me at the top of the steps, I then, using the last drops of energy took off running until I got to the top. Yes, we had made it back to Lukla. The round trip and walking element of this trek is over and we had all (Group 1 at least) walked into Lukla together. I was so happy at this stage, we were there back at Lukla. The highlight being en suite toilets and showers, what luxury. We sit and enjoy the heat from the sun for a while, just relaxing, after all we deserved it.

After taking a long hot shower and getting the last of the dust off my body some of us walked up to Starbucks, I don't know how I feel about there being a Starbucks here but for now I love it. Now do not be fooled into thinking it is like the Starbucks from home, it is nothing like it but the seats are comfortable, the coffee was excellent so it was a pleasant treat. That night we all contributed 3000 rupees to cover dinner for that night for ourselves and also to cover dinner for the porters who carried our rucksacks everyday up the mountains. It also covered tips for each of the porters and guides who had done such a great job. Dinner was to be shared between us all that night, one group of trekkers, guides and porters. I finally felt it would be OK to order some local meat. Yak steak was on the menu for me for later, I was looking forward to it. Dinner was planned for 7.30pm that evening so I went back to Starbucks, ordered a hot chocolate and went onto the net to home for a while. I put a comment on my Facebook page updating the world of where I was currently enjoying hot chocolate. I hope some people were jealous.

We were watching the Man United and Chelsea game in the league at the time in the Irish pub (there is always an Irish pub no matter where you go) for the afternoon and shooting some pool before we had to get back to the hotel for dinner. The drinks were going down very well and we managed to negotiate a group discount on the drinks considering there were so many of us. The steak that night was fantastic and some of the nicest food I have had. I could not leave without sampling the Yak meat and thankfully it did not disappoint. It was like a thin fillet steak from home and was delicious. Back to the pub we went after dinner, we moved between two pubs for the night, the one just below our hotel and the Irish pub. It was a very enjoyable night with all the guys, just out have some drinks and chatting, having so

me fun. Naturally as the drink started to flow we got hungry, we had joked with Chewang that we would love to get some pizza, he disappeared and before you knew it was back with five pizzas for us all. I think it cost us only 400 rupees each. Prackash had to shout us a round at one stage as we all ran out

of cash.

We just spent the last of it on drink. I think it was midnight before I got back to the hotel, a very respectable time to be fair but for here it felt very late. It had been a great night out with the guys, we just revelled in our successes of the last few days, the relief that we had made it there and all made it back in one piece. It was a fantastic night.

Friday 2nd April 2010 - Orsho to Namche Bazaar

Friday 2nd April 2010 - Orsho to Namche Bazaar

Another six hour walk awaits us today as we make our way to Namche. Our call this morning is at 06.30am, breakfast is served at 07.15am and we are out the door by 08.00am. We have our morning routines down to a fine art now, even packing the rucksack every morning has become easy. I do not care about separating clean and dirty clothes any more, only a few more days to put up with them anyway so in they go. I doubt there are many clean ones anyway. We know we have two uphill climbs ahead of us today, one is thirty minutes and the other sixty minutes. Group one while en route decide we will wait until we get to the top of the second, the sixty minute climb before we stop for lunch, that way we will only have an easy sixty minute walk left to get to Namche. Not ideal but we have all learned that a long uphill walk after lunch is way harder on a full stomach.

We make great progress but have to frequently stop due to Jopke and Yak trains passing us on narrow paths with full loads. The trail is very busy today as all the backlogged trekkers seems to be heading the one direction at the same time. We cant help but feel a little smug, its not malice but you do feel smug knowing what they have ahead of them before they get back to where we are now. Now my body feels weak and frail and I begin to wonder how I managed to get up here at all, it seems such a long walk back. The first thirty minute climb brought us back into Tengboche where we reminisced about our game of football against the monks. We took five here and then on the trail again. You can see it in us all that we want to get to Namche, get into the shower and use the internet as soon as possible. It has been a tough three or four days. If I am honest the second climb took a lot more effort than I had expected, it was very physically demanding and reminded me of our walk up to Namche on our second day of trekking. That same feeling of when is it going to end came back. Mercifully we get to the top of the hill where lunch was calling us. The last hour was great, a nice handy walk into Namche to finish off the day. We roll into Namche and the same lodge as before by 14.30pm. On a sad note I got to see Everest for the last time (for this trip at least) and made a vow that I would be back someday to finish the job.

I don't even wait for, lets be honest a badly needed shower but instead head straight for the internet cafe. I can hardly wait to tell them at home about my exploits over the last few days and what has happened since I last emailed them. I do hope they are proud of me at home, I do not think my words will do justice to just how hard it had been, no words can, it is something you have to experience for yourself to truly understand. The exhaustion, the pain, the lack of oxygen, lack of sleep, headaches, it makes you wonder why would you bother in the first place. It is fantastic to read emails from home and to send one to Laura and my family. I then get back to the lodge for the second most important task I have been looking forward to, a shower. It has been a week since I last showered properly and I must stink big time. Tonight after dinner we head into the Paradise Bar again to celebrate Scott turning thirty. We shoot some pool, have plenty of drinks and just generally unwind and have a laugh. Everybody comes to the pub tonight which is great, we haven't had much opportunity on this trip to be all together at once. We meet up with Yasir again in Namche, he was turned around in Lobuche by Prackash as he was really struggling with the altitude. It must have been hard to have to turn around one day from Base Camp but also good to see Prackash will not sacrifice safety.

Thursday 1st April 2010 - Gorak Shep to Orsho, the long walk down

Thursday 1st April 2010 - Gorak Shep to Orsho, the long walk down

Waking up today I feel the same as I did yesterday with one major difference. I know I will be heading lower soon, 1000m lower to be precise and that can only be good for my headaches. I take two Ibuprofen after waking up and hope these two will be my last for this trip. We have quite a long walk to go today. Normally we would take four days to come back down the mountain, however we lost one of those days at the start due to bad weather so we must cover thirty eight miles in three days. An average of twelve and a half miles a day or twenty kilometres. We are walking from Gorak Shep at 5170m to Orsho at 4130m. Four of the group get up this morning at 04.30am to go to Kala Patthar, Scott decides to go again in order to get a picture of himself with a bag (dont ask), German, Claire and Corinne are the others to go. The rest of us fall out of bed around 07.00am but naturally I am awake since 06.00am. I have another baby wipes shower before getting dressed, I am hoping it will be my last as tomorrow we get back to Namche Bazaar, back to relative civilisation and back to hot running water. Some of us leave Gorak Shep at 09.30am heading for Orsho, Another group left at 08.30am but we said we would wait for the Kala Patthar people to come back before setting off. We are all in great spirits as all bar one of us made it to Base Camp and ten out of sixteen made it to Kala Patthar, above average we are told. Team morale is high.

Group one as we are now collectively known head off with Chewang at a good pace and soon we catch up to the people that left at 08.30am, we make it to Orsho for 14.30pm including a quick thirty minute lunch stop near Dughla where we stopped on the way up. I took the time to check out the memorials to fallen climbers as I promised myself I would once we were on the way down, there is a memorial to an Irish man called Sean Egan who died on his way to Base Camp on an Everest expedition. Also there is a memorial to a US guide called Scott Fischer of the Mountain Madness adventure group, made famous by the tragedy of 1996 high on Everest. I have read so many books about the 1996 disaster and feel like I know Scott personally. I take the opportunity to have my picture taken at the memorial. It is a sombre reminder for me that even the best mountaineers in the world can die on Everest. The walk today was fairly easy. I didn't find it difficult at all and by the time we get to Orsho I am a new man. The temperature is not quite summer weather but positively roasting in comparison to Gorak Shep from that morning.

I can feel my strength is back and I am eager to push on, feeling like I am right now I could go all the way to Lukla. The boost gained by the additional oxygen is amazing, 1000m lower in a short space of time and the air seems thick with it. Of course the main benefit for me now is that I no longer have any headaches. I cannot explain the relief of having a headache free evening. A silly thing to notice but with the lower altitude there are a lot more flies and they are really starting to annoy me. Roll on Namche, the internet and a shower.