Last day of walking – Phakding to Lukla
April 16, 2009
9:30am Dubai / 11:15am Nepal: report from Glyn:
When they called this morning the group were walking the final stretch in to Lukla. Glyn remarked it was good to be re-united with Dave and to be walking as a whole team again. They expect to arrive in Lukla just before midday. There, they will say a sad farewell to their team of 11 Sherpas, to whom they are very gratefull and without whom they could never have reached their goal.
The strength and endurance of the Sherpas is remarkable. Each Sherpa on the trek carried 35 kilo’s of clothing and equipment in bags hanging from a cloth strip across their forehead. In contrast, the trekers carried only 3 kilo day-bags and, even this, they found a struggle! Perhaps another month aclimatising would see them fit enough to carry their own equipment to Base Camp? Sadly they don’t have time to find out and now they have to return to normal life.
The team are due to fly from Lukla to Kathmandu at 6:30 tomorrow morning. They will stay the night in Kathmandu and fly back to the U.A.E. on Saturday morning. At the moment there is low cloud over Lukla so their flight may be delayed. If they do not leave Lukla by tomorrow afternoon they will miss their return flight from Kathmandu to Sharjah.
‘Fingers crossed for good weather tomorrow!’
Notice of any change to the return flight will be posted here.
(Posted by Adrian Keech)
