Airborne Adventure

We woke at 6am for our 6.30am breakfast in hotel. It was the usual buffet of cereal, muffins, toasts and some eggs. With full tummies we grabbed our bags and walked over to the local airport terminal, uncertain as to what to expect. Some people we had spoken to the previous night had mentioned that all flights in and out of Lukla had been cancelled for the last five days due to weather, which just a few helicopters leaving Lukla that day. The fog was low in the valley so as soon as we arrived at the airport, Paul decided to find out about helicopter flights. True enough, all flights were delayed due to weather from the first 6.30am flight onwards, and the place was bustling with locals and trekking tourists. We paid for our helicopter flights – instead of $133 per person for a plane flight, we paid $400 for the helicopter. An expensive trip but the only way to be sure we could get out there on time…which, given our very ambitious trekking itinerary, was critical. Around 9am we were taken into a jeep and driven around the airstrip to the far side of the runway, where we found four helicopters waiting for take off. After a ten-minute preparation time we all climbed aboard, me in the front seat, and took off shortly after for a 45-minute flight to Lukla, It was awesome! The views were superb and when we came to lank in Lukla it really looked like he was about to land on someone’s house! However, he landed perfectly and we were out and at the Tara Hotel in no time, ready to find our porter.

We had contacted the same porter as we had last year, a really nice guy called Jetta who took excellent care of us. His price has doubled since last year, but give the quality of his portering and care of us both during the trek and at each village, I think it is worth it. He packed up mine and Quentin’s bags and we headed off for Monju.

I seemed to recall from last year that the walk was short, but in fact it was a six-hour climb into the mountains. We stopped at Phakding for some lunch around 2pm, some chicken soup for me to fill my tummy. We headed on and arrived at Phakding around 5pm. We chose to share a room and so once we had unpacked and got organised, we huddled in the main room, reading and snoozing until dinner arrived at 7.30pm. We went to bed pretty much straight after, with us all tucked up and lights out by 9pm.