On the way back to Australia

Well, after three fantastic weeks in Nepal I am now on my way back to Australia (currently transitting in Singapore). My last post was in Namche Bazaar on Monday - since then we made the long trek back to Lukla on Tuesday. This was a total of 17km with interestingly 1,200m of descent and 600m of climb - not bad for a downhill leg along with Dudh Koshi River. This leg was split over two days on our way up a couple of weeks ago, but with the majority of it downhill and all of us far better acclimatised, it was a straightforward single day walk to finish with. Lukla was nearly a ghost town, deviod of western tourists who have already headed home as Nepal heads into its cold winter. We spent a single night there before flying out of Lukla back to Kathmandu late on Wednesday morning, farewelling the last of our Sherpa crew - Ang and Pasan (that's them above with Pemba and Pasan Tenday along with the four of us). Again, it was a most amazing flight of Lukla as headed down the 12 degree slope runway and made the 25-minute journey back to KTM.

Because we had arrived back with time to spare (I was due to fly out Friday, PaulD on Saturday) we went about seeing if we could fly out on Thursday instead. As luck (??) would have it, both Paul and I could reschedule to Thursday. Chris is still flying out Friday and PaulT is hanging around till Boxing Day!!

With a short time left in Kathmandu, I did a quick bit of "gift" shopping before we headed out for our final dinner. We had been recommended "McDonal Fast Food Restaurant" by an English group we kept bumping in to our trek, and this turned out to be a masterstroke. Unlike its global cousin, this restaurant had a plethora of nice dishes on offer. So we opted for Tandoori Butter Chicken with four types of Naan Bread for the bargain price of $3 each. This was one of our best meals of the trip, or was it just that we had some meat for a change?!

Thursday morning involved a quick breakfast at a cafe - I opted for the "Juice Lover's Breakfast" which was eggs, suasage, fried potato, toast, jam, coffee.......and a small juice. Work that out!

Paul and I our now on our way home - I cannot wait for some Perth heat having had three very cold weeks up here. I even left Singapore Airport for half an hour just to soak up some heat and humidity on my way home!

The last photo is taken from my flight between Kathmandu and Singapore today. It was a beautifully clear day as headed along the Himalayas - that's Everest and Lhotse in the photo. Island Peak is far obscured!

So that's just about it for this trip. For those who are interested in maps and GPS's as much as me, I will post all the GPS logs along the trek from my watch. Unfortunately the day on Island Peak does not quite go where I wanted it to.....