Everest Trek Day: 22
With Gathering speed the tiny 14 seater plane hurtled down the hill towards the cliff. With just meters to go we took flight from the worlds shortest runway and what I'm sure is the only one on a hill. The plane banked left, flying down the valley we walked up two weeks ago. I could see the trail out my window, not far below us, but at eye level. The mountains reached up arround us. It was so strange to look out of the plane window and see land up above us. The high Himalayas were glistening with snow and ice in the early morning light.
The trip down took far less time. In one day (a long day) we walked down the equivalent of five days up. With every step more oxygen filled our lungs. It was great to get down from high altitude. We spent two days in Namche Bazaar, enjoying not walking, before the final push to Lukla. After a relatively incident free three weeks on the last day I managed to fall through a suspension bridge. In stepping to the side to let two people pass, my left leg slipped through a small gap where the steel walkway meets the wire mesh of the side. I caused a kerfuffel with my leg dangling off the side. I was soon free and escaped with only a small graze. And I thought suspension walkways dangled over raging mountain rivers were completely safe.
But we were leaving such adventures behind. Soon the scars of roads were appearing upon the landscape. Back to civilisation. That's when I noticed a pair of doleful eyes peering from the backpack of the woman in front of me. She was carrying a puppy. Apparently it had been brought to her as she was working in a medical clinic after being found half frozen in the ice. The lucky puppy was lucky enough to be heading to a new life in America.
The sprawling mess of Kathmandu came into view in less than 20minutes. Touchdown. Back to the smog, the chaos and hubbub of Nepal's unrelentingly ugly capitol. An amazing three weeks in the mountains, definitely one of the greatest experiences of this year.
With Gathering speed the tiny 14 seater plane hurtled down the hill towards the cliff. With just meters to go we took flight from the worlds shortest runway and what I'm sure is the only one on a hill. The plane banked left, flying down the valley we walked up two weeks ago. I could see the trail out my window, not far below us, but at eye level. The mountains reached up arround us. It was so strange to look out of the plane window and see land up above us. The high Himalayas were glistening with snow and ice in the early morning light.
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| Lukla Airport |
But we were leaving such adventures behind. Soon the scars of roads were appearing upon the landscape. Back to civilisation. That's when I noticed a pair of doleful eyes peering from the backpack of the woman in front of me. She was carrying a puppy. Apparently it had been brought to her as she was working in a medical clinic after being found half frozen in the ice. The lucky puppy was lucky enough to be heading to a new life in America. The sprawling mess of Kathmandu came into view in less than 20minutes. Touchdown. Back to the smog, the chaos and hubbub of Nepal's unrelentingly ugly capitol. An amazing three weeks in the mountains, definitely one of the greatest experiences of this year.
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