Day 45 - Kathmandu, Nepal

Day 45 – Hers.

Today is Rob’s last day of waiting before setting off on his trek to Everest Base Camp.  I think he is a bit nervous.  At breakfast, we met a couple who have just completed the trek – a good 10 years younger than us, I would guess.  They said it was hard but worth it... We discussed altitude sickness, wind burn, leg aches, headaches, nausea – and then we went out to buy Rob some mints and a few more pills to take with him.

I also met my guide for my (hopefully) less strenuous Annapurna trek.  He rolled his eyes when I said I had done the Inca Trail – I don’t know if it was because that was so much harder or because it was so much easier than what I am about to take on...  Okay, I’m nervous, too.

To take our minds off the coming adventures, we went to visit the Garden of Dreams – to read and picnic in what we had been told was an oasis of calm within manic Kathmandu.  It was lovely – and clearly a place that Nepalese couples come to chat and cuddle, away from their cultural restrictions. The Garden of Dreams is a neo-classical historical garden – a restoration of half of the Garden of Six Seasons, created by Field Marshal Kaiser Sumsher Rana in early 1920.   There are a succession of beautiful pavilions, fountains, pergolas, verandas, mazes and balustrades, set around raised pools of water lilies and koi.  There is also a very nice restaurant, but we had already brought our own picnic.  Perhaps we will return another day for a meal there.

 Day 45 – His.

So, the great day has arrived. I have officially joined the Everest base camp trip. There are 15 of us in the group – not including guides and porters – and they are mostly men. There are 3 woman but they have the look of being convinced to come along by their respective boyfriends, partners, lovers (delete as appropriate). I am not the oldest either. One of the guys looks in his 70s. Then there’s me, then a bunch of guys around 30 something and finally two lads who look like they started shaving last week. Quite an odd mix. The guide has given us the obligatory warnings, filled in the paperwork and taken a deal of money from us for what are called ‘local payments’.

Mount Everest –for those who don’t already know - is the Earth's highest mountain, with a peak at 8,848 metres (29,029 ft) above sea level. It is located in the Mahalangur section of the Himalayas. The international border between China (Tibet) and Nepal runs across the precise summit point. So, if you wanted to you could climb to the top and jump in and out of China as much as you liked – an activity that would be sure to irritate the Chinese, especially as they couldn’t do anything about it.

 In 1856, the Great Trigonometric Survey of British India established the first published height of Everest, then known as Peak XV, at 29,002 ft (8,840 m). In 1865, Everest was given its official English name by the Royal Geographical Society upon a recommendation by Andrew Waugh, the British Surveyor General of India. Waugh named the mountain after his predecessor in the post, Sir George Everest. Although Tibetans had called Everest "Chomolungma" for centuries, Waugh had no idea about this because Nepal and Tibet were closed to foreigners. I think there is an element of serves them right about that one.

So, having sorted out the final bits and pieces – like a sleeping bag, walking stick and water bottles i am off to bed – we get up at 5 to fly to Lukla.

Lukla isn’t much; it’s a small town in the Khumbu area of the Solukhumbu District in the Sagarmatha Zone of north-eastern Nepal. Situated at 2,860 metres (9,383 ft), and is a popular place for visitors to the Himalayas near Mount Everest to arrive. Lukla apparently means place with many goats and sheep. But these days it mostly contains an airport for the region, and a variety of shops and lodges catering to tourists and trekkers.