Finally, the day we’d all been waiting for-Fly to Lukla day.
Sadly it didn’t go quite according to plan…
Diary entry-
‘’Thursday 28th March 2130ish
So today was supposed to be our ‘Fly to Lukla Day’. After a 4.30am wake up, a 5am meet up and an alleged 6.30am flight, we sat in the airport for 8 hours to finally be told we could board our flight. It was SUCH an interesting wait, different personality types coming through-the optimists, the pessimists, the practical, the quiet, the vocal, the watch and wait, the do nothing (Chitra, our guide).
After 20 minutes in the air, on the world’s smallest plane (15 seater), we turned around and came back to Kathmandu. The range of emotions was very confusing-from hope, less hope, trying to be patient and optimistic, trying to entertain people, to joy at going and then fear as mentally I’d felt I was ok about not going today then all of a sudden we were going and then again we weren’t! Then we unload, somebody else’s bags were given to us, our tour guide tells us jack all and I just lost it. ‘What are we doing? Where are we staying? When are we eating lunch? What is happening tomorrow?’ ‘’
Our dinky little plane
I’ll digress from the diary part and just make a little note of the actual plane journey. I’m not sure why but although I’d heard horror stories about the plane and the landing strip etc I actually fell asleep on that first flight (the one that turned around and went back to Kathmandu). Maybe I was just so exhausted from pretending to be a patient person for 8 hours that my brain needed a little nap, or maybe I’m just plain stupid to not have thought about how scary that flight actually was, but for me it was totally fine. In fact, it even had an airhostess and everything who was the cutest wee thing ever! We got a brief safety demonstration, ‘This is the safety card, read it’ and hard boiled sweets for the landing. What more could you ask for?! But I know a lot of people were apprehensive about that flight, hopefully some of the views from particularly the left side of the plane alleviated some of that stress.
Views from the plane
‘’The plan now is, up for 6am breakfast, possible flight at 10am. If not, helicopter booked to take us across. Fingers crossed.
Friday 29th 08.05
One week and still no sign of a bloody mountain. Here we are, back at the airport. 7.45 departure changed to ? who even knows what time…
…Yesterday was quite funny. I have no idea what I said or how I sounded but I think I shocked everyone-NOT a pushover, sweetness and light yes but ‘I wouldn’t mess with her’. Aussie kept offering me food (‘When are we getting lunch?!’), two other guys kept exchanging knowing/amused glances and I think one fella promoted me to the Army (being ex-Army himself I find this quite the compliment). But somewhere in amongst all that was some form of appreciation. ‘It was very direct and honest. We were all just too British to say it’. And I think that’s when one couple said, ‘She’s the spit of our daughter, sits quietly and then explodes’.
I’ll tell you one thing though, I know we waited 8 hours, I know we’ve been delayed, I know all of these things, but to me it was an interesting glance at what people do and how people react under pressure and in a sticky situation. And here’s what I think. If, for whatever reason, our stupid guide doesn’t step up then I know, between all of our combined experiences, trekking or otherwise, we’re going to get each other through. And that is more than anything I could ask for.’’
Tiny Indian Girl Up A Mountain 