I got 3 hours of sleep yesterday after the tour, but unfortunately no more sleep that that (a long night). That gave me 9 hours total for 3 days; not how I wanted to start my hike, but you play the hand you are given. I’m not sure what mixture of jetlag and excitement are at play. We met down in the hotel lobby at 0545 to sort  gear and head out to the airport.

Like everything else, it was crowded :). We got through security, including a mandatory pat down that was a little more personal than I liked. Our flight was delayed an hour or so, but we finally got cleared to get on the transfer bus and head to the plane. I was a little disappointed to see I’d be riding in on a Dornier 228 rather than a twin otter. Maybe on the ride back.

On the plane we were given cotten for earplugs and mints. Our flight went by quickly, we were down in the mountains. Unfortunately the windows were cloudy so I don’t have great in air photos. The landing was awesome, but it was over way too fast. Before we had walked into the airport, the return passengers were getting loaded up. The mornings are the only real window for flights, so they keep folks moving.

We staged at a nearby teahouse and had breakfast while Porter’s got our checked bags. I had scrambled eggs and toast. Much to my surprise, Peter Hillary (Sir Edmund’s son) sat down at the table next to me. I knew it pretty quick when I saw his face and heard his voice.  I’ve already met some people with serious climbing pedigree on this trip, but now I was sitting by mountaineering royalty. Another group in the tea house seemed to know him, and they had a good chat. Of course, we left him alone; you don’t come to the Himalayas to get pestered by strangers. One of our group had met him several decades ago, so they did have a quick exchange.

We had a little spare time, so we wandered around Lukla a bit. I finally got my Yak hair warm hat from a local shop as well as observing the oddity of an Irish pub.

And finally, we hit the trail. The first day, we actually went down more than up. Folks going the other way did not seem happy about that final climb up and out to Lukla. A lot of beauty. The terrain is a little more rugged than what I expected. I can already feel large downhill steps taking a toll on my knees; I’m using my trekking poles to minimize the the load in that case. We stopped to get lunch two hours into the journey. I had lemon tea and cheese pizza.

After the tea house, we ran into a traffic jam; a donkey train of at least 50 donkeys crossing our first cable bridge. Nothing to do but wait; the porter’s and yaks bring all the items into the mountains here that make our journey with all the conveniences possible. Once across, one more slight problem; the donkeys got unruly and trapped a few trekkers not in our group, one of the girls with them was freaking out and trying to climb up off the trail. It all got sorted, and we were on our way again. That span bridge makes it clear I would never make this journey with someone who doesn’t like heights; it got to wobbling pretty good half way across.

We passed yet another Irish pub, and I was told strangely enough it did not have any Irish beer!

An hour or so later, we had view of our lodge. It looked quite pretty nestled in the mountains, and looked even better knowing we had a meal and a bed in our near future.

For this first night on the trail, I lucked into a private room. We also had the coveniences of a hot shower and sit down toilet. Those will be harder to find as we go higher.

Supper was Dhal Bat with chicken and more lemon tea.

We have an early start (0630) so I best try and get some sleep.