Thursday 4 October 2007

Hello from Kathmandu

It's been enough of an adventure getting here, and we haven't even made it to the mountains yet!

BA managed to panic me on the first leg by losing my skis. Thinking it was all over - no skis, no climbing kit, no warm gear ... no adventure, I had to hug the nice man who eventually found them an hour later. Then, my Dhaka to Kathmandu ticket wasn't at the desk it was supposed to be at. That had closed down 2 days previously. Several rants and another hour later, a nice bloke found them for me. Finally - all sorted! What more could go wrong ... Etihad even produced Hagen Daaz chocolate ice cream and red wine for the journey.

Perfectly relaxed and starting to get really excited ... til it turned out that the flight from Dhaka to Kathmandu doesn't actually exist.

I can't recommend anything about Dhaka ... or GMG airlines (yeah, right, who???) ... 24 hours of total boredom, one death defying tuk tuk ride, one $75 dollar bottle of wine (whatever, don't ask, but we needed a drink and it's ramadam) ... but finally we're both in Kathmandu.

I love it!

We fly to Lukla at 6am tomorrow and the plan is to trek to Mera peak (6400m), summit, and ski down. It'll be 19 / 20 days round trip, the first half pretty much on our own, and the summit days with a climbing sherpa and cook / porter team. We've spent a couple of hours over lunch with a guy called Ian, who works for KE with Emma, and who's been up Mera 32 times. Good to get the low-down and plan our route - as much as you can when we haven't even seen the mountain before. Starting to get a bit nervous, but our porters and cook will be walking the same route as us, so at least we can't get too lost ...

Next update when we're back in 2 weeks!

Steph


1 comment:

Listings Lab said...

wow - I didn't realise you were actually off to the himalaya already. How exciting! I am spreading the word about the extreme chickens in Brighton and London - everyone's behind you and wishing you luck.

Take care of yourselves :)