Everest Trek Day 1

My day started too early, well I never really made it to sleep for one reason or another.

A little after 5:15 we had a frantic journey to the airport where it seems like a bit of a circus to get on our plane and not miss it even though we have tickets.

The plane must have had about 10 people and a stack of luggage. I was sitting on the left side under the wing with an amazing view of the Himalayan Range. The camera couldn't do it justice thru the plane window. The last 5 minutes of the flight we thread our way into a steep and narrow valley and suddenly we are flying towards the side of the hill. In front is a runway I estimate to be about 100 metres long.  It is fairly steep upwards. We hit the runway hard and roar along it towards a stone wall and pull up about 10 metres before it. Guess the pilot had done it before, I watched a couple take off as well as one other land.

It was noticeably cooler with the feel of alpine or mountain air. We wandered along a track above the top of the runway and stopped for tea and breakfast in one of many simple restaurants come accommodation houses.

I don my boots and show off how ridiculously skinny my legs are in a pair of skins. We are heading up the Khumbu Valley following the Dudh Koshi River. We actually spend most of this first day heading down as we drop 200 metres in elevation to 2600 metres. We take it easy and probably only walk for about 2-3 hours and arrive at out destination for the night mid morning.

I am actually dead tired from not sleeping the night before. I feel myself nodding off talking to Govinda. He is my guide, I think a similar age or a bit older than me. He has a wife and a son (15) and daughter (13). He has been guiding trekkers for 20 years. He met Sir Edmund Hilary a number of times. He is pretty well known. Heaps of people stop to talk to him. The other guy doesn't speak English but is hired to carry my pack. They said I had a nice light one. I could carry it myself but its nice not too. His name is Ratzkumar.

So I had an hour sleep before lunch and then a couple hours more after a small basic. It is mid afternoon and I think I might find Govinda  and go for a bit of a walk across the river and visit a village on the other side. I should of bought a box of snickers from Kathmandu before I came.

So far it feels good to be here. I haven't seen Everest yet. We will come across a couple of viewing spots tomorrow if the clouds are clear. The day after tomorrow we get up really early and go to a viewing spot. The weather is generally clearer early morning. It was clear this morning but now is overcast and windy with a little drizzle.

Now its time for dinner and just waiting for it to arrive. I am only supposed to order one thing, beginning to think its not enough. I will have to say something cause I paid a lot for this trip and I expect breakfast lunch and dinner to be enough.

I have mainly slept the afternoon away. I went out for a short walk down to the river, across a rickety swing bridge and managed to get down to put my hand in the water. Yep its cold!

Tomato soup arrived. Three others here. A guy from Sydney and a couple from Seattle
Dinner was good, needed ketchup more for texture than taste, a bit dry, but now I am full. I want to have an attitude of gratitude and not a complaining spirit.

Gonna have a hot shower, not available in the morning. Looking forward to a strenuous climb tomorrow.
God is good. His creation is amazing. Mountains rivers and trees, three of my favourites. I will sleep to the sound of a roaring river.
I am happy :-) :-)