Getting to and leaving Kathmandu

I don’t want to talk about excess baggage!  All I will say is I was a few pounds lighter when I got on the plane and I don’t mean in weight.

The flights themselves were great and made all the better because I had a five hour stop over in Abu

Dhabi where I met Musco and Shirl (Emma) for breakfast and a cup of tea!  It was really lovely to see good friends and have a giggle.

I arrived (with all my luggage – which is always a relief) in Kathmandu at 9pm, really tired.  I was thinking that I would have a couple of days here but turned

out we are now on a plane to Lukla first thing tomorrow morning so I just had today to get everything sorted.

This morning I ventured out into the busy, smelly, dirty and crazy

streets of Kathmandu… That said this place does still have a certain charm about it.  One thing’s for sure it’s full of character.  It also has everything you could ever want or need to buy.  I did my last bit of shopping; one extra nalgene bottle, one spare head torch, some rope, spare batteries and most importantly I got loads of chocolate and snacks!  6kgs to be exact!  I’m very pleased that I didn’t have to buy any underwear here – the knickers selection is pretty poor….

I met the group, so far so good!  There’s one other woman and two other men on our climbing team (plus the expedition leader and staff).  It’s a small group but we will be trekking in with a basecamp expedition group and also climibing alongside the Lhotse expedition group, so they’ll be plenty of people to get to know.

Tonight I met up with some friends who are here for one night only so it was a brilliant coincidence that we got to see each other.

All that is left to do now is send a couple more emails, pack, re-pack and re-pack my bags and I’ll be ready for the 4am start tomorrow.

The plan is to fly into Lukla and from there trek to Phakding (being very careful not to drop the ‘d’ when we say the name of this place!).  After one night in PhakDing we will head to Namche, I love it there, they have an internet cafe and a bakery.  It is the last place that is like a town as we know them back down at sea level!

I’ve received some lovely cards/emails and messages over the past few days wishing me luck and sending me love – I want to thank everyone so much, it’s been so lovely to get them and it makes a real difference.  I really appreciate it, so thanks for taking the time.

I’m feeling a mixture of excitement and nerves at the moment.  It’ll be great to get going tomorrow and one small step at a time (later on when I get higher, taken very slowly) I’m going to try and make my way to the top of the world……………………………….  and then maybe, if everything goes right, jump off!