Well we successfully made it to both the high point of the trip-Kala Pattar and also the end at Everest Base Camp, Its been a pretty tough trek but i loved every minute of the challenge, Difficult to say what were the toughest days, The hike up to Namche Bazaar, Tengbouche and Kala Pattar were all lung stretchers but then getting to Gorek Shep and Base camp where you literally climb over boulders were a test, It took around 9 days including some acclimatization to get to EBC and now we had to get back to Lukla in 3, This indeed would be testing, The 3 Americans in the group decided not to try and paid for a helicopter from Gorek Shep, This left the fab 5, Problem was with the Americans out of the picture i all of a sudden became the oldest one of the group, We had to cover good distances everyday and the terrain was never just down, Positives were that the further you went the more oxygen could be felt, Time was of the essence and we trekked 8-9 hrs a day, The weather was good thank good and we all made it with probably the last day being the longest and hardest, Weather wise we were extremely fortunate, Only having to put on our waterproofs for the 1st hour of the 1st day and the last hr of the last day, It was good to be back in Lukla but as we entered our accommodation it was clear that all was not well as there were a lot of people who had been stuck or up to 3 days as the weather had closed in and lots of talk of paying around $500 each for helicopter flights, One of the problems of being in the mountains is the changeable weather, So long days with little time for photography but i did manage a few so here are some of the images from the last 3 days on the trail
Click on the images to make bigger
Ama Dablam from Dingbouche
How to boil a kettle with power
The view from my bedroom window in Dingbouche
Sun rising over the mountains at Dingbouche
Yaks and Mountains
Heading down, Enjoying the view and the extra oxygen
Panorama of Tingbouche monastery
Swing bridge and prayer flags
At first we though we had found the illusive Yeti, Then realized it was Ciaran
Lukla at first light, Would the fog lift and would the planes be able to land
The spoils of war, A lovely blueberry smoothy with ice cream in Kathmandu
My flights with stop overs were around 41hrs from Raleigh NC, But was worth every minute, Qatar airlines and Qatar airport are superb, The best airline bar none in my opinion, There would be too many highlights to name one, A personal challenge and bucket list ticked off, I will defiantly visit Nepal again, The people are great, Thamel area of Kathmandu is awesome, safe, relaxing and with lots of great coffee shops and bakery's as well as trekking and hiking shops, I could have spent a fortune there,
One thing i will say is that i chose the right tour company Ian Taylor trekking had truly wonderful guides that were very knowledgeable, Would go out of their way to make sure you were well fed and comfortable, All accommodation were clean and comfortable (more of in a later blog), We met with other groups in various places we stayed and after watching other guides etc i knew we had the very best, I met with groups that constantly argued amongst themselves, I met people who were dehydrated because of bad or lack of advise from their guides, Ian Taylor has all the advise that you need on his website and the guides back it up on a day to day basis making sure that you are hydrated, well fed and if you need assistance medically they know what to do even if its just dressing blisters or checking for sprained knees-Highly recommended in my book and good value for money
I will do future blogs on what i took and would take again and 'what it doesn't mention in the brochure"
Dave
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