大象传媒

Flight to Lukla

• Rob
• 24 Mar 07, 10:03 AM

The trip begins today. After three wake up calls, bizarre, we were bused back to Kathmandu airport. The security at the terminal was interesting. I was asked if I had a knife or lighter on me and then just let through (incidentally I don't know why they even bothered to ask this as there are axes on all the planes!). There was then a customary wait before we boarded our winged chariot. This twin engine plane was operated by Yeti Airways which gave me a chuckle. The plane was pretty small, holding 18 people but I found it very romantic, sort of like being in a Humphrey Bogart movie.

The flight was 50 mins and traced the Himalayan ridge before turning sharply to fly straight at it. Lukla airstrip is perched on a hill-side with a cliff wall at one end and a cliff drop at the other. Sitting in the front seat I got a pilot's eye view as we came in, the runway growing as we approached but looking perilously short. A text book landing prompted us all into spontaneous applause, not my usual response but well deserved in this case. Stepping off the plane we were finally in the Himalayas.

The Xtreme Everest team gathered over a cup of tea and then we started our trek. From Lukla we went downhill for about two hours stopping for lunch on the way. The landscape is grand in scale but feels like a pine wood you could find in the Rockies. We passed lots of children en route who were all delightful and seemed very pleased to see a bunch of trekkers come along.

After lunch was a shorter and steeper walk until we reached the tea house that would be our bed for the night. A large white building with innumerable rooms separated by paper thin walls. It was a bit of a maze to get to the bedroom. Mostly the group was knackered and we lay about a large communal room drinking tea. Disaster struck though because night fell and my bag failed to make it to the tea house. A very depressing problem as I have been rather excited at the prospect of trying out my new sleeping bag which is now stuck somewhere between here and Lukla. I'm off to drown my sorrows in an odd dice game called Perudo.