Mera Peak Nepal Bob Hancock Kathmandu Lukla Surke Robin Hamer Da Gombu Sherpa Lambabu Sprayway

MERA PEAK, NEPAL

A diary of my trip to Mera Peak, Nepal in 2005 - Days 1 -3.

(Click on any of the pics to see the full size photograph)

Have been very disorganised and lazy and only starting to write this on the evening of day 5 of the trip.

Each day begins the same on the trek - some people would say we were spoiled - nothing could spoil me at 6:00am every day!! The daily ritual begins - 6:00am the kitchen porters bring us hot tea with milk and sugar (if taken), a bowl of warm water to have a wash in (higher up you need to use it by 6:01 or it ain't warm!), get up, packed and breakfasted, camp dismantled, then away by 8:00am.

Days 1 and 2 tended to blend together as we spent most of the time on planes. The alarm went off at 5:00am on Saturday morning 15th October 2005 - was this really a good idea? - much too tired at that time of the day to be overly enthusiastic. Taxi arrived at about 6:00am and Grahame, Robin and I met Ewan at Manchester airport. 7:25am flight delayed slightly but arrived at Heathrow and we had to wait about an hour before the other three members of the group arrived - Katrina, Dan and Becky.

Flew on Thai Airways to Bangkok (11.5 hours) - a very good flight and food - I was impressed. We then had a 3 hour wait for the flight to Kathmandu (3 hours) - another good flight - arrived mid-afternoon but we were a little confused about the time because of the time zone changes - London to Bangkok then back to Kathmandu. We got our visas when we arrived at Kathmandu airport - just joined a queue - it was a bit disorganised but didn't take long - better than having to go to London to organise a visa in England which many tour operators make you do.

Gombu, our sirdar (head sherpa), met us at the airport and we had transport (a battered old coach) to take us to the Kathmandu Guest House which used to be a Raj palace in the Thamel district of Kathmandu. Fairly attractive from the exterior but the rooms we had were very basic (different rooms when we returned which were very good). The hotel has a smart courtyard at the front with a bar/restaurant, reception and an enclosed garden area which was very pleasant for a few beers (duly taken). Grahame and I shared a room which was on the 5th floor - and no lift - but the luggage was taken up by the hotel staff. We wandered around the shops close by - they are typical bazaar type places and you barter for everything. Dan negotiated 4x1 litre water bottles (vital pee bottles but I brought 2 half litre bottles from the UK thinking that'd be OK - seriously wrong!!) for about 70p each. Gombu organised a meal at the Third Eye Restaurant a few doors away - the food was fantastic - I had a chicken shashla something or other.

Initial impressions of Kathmandu - mixed - very typical of other towns I'd seen in Third World countries (and one trying to get into the EU) - obviously caters for mountaineers etc - very friendly people - bit run down - a lot of soldiers (armed)*.

*I didn't realise the political problems at the time or the problems with Maoist rebels (terrorists/freedom fighters - dependent on your point of view).

Arrival at Kathmandu airport

Walking to the Kathmandu Guest House

Grahame & my bedroom at KGH

Our Shower Room at the KGH

View from our bedroom at KGH

KGH garden

Time for a well overdue Everest beer

Ewan and me waiting for our beers

First day - Katrina & Becky out shopping

Taxi

Grahame, Becky and Dan in the Third Eye Restaurant

Ewan, me, Susmita, Robin and Gombu in the Third Eye Restaurant

Dan & Katrina in the Third Eye Restaurant

Susmita, me and Robin in the Third Eye Restaurant

Becky, Dan & Katrina in the Third eye Restaurant

Grahame & me in the Third Eye Restaurant

Dan walking back to the KGH - Kathmandu at night

Day 3 - Monday 17th October - Up at 6:00am, down for breakfast just after 8:00am and collected at 9:00am to go to the airport for the flight to Lukla.

Army checkpoint at the airport checking everyone. The airport is fairly chaotic - all the passengers and luggage go through double doors at the entrance but only one door is open because there's an official checking the tickets here - we managed to jump the queue slightly but it wasn't easy getting all the gear through the one door without clobbering someone with it - oh well.

The chaos increases inside as there are a number of check-in desks and we end up moving all the gear three times. There's a weight limit of 15 kilos per person and everything has to be weighed so we wait on one side with our back packs while Robin and Gombu sort out the flight. The packs are part of the weight limit but never got weighed and we just walked through with them.

Boarding passes given out - bags searched - each of us then frisked - wait in the departure lounge - frisked again on the way out to the plane - then a coach to the Yeti Airlines plane - a 15 seater with no door to the cockpit. They gave us a sweet and cotton wool for our ears. I was worried that it may be turbulent as I do have a problem with motion sickness but it was OK - fantastic views.

Couldn't see much of the landing at Lukla but they had to brake hard!!! There's a large soldier presence in Lukla as there are Maoist terrorists in Nepal - Robin now told us that we could expect to see and meet some on our travels and we will have to make a payment to them. Met Lambabu, the kitchen crew and the porters and had lunch next to the airstrip. What a busy little airport with planes and helicopters landing continually - the flights only come in usually in the morning and its only in about 2001 and they tarmaced the runway - it used to be bare earth!! Its amazing to see them land and take off on such a short runway. At take-off the planes sit on a small flat section and rev up the engines like crazy, then release the brakes and drop down onto the fairly steep runway taking off before the runway just finishes at the cliff edge. Wandered into Lukla 'centre' to buy water and scarves to cover our necks as the sun was extremely strong. I think Lukla is just below 9,000ft and we were definitely short of breath. Watched other groups loading up as well but everyone else headed in a different direction to us. This is the main setting off point for Everest.

Headed down the valley in the early afternoon after our gear, food etc had been distributed among the 25 porters we were starting with - we'd lose a few after about 6 or 7 days as the food being carried reduced. Just as we were leaving Lukla I watched a guy photographing his feet - his toes had slight frost bite - not a cheering sight. We walked through very picturesque countryside with houses, children, bamboo, rhodedendrum bushes etc, streams and narrow paths in the jungle as the locals referred to it. We passed numerous Nepalese people including porters with heavy loads and one serious looking guy with a sub-machine gun - didn't eyeball him!! The kids would come out of the houses to see us and shout the Nepalese greeting - Namaste. This happened throughout our trek every single day we passed a village or a house.

We walked for a couple of hours and when we arrived at Surke the tents were being erected in a lovely setting next to a river (which was noisy). I had brought a camper's chair with me - its fabric with a couple of straps and you put your Thermarest in it - makes a great chair with backrest. Needless to say as soon as I'd sorted it everyone wanted to sit in it - except Robin - "I'm supposed to be a rufty tufty mountaineer - I can't be seen sitting in that! - but I'd love to!!". I eventually got to use it - just before dinner was served. The food we had was very tasty and filling - compliments to the chef. I had a poor night's sleep though - a combination of being next to a very noisy river, jet lag and a full moon that lit the place up like a floodlight.

I'm going to say it now instead of repeating myself everyday - the porters are amazing. Small guys but carrying incredible loads whilst wearing flip flops or in some cases just bare feet - and almost always smiling.

These porters were getting paid about US$5 per day, plus the tip we gave at the end of the expedition, and they had to pay for their own food on the trek out of that. There's a hierarchy that starts with the porters - they can then progress to the kitchen crew who get paid less than the porters but have to carry lighter loads and their food is included although they do work longer hours. Next step up the ladder is to be the cook and then come the sherpas with their own hierarchy. Galzin was the general sherpa, followed by Lambabu who had organised the equipment and hired the porters and kitchen crew - he was in charge of overseeing them throughout the trip. Then there was Gombu - the sirdar (head sherpa).