Lukla, Namche and Nausea

|
As you can probably tell it's a bit remote up here an I'm struggling to find decent communication channels. I'm also pretty ill at the moment but no panicking required whatsoever. We flew out of Kathmandu on Monday headed for Lukla in the foothills of the Himalayas.

Lukla Airport



We had a 5 hour walk to our first pitstop for lunch and I caught some viral infection from some 'boiled' water. Projectile vomiting (and the rest) for the last couple of days which hasn't been great. The scenery has more than made up for it though but the trekking is fairly hardwork (even without the viral infection). We stayed overnight in a clearing in the forest which was lovely and the following day we walked 14km to Namche Bazaar.










Namche is a hilltop village at 3400 so we have a couple of people showing signs of mountain sickness but on the whole we're all doing well. The weather has been beautifully sunny during the day and freezing at night.
















We're acclimatising here in Namche for today so we went for a walk to 4000m to check out our first view of Mt Everest, Lhotse and Ama Dablam. I'm lost for words to describe how majestic the view was and I doubt that my photos will do it justice. I've taken 700 shots since we left London so I'll filter them and post them when I get back. So, tonight we stay here in Namche and tomorrow we head up to Tengboche which is another 800m in altitude but will take us most of the day to reach. Hope all is well and here's hoping I feel better tomorrow :-)

Day 1: Bahrain Airport

|
Hey! Just a quick message from Bahrain Airport...all is well. Just waiting for the next leg which is a 5 hour flight to Kathmandu. It's about 815am here now. It's exactly like any other Middle Eastern airport so nothing much to report. Tim (one of my fellow trekkers) drank all the way and is now in the bar again - going to be a long trek for him! Managed to get a couple of hours sleep. One of our other trekkers is our Group Lawyer and he's managed to get an upgrade on the next leg - fair play. Looking forward to getting my feet on the ground in Nepal. More news soon. Huw




Chat to your friends for free on selected mobiles. Learn more.

1 day to go....

|

Well....I'm in final packing mode now! In 48 hours I'll be on a flight decending in to Kathmandu where we'll stay at Hotel Malla one night only. On Sunday morning we take an early flight to Lukla with Yeti Airlines (you can see more about their safety record in one of my earlier posts!). When we arrive in Lukla we have a couple of hours to get our final kit together before the trek begins and I head off up the mountain. The itinerary is here:


I'm 98% done on my packing but I've got a load of double checking to do. Better shoot. Next post will come from Heathrow T3 tomorrow evening or maybe a quick post tomorrow during the day. x

Hotmail Account

|
Just checking that I can post direct from hotmail on BB. Wow.
Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device

Final Preparations

|
Ok - so this comes direct from my mobile so that I can check that everything is working well. My packing is pretty much done. Will post a proper departure message before I leave on Friday. Till then :-) Huw
Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device