We spent a couple of days in Kathmandu which was an amazing city and we visited various temples. We then flew to Lukla airport, the most dangerous airport in the world. On the flight, we had the first sight of Everest and all the mountain range around it.
The landing was amazing, basically, on the side of a hill/cliff, you couldn’t see the runway below you until the last second and made me think of “Raiders of the Lost Ark” which was my theme for the whole trek. We had a coffee and then started off through the village and into Sagarmatha Park. Around each corner was another breathtaking view, bridges over rivers and views of mountain ranges.
Each day, we walked for 5 or 6 hours, mainly up hill but the main difference between this and Kilimanjaro was the “tea houses”. There are small villages/communities on the route and, in effect, small hotels/b&b’s where you stay. Made of concrete and wood, you get a proper bed and a toilet. If you are lucky, there is running water and obviously, the higher you get, the less likely as it’s frozen!
There is a communal area where there is heating but none in the rooms. We were also able to get Wifi at each tea house, thanks to our guide, Prakash but mainly played cards, ate and relaxed. Base camp is a little bizarre as although, you are over 5000m high, compared to Kilimanjaro where you are at the highest point in Africa, at base camp, there are mountains all around you.
We also went up Kala Patthar to watch the sunset on Mount Everest which was amazing. That was at the end of a long day and the climb was very steep so coming back down, was the first and only time that I felt a bit of altitude sickness. After a good nights sleep, I was ok, and we started the trek back down to Lukla. There are no roads, so no cars, the only automated thing that we saw where planes and helicopters.
Some people caught those back rather than walk! I loved Nepal, whenever I think about it, I want to go back and hopefully I will in the not too distant future.
