Day 4 - Flight to Antarctica

Things move pretty smoothly given the number of people and the early start. We take a bus to the airport and then leave our hand luggage on the bus whilst we go through security - they are bizarrely strict (belts off, shoes off etc) given that they are not even looking at our bags! Nor do we go through passport control which is a little surprising. 

 

A number of other groups soon join us doing a variety of trips on Antarctica. Then after about 45mins we head through the gate and down to our buses which are now waiting for us this side of the airport and drive out to the plane. This is a big Ilushin cargo plane that carries everything on and off Antarctica and it is pretty full with all of us and a lot of cargo. There is a big tv at the front which has a live stream from a forward facing camera. 

The front of the plane

Back of the plane and cargo

 


More scenery

Scenery we are flying over on the large TV.

 

We fly to Ushuaia (in Argentina) first as the Punta Arenas airport is using the busy summer period to carry out some works on the runway which means that we can't take off with a full fuel load so go there to refuel en route. This adds about 2.5 hours to the flight making it about 7 hours overall but soon enough we are touching down in Antarctica.

Coming in to land







Our plane coming in



Despite all the dire warnings, the sun is shining which offsets the cold and the wind so I have a little walk whilst everyone else piles into the waiting vehicles to take us to Union Glacier (UG) which is the main camp here. 



 

UG is pretty impressive and we get taken on a tour before being told to have a quick lunch as we may be flying out to Vinson base camp soon.

In front of one of the mess tents

Camp from the air. Staff tents rear left, guests rear right and dining tents front

Camp from the ground; guest tent fore and staff tents rear

Poor photo but whole camp - work tents on far left.

Inside one of the two mess tents

The food is remarkably good out here which is a very pleasant surprise - I can't say that I was really looking forward to a month on rehydrated food! There I meet Gus who has been here for about a week on a training course and is very complimentary about the set up which is very encouraging. 

The twin otters we are flying in

Annoyingly, I am sitting next to the wing on the plane so I can't take any photos really but there are some great views on the 45 minute flight before we land at Vinson base camp.

Even here the infrastructure is pretty good with a permanent and quite large mess tent. From there we get a great view of the mountain and the summit which is pretty rare from base camp.

VBC from above on the flight in

 

The summit is the peak in the middle which is on top of the ridge

The camp with the mess and store tents in the background

Dragging our gear to our tents

View down the valley

The comfort of the mess tent

We also meet a team who have just come down on day 13 of their trip - they have been very unlucky with a lot of bad weather and were meant to fly out when our Ilushin headed back to PA and so will be very late getting home. The weather forecast for the next few days is pretty good but we are going to be taking things slowly - let's just hope we don't waste all the good weather at base camp and end up climbing in the cold and wind. 

We spend the rest of the day organising ourselves and chatting in the mess tent. There is 24 hour sunlight here so we aren't governed by night and day as such, but rather by the trajectory of the sun (or rotation of the Earth to be more precise!). The sun is pretty low here and the temperature drops significantly when it goes behind one of the nearby mountains - which makes it a good time to be in your sleeping bag! The concept of time becomes rather strained as you approach the poles and so to keep things simple the whole setup remains on Chilean time -  this makes it generally shady in the morning here so we will usually be getting up late to allow time for the sun to warm things up again.

Map of our route - starting from camp at bottom left, up towards the ridge, along the valley to the top of the map, up onto the ridge and then back towards the summit towards the bottom of the map.

 

Food:

Egg sandwich on the plane
Beef stew with couscous, cauliflower and sprouts!
Chicken with pasta in a bacon and cream sauce.

Day 3 - Punta Arenas

Today we have a briefing about Antarctica, expedition logistics and the plans for the next few days. There are 9 people on the Vinson Climb going with ANI and couple of other groups using ANI logistics for their climb and a few others going out for trips - skiing near Union Glacier and some flying directly to the pole.  

After that we head back to the hotels to pack our bags for the pole - they will be picked up today and loaded into the plane in the evening so we can move as quickly as possible in the morning. Weight is a bit of an issue - I had 36kg on the flight over here but am only allowed 25kg for Antarctica. A few emails and calls reveals that there is a different limit for those doing both the Mount Vinson climb and ski to the Pole but that is only 30kg so it could still be a bit of a problem. In the end it turns out that the policy isn't enforced too strictly as long as you are sensible about what you are taking which is a bit of a relief.

Having met some more of the team at the briefing (the last two are already on Antarctica for some training) we head for a group dinner before final packing and preparation for our 5am pickup in the morning. 

Day 2 - Punta Arenas

The main event today is the gear check at 3pm so I go for a potter round town in the morning. There really isn't much to see in PA and it is very windy and rainy being just off the Southern Ocean so not long later head back to hotel to finalise some work and get some more blog entries published. 

The gear check is uneventful apart from a bit of concern as to whether my 6 pairs of gloves and 6 pairs of trousers would be enough! I then head to the checks on the two Daves (from Canada) who are also in the hotel to say hello before we head out for another wander round town and plan to meet for a couple of drinks and dinner later on.
We try to go to the Shackleton Bar which is where he spent a lot of time planning his Antarctic trips but for some reason it is closing early at the moment and we leave without even being able to get a drink.

Day 1 - Flight to Punta Arenas

Continuing the theme of the start and beginning of each trip being harder than the mountain itself, BA / Iberia / LAN compete to see who can be the most unhelpful over the course of my journey from London to Punta Arenas via Madrid and then Santiago. 

BA yet again excel by being unable to cope if part of your route is with another airline and so whilst they graciously give me a boarding pass for the flight to Madrid they can not help with either of the next two legs. I have about 2 hours turnaround time at each but it looks as though it is going to be tight. We get to Madrid at half ten and querying how I will get my boarding card there I am told that there will be someone waiting for us as we disembark to provides transfer passengers with their cards. 

 

Unsurprisingly, no one is there to meet us and as it is late the desk (once we finally locate it) is closed as everyone has gone home. I head to the departure gate but first there is confusion as to which gate the plane is flying from and then there is no one there to help. Luckily, I am flying business so, as a last resort, I head to the lounge to see what they can do and am met by smiling faces and a helpful attitude and we soon get out boarding passes. 

As this is being printed, I am chatting to the lady about the trip and she seems very surprised that I am going to Antarctica with no luggage. I assume that this is a problem with y Spanish so I tell her about my two large bags full of mountaineering clothes and equipment. She now seems confused and switches to English to confirm that there is no luggage associated with my ticket - which is really rather concerning as I don't think that the outdoor stores in PA have all the technical equipment I need. I show her my luggage tags from the London flight and she checks the system again but can find no record of them. This is really worrying but she calls someone who claims that the bags have arrived and been transferred to the Santiago flight and do not understand why the system isn't showing them. Don't worry she says, it will probably be ok. Easier said than done but there is little else I can do at this point so find a seat and have a large whisky to calm my nerves. 

The next part of the fun comes on arrival at Santiago as I have to clear immigration, pick up my bags and check in again as I am now on a domestic flight. I have repeatedly queried the time allowance for this and told it will be fine and so no special fast track service is provided or needed. Firstly, we arrive at about 9am when the majority of trans-Atlantic flights arrive so there is a huge queue in immigration. Despite that delay, there is still quite a wait in the luggage hall for the baggage and I am on tender hooks as to whether my bags have made it - naturally they are pretty much the last bags off the flight!

Then I have a wonderful time clearing customs as the chap behind me has ticked on his Customs Declaration that he is bringing plants or fruits into the country. For some reason they decide that this is my form and I am brought back to the counters having nearly got out. They don't accept that it is not my form and want to see what I have in my bags. Then they are annoyed that I have wasted their time when it turns out that I don't have any fruit or plants in my bags. By now a good 1h 15mins of my 2 hours have passed and I am getting rather concerned about the check in so I peg it to the departure hall which thankfully isn't too far away but obviously is absolutely full. I find a lane for the handicapped and families which is empty and ask what i should do since I am now running very late. The chap shrugs his shoulders and says he can't talk to me unless I have children or am in a wheelchair. Again I assume that my Spanish is at fault and so switch to English and again he repeats that he can't talk to me unless I have children or am in a wheelchair. I finally convince him to talk to me briefly and (remaining remarkably polite!) and he then agrees that I can go into another special lane (it is not clear what this is for) which is massively shorter than the main queue.  Within 30 seconds of joining that queue an airline official comes through calling for people for the Punta Arenas flight and I am lead back to the wheelchair and family line where the same chap seems to have forgotten our conversation of a minute ago and is now very happy to help me and then adds that I need to hurry through the airport to the gate as I shouldn't hold the plane up!

I get to the gate as they are boarding but there is a long queue so I take a seat next to the desk to wait. The queue gradually subsides and I head to desk when there are a few people left talking to the lady checking the tickets and so I wait my turn. This goes on for a bit so I go to the other side and speak to someone else at the desk to go through. They say sorry and that the flight has now closed! It turns out that the others are airline employees trying to get a standby seat and there weren't any and it is my fault for not interrupting the conversation to go through. I press this and they say sorry, there is nothing that they can do as the last bus has left for the plane - this does seem to be a problem but I think I can see a plane through the glass walls and moving 5 yards to the side of the deal it is quite clear that the gangway does in fact go straight to the plane.  Having been caught lying, one of the ladies agrees very reluctantly to see what she can do and so calls the plane and then says rather crossly that I should hurry up as they have been waiting for me. I walk the 20mtrs or so to the plane to be greeted nicely by the air hostess- obviously, there is then a further 20 minute wait while they complete paperwork etc. Thankfully, that brings the dramas to an end and I don't really have time to worry about my bags at PA as the whole lot come quickly and mine are some of the first. 

Overall, a pretty stressful journey but I and all my bags have made it. I get to the hotel at about 8 pm and not having met anyone else from the trip as yet have an early night to catch up on some sleep. 

Day 22 - Lukla to Kathmandu (2)

Up at 05:30 today to drive the potentially risky process of getting our flight. The kitchens look closed first thing which is a bit of a worry, but then we can see a young chap beavering away in there and we have a wonderfully typical chat in there at 6am "'Breakfast 6am, yes?', 'Yes', ' Now 6am.', 'Yes, 6am. Breakfast in 15 minutes'" And so at about 06:20 breakfast for five appears. 

In fact, and unsurprisingly, this delay is not that relevant as neither our guide not the hotel agent arrives as promised. I knock back my cheese and tomato omelette and head off to find them - I bump into the Liaison Officer (not sure why he is up this early as he is not coming with us) and get him to call our trekking guide who, it turns out, is at the airport. So I head over there to find him with the agent and it is completely unclear what they are up to. Nevertheless, this gives me the chance to confirm that everything is ok for the day and reconfirm our plans. 

First up is to get our tickets cancelled; for some reason this cannot be done but I cannot understand why so we move on from that, contact the 'big boss' back in Kathmandu who says it is not a problem. He will reimburse us the $100 anyway and the tickets can be cancelled by our guide tomorrow. So we head back to the hotel to sort out the final payments. Whilst we have been dealing with the tickets a 'discussion' over who pays for the teahouse and meals has started. The teahouse, despite being the sister teahouse to where we were last night, knows that our guide has no cash but has for some reason forgotten that the agency has an arrangement for settling the account.  We resolve that, make the final payments for the flights and then with everything seemingly in hand sit down and wait for the first wave of flights to be completed before heading to the airport for our flight in the second wave. 

The airport check in moves as smoothly as one can expect out here, but we are told that some weather has come in at Kathmandu and that there are not going to be any flights for a while - maybe 1 or 2 hours, but that our plane will be in the next batch coming over. 

Whilst sitting in the departure lounge, the hotel agent comes running in saying that security want to look in our checked in bags but they are locked. We give keys and combinations to one of the group who goes out to watch the inspection. They chose one stuff sac from each bag to go through and our colleague helps them somewhat. It seems that they are looking for lighters which they then chuck in a bin. When it comes to my stuff sac, he opens it and finds a small plastic bag which emits a cloud of white powder when opened which he hurriedly and worriedly puts it back in before security can see it! He is rather convened at what happened until the inspection is over and he is back in the departure lounge, where I can reassure him that it is only talcum powder! Otherwise, as yesterday, we spend the morning waiting in the airport as other groups get onto their plane and are whisked off to Kathmandu.  

Again, after four planes in the second wave, they stop arriving as it is apparently too windy. We ask a number of people for some information about this as it is not really that windy here. Eventually, we are told that it is not too windy here or in Kathmandu for landing or taking off, but that it is too windy in the middle for flying. This causes quite a bit of laughter from people in the departure lounge who know that this is rubbish - it always appears to become windy from about 12 until 2 when presumably everyone connected to domestic flights heads off for lunch. The again at about 2pm we are let out onto the tarmac as we have got pretty cold waiting for the past 6 hours and at about 3pm are ushered back into the waiting room to great cheers as we are told that the planes are coming. The problem is that there are bout 5 or 6 planes of people waiting and it appears that only three planes are coming - 2 plane loads have already been told that their flights are cancelled, so there is a lot of nervous chatter abut what will happen and what people have been told by various airport officials. I manage to talk to three such officials and they all seem pretty certain that our plane is on its way here but other passengers seem equally certain that their planes are coming as well / instead. But it seems as though the people on the waitlist for today are not going anywhere today and it makes you wonder when they might actually get on a plane as given the long lunch break each day not all the flights for that day get off let alone the waitlisted ones - there is quite a continual departure of helicopters to Kathmandu (presumably where the airline owners make their real money) but it turns out that we probably have too much baggage for them.

Anyway and finally, our plane is the first of the batch to come. Our relief is quite pathetic really as we were coming to realise just how hard it was going to be for us to get back to Kathmandu and we weren't that keen on spending more days waiting in the airport at Lukla!

There is quite a bit of cloud so we can't see a great deal on the way back - until one of the other aircraft heading for Lukla shoots out of some clouds overhead and can't miss us by that much - queue some very relieved laughter from the cockpit! Then on landing the pilot tries to take a short cut to the domestic terminal only to end up in a game of chicken with a jumbo jet that is taxiing for take off. We can see the pilots calculating whether we could fit under their wings and probably the answer is yes but this was too much even for Nepali Health and Safety and there is a vey loud blast of officialdom over the radio. We do a three point turn - fairly sure that the pilot is gunning for a hand brake turn - and then squeeze in between the various landing aircraft to head up the runway to the other end of the airport.
Still, there was more to come. Instead of being met by a mini bus, a yute arrives so we pile into the back with the luggage for the transfer to the terminal which is actually rather pleasant given the heat. And, lastly to cap an interesting day off, there is no transfer to meet us at the airport so we had to get a taxi back into town. Not normally too much of an issue but, there were five of us with a lot of luggage and we had used all of our cash in Lukla. Finally, we managed to get a medium sized estate car with our luggage everywhere and our knees round our ears which turned out to be pretty painful given the bumpy roads of Kathmandu. Nevertheless, this got us back to our hotel in one piece.

There, we showered, shaved, organised flights and sorted out the cash with the local agent before heading out to the Everest Steak House to sate our appetites for meat

followed by a few beers in one of the rather stereotypical backpacker / foreigner bars there before flying out early next morning.



Next up: Antarctica for the whole of December! Climbing Mount Vinson and skiing to the South Pole.

Day 21 - Lukla to Kathmandu

We have not heard of any further changes and so head off to breakfast at 8. Our guide finally pops in to say hello and that he is off to make a phone call. We ask him about the bags and it turns out that are still only half way if that from Namche to Lukla; half jokingly we ask if he will be flying to Kathmandu with them later on that day and he says maybe. We then ask what time the bags will arrive in Katmandu and how they will get to the hotel; to which he answers that probably about 4pm and that he will stay in Lukla to ensure that they get on the plane and that someone from his company will pick them up and deliver them to the hotel, finally admitting that he will not be on the plane with them. 

He still isn't back at about 10am which is rather concerning as our flights are pretty soon. I ask one of the girls working at the hotel who seems competent and speaks reasonable English. She says that they have been trying to change our tickets from their original date to today and that she will take us down to the airport at 11:30 for a flight a bit after that. Despite the fact that this is yet another unexpected and unexplained change, for the first time I feel that I have spoken to someone who actually knows what is going on and so we head off to the bakery for a mid-morning coffee - letting them know where we are in case of any change. 

Getting out of Luckla can be difficult and having an efficient and connected agent acting quickly is vital - frequently the weather deteriorates during the day and so it is pretty important to fly as early in the morning as possible. We now have a good idea of the competency of our chap and are not sure how much can be rectified at the last minute by the hotel - quite why this wasn't being organised over the past couple of days of our descent is beyond us. 

About an hour later our guide turns up with a very proud smile stretching from ear to ear. He announces that our flights have been delayed but that he has got us spots on a helicopter heading to Kathmandu quite soon. Having checked that this does not include a significant (or in fact any extra payment on our behalf) we hotfoot it to the airport chastising ourselves for our continuing criticism of the complete shambles that the expeditions has descended into. However, there are a few wise words in that none of this salvation has as yet come to pass and we should see what actually eventuates. Unsurprisingly, we get to the airport to find confusion reigning again and are eventually told that in fact we do not have spots on the helicopter - in fact it is not clear that there is any helicopter to have spots on. Our guide disappears again leaving us in the departures hall with no idea of what is going on.

Quite luckily the girl from the airport turns up with a list of names of the whole group and asks which of us are here for the flights (Paddy and another still being up the mountain) says wait here for a few minutes and heads off, soon returning with the news that we are on the 20th flight and that the one that has just left is the 16th. We are to wait where we are and will be called through to check-in in a bit. 

Someone else from the hotel then arrives to say that we have not paid the bill and need to do so. Obviously our guide is nowhere to be found and eventually it turns out that, despite the local agent having an arrangement with the teahouse to pay the bill later, they have reverted to not paying for our water (he has the correct number of drinks and we are so disenchanted with the local agent so we think that this is probably genuine) - rather than risk any further problems we pay the chap who then heads off. Our guide then turns up and announces that we also have to pay airport taxes (again which are meant to be included in what we have paid already) yet another previously unadvised cash cost and we delve into our last few Rupiah to cover this. 

Luckla is a pretty tricky airport to fly out of but, through the whole time we have been waiting, we have seen groups come in, wait for 10 mins or so, check in and then get onto plane 20mins later so it really does seem that our experience is exceptional rather than the norm. Before any further issues arise, we are called through to check-in and then the long wait in the departure lounge for our flight. Very luckily the weather looks to be good all day so despite the disorganisation of the local agent we are hopeful that both we and our bags will get to Kathmandu today. 

An hour or so later, no more planes have come for quite a while and then we hear that the weather has started to deteriorate and the flights have been put on hold due to high wind. All of a sudden our previous confidence in getting to Kathmandu today (especially with our bags) is starting to recede. After a bit we are let out onto the plane parking area

View up the valley from Lukla airport

 for a bit of exercise and some time in the sun (sounds a bit like  prison!) as it is remarkably cold in the waiting lounge - many people are wearing down jackets! After 20mins or so the wind changes direction allowing flights to leave Kathmandu. We come in and find out that there are five flights coming and that we are on the last of those five flights. That is a relief in that it means we should get to Kathmandu today but also that there is no chance that our big kit bags will get there. Given that there is plenty of flying time left today, this raises that possibility / probability that there was never any chance of our bags flying out today as there were no later flights for them and that our guide was 'optimistic' about that!

Four planes arrive and empty out most of the departure lounge but then about 15 of us are left. It is impossible to find out (for sure) if the last plane has or had not left Kathmandu and therefor if we are going to leave here today - quite frustrating especially as it is so cold in the lounge. 

Finally, it turns out that there is no final plane so we and the other passengers head out to pick up our rucksacks and then head up to the departure lounge to get our tickets and airport tax vouchers for our next attempt at leaving Lukla. We head to the ticket office in town to find a mad scramble in front of a small desk. We have heard stories about the difficulty of getting attention in such queues so, when our apparent local (Lukla) agent from the hotel hangs back, I head in using a mixture of British charm and being a good foot taller and twice as big as pretty much everyone else. I get a lucky break when someone who has just finished turns the right way for me to slip into his place. Somehow being unshaven and unwashed for a few days daws the attention of the lady behind the counter and I get helped quickly. Unfortunately, everyone here is confirming their clients' bookings for tomorrow and tomorrow looks like being a very busy day so her only advice is to wait for half an hour when they will be sorting out the wait list for anyone else trying to fly tomorrow. Anyone booked for a certain day has priority for those flights - even if your flight is cancelled you join the general list of wait-listed travellers trying to get out of Lukla over the next few days. 

Then just as I go back into the wait list queue, the wonderfully competent girl from the hotel turns and tells us that she has already placed us on the wait list for tomorrow and that we can head off to the hotel for some food - in fact we are in a different teahouse today as theirs is full. The teahouse is right next to the airport, very new and really not too bad. 

As we are sitting down to some tea having just ordered supper, our Lukla agent turns up with a suggestion for us although he speaks virtually no English. So whilst I think I understand the details of the deal, there is plenty of scope for confusion - our confidence isn't helped by the can of Tenants that he is drinking and from the smell is not his first! There is a charted plane coming in and they can get us seats on the return journey for $200 each and we can get a $100 refund for our existing tickets. This will mean that we will get to Kathmandu tomorrow morning rather than at some unspecified point over the next few days! There is still no sign of our bags so we still need to sort that uncertainty out. There has been somewhat of a reduction in enthusiasm for Nepal and our local agents over the past couple of days amongst the group which is making having a productive discussion of this option tricky - both amongst ourselves and with the agent. I decide that having the most experience of developing countries and how things work that I will take over here. So, having agreed in principle that we are keen to do this, I head back to the prior hotel with the Lukla agent to go through the details and make it happen whilst the others have supper. As we are about to leave, the agent gets a call from out trekking guide - our bags have reached the other hotel and despite knowing that we are now in a different one he has unloaded the yaks and there is no one left to bring our bags across town. He seems more concerned by the fact that there is something very wrong with one of the bags - yet another cause for ire amongst the group with how things are being handled! As we are leaving, we pass the Liaison Officer who has been with us at the airport, who is on the phone but appears very keen to speak to me before we leave. It turns out that he is on the phone with the trekking guide who has been telling him (and asking him to convey to me) about a big problem with one of the bags - this is getting quite worrying!

When we get to the other hotel, I try to get our trekking guide to help with the discussion on the flights as we probably need to move quickly to ensure our places. However, he is keener to look at the bags which is annoying as there is nothing that we can do about them now and 5 minutes delay will not make any difference there. Again, I am not at my politest in dealing with him but we finally manage to clarify all the details and I give the Lukla agent the $500 to head off an reserve our places. We will then see him and our trekking guide at 06:30 am at our hotel to make the final payments, cancel our existing tickets and get to the airport in time for our plane at about 9 or 10 am - it all seems relatively straightforward so I am hopeful that things will work out.

Now we can turn our attention to the key issue of the day (which I am sort of dreading) which is the serious problem with one of the bags - I have visions of my gear scattered in a trail down the mountain where my bag has been ripped open following a clash between two yaks! I am shown the bag in question which does not appear to be damaged but has a crowd of locals standing round it and our trekking guide very carefully puts my hand on a certain part of it so I expect to feels something clearly broken - in fact it turns out that someone's electric tootbrush has been inadvertently turned on and so there is a small vibration in the bag! Rather unimpressed by this and our guide's fixation on it for the evening, I help sort out the bags and then carry mine together with the sharps (ice axes and crampons) back across town to our hotel. From there we have circular discussion about the past few days and our fears and hopes for tomorrow before an early bed in preparation for an early start tomorrow.
 

Today, and the mess over the past few days, is all annoying but not that serious as we have not been able to summit and so have plenty of time. A much bigger concern is for my Everest trip next year. This level of uncertainty, irresponsibility, disorganisation and incompetence is just not acceptable or permissible on such an expedition. AP have recently changed their local agent and, whilst a certain level of teething problems is unfortunately to be expected, these issues have far exceeded that and I will need to have some pretty tough conversations with them and then take a decision whether to use them for Everest or leave them for my final expedition and chose another company instead. 

Day 20 - Lukla

The next morning at breakfast a rather portly but smiling and moustachioed man arrived asking for us. There was quite a bit of confusion as he did not speak much English but it turned out that he was our Liaison Officer. Every trekking / climbing group in Nepal has to pay for a Liaison Officer who is meant to help and look after them - the ongoing joke being that you have the meeting with them in Kathmandu and never see or hear from them again. 

He seemed to be in contact with our guide and eventually after a few phone conversations he arrived - and did so in a wonderful display of confusion. Firstly he did not have any money, or credit agreements in place with the teahouse so we now had to pay for everything and could ask for reimbursement when we got to Kathmandu. The teahouse owner did not want to be paid in USD and so we head off to find a money changer - unfortunately it turns out that today is a public holiday and so all the official money changing locations are closed - but luckily some others (with discounted rates obviously) have sprung up. We now just need to make sure we get reimbursed in USD as we don't want to end up with a fistful of Nepali Rupiah just before we leave the country. 

Secondly, he wasn't sure where the yaks were, but they had been very late setting off from Base Camp and so would probably not make it to Lukla today - as such our bags would probably need to go on a later flight to us and he might or might not be on that flight so who knows where or when they will end up. Things have a habit of working out of chaos here but just as frequently going completely wrong!

Anyway, we set off at about 10 and are accompanied by our Liaison officer who is wearing four heavy layers compared to my one thin shirt! This could be tricky as we were planing a fairly quick descent given the inability to set off promptly. In fact he seems to be able to move pretty decently and, although we naturally spread out quite a bit, we make pretty good time on the way down. We have a long wait for lunch and it is of pretty mixed quality except for the chips, some of which come with a form of hot (temperature as opposed to spicy) but rather good salsa. This is not the best preparation for a fairly long uphill slog into Lukla and my stomach is ominously uncomfortable for much of the rest of the trek.

It has been quite a tough day and towards the end I seem to be relapsing a bit - ears, cough and cold all vying to make a bit of a comeback - not helped by the fact that my pack is really rather heavy for the speed at which we are going! Quite a few days of not eating properly mean that I run out of energy towards the end combined with having an oddly full stomach!

Once there, I head to the hotel (prior to joining the others in the local Starbucks) and meet our guide (who had gone on ahead) to discuss the arrangements - more amusement (although I am getting a bit tired of this type of amusement now) ensues. Firstly I am told that 4 of us are sharing a room. However it turns out that the room only has two beds!! I look at our guide who smiles inanely. I tell him as politely as possible, in terms of the tone of my voice although not necessarily the language, 'Don't be silly. Go and sort it out!' He grins again and says that the hotel is full; less than impressed I point back down the stairs and repeat 'Don't be silly. Go and sort it out!' He potters off and meets one of the ladies running the place who says (something along the lines of) 'ok, I'll get them rooms in the hotel over the road' and does so in about 2 mins!

Secondly, flights. We have had to change these as we are flying out early and have previously been told that we are flying at 8am. Apparently, this has now changed to 9. There is no problem with that, it is just that it doesn't seem clear what or why this has changed and therefore how much faith we can have in the new time. So we agree that he will let us know if there any further changes that day but provisionally will have an 8am breakfast for a 9 am flight - seems tight but it is only a 5 min walk to the airport which is tiny. During supper we double check on the flights and are told that nothing has changed and that we have plenty of time in our schedule. One of the waitresses overhears our discussion and says 'No, 11am'. So our guide corrects himself and says 'Yes, flight at 11am'. Quite where this has come from, and why our waitress seems to know more about out flights than our guide just isn't clear. 

Realising that there is little more we can do now we head for a few beers in the Irish bar - albeit there is a real difference in spirit between those who have completed their trip (various trekkers) and those who have not made their objective (us climbers). I am still in less than tip top shape so it is a bit of a struggle to stay enthused.