Hi from Kathmandu

Greetings from Kathmandu! I arrived here yesterday lunchtime following an overnight flight from Singapore and then connecting to Kathmandu. I was met at the airport by Chris, our guide, and Paul Theriault, one of Paul Day's friends (yes, this blog will appear confusing at times). After checking into the hotel in the very busy Thamel area, Paul and I went for a wander down to Durbar Square which is a very old part of the city and which was once Kathmandu's Royal Palace. I have attached a photo of some of the many temples in the square and surrounding areas. The traffic and chaos around here is quite something to be seen. The "streets" are quite narrow and there are cars, bikes, people and the odd cow going in both directions. Naturally there is a fair bit of gridlock at busy times of the day. The photo below is of a typical situation where two cars meet at a narrow point and nothing can get past (pedestrians included!).

That evening we sat on the hotel's rooftop to enjoy a beer, only to hear the hotel's generator kick in at the same time to supply it's power - due to the need of having to distribute limited electricty around the city, there are scheduled outages that occur throughout the day. Unfortunately ours was just as started to have a beer! We wandered around Thamel that night before I went to sleep early having only had three hours the night before on the Perth to Singapore flight (I can't understand why they served dinner at 3.30am!!).

This morning Paul, Chris and I went to hire climbing gear for the Island Peak ascent - A$60 for everything, including harness, plastic boots, crampons, ice axe, ascender, carabiners etc. Paul Day (PaulD) arrives this afternoon by which time the full compliment of our trekking group (i.e. PaulD, PaulT, myself and Chris the guide) will be here. We are flying to the tiny Lukla airstrip on Monday to commence our trekking and to ultimately get to the top of Island Peak (Imja Tse).

Packing

I'm having a few issues at the moment...there's not a lot of space in my 45L backpack and heading to Nepal in winter requires a little bit of warm clothing. Along with other bits and pieces for the climb of Island Peak, I am reassessing what to take. I head off at 2am this Friday so there's plenty of time......I think.

Home bound to Perth

Back at Minneapolis Airport, we boarded our flight headed to Dallas. Only after taxi-ing to the departure point, the pilot was informed that Dallas Fort-Worth airport had been closed due to nearby thunderstorms and air-traffic was being diverted. We spent another hour parked out on the tarmac at a remote stand until we were given clearance to take-off, once DFW was open for business again!

On landing, we collected all our bags and waited a bit longer for a shuttle to our hotel. A much later night than we had intended but the smiling faces at the aptly named "Days Inn" were a welcome sight. Thankfully, the airconditioner in our room was turned up high when we arrived, as the weather was hot and muggy.

It was an early start next morning, greased along with an American cooked breakfast at 6.15am. Heather tried valiantly to persuade the waiter to sell her two of the "Days Inn" coffee mugs, but he didn't quite take her seriously and kept refusing. Why would anyone want a budget hotel's mugs for memorabilia?? Once back at the terminal, and having checked in our bags through to Perth, we boarded our next flight to San Francisco. Once again, only after leaving the gate, the pilots passed information regarding more thunderstorms on our planned route. We needed to go back to the gate (which was no longer available) and get more fuel to allow us to travel a different route to San Fran. More waiting on the tarmac, until eventually we took off over an hour and a half behind time.

When we touched down in San Fran, we had about an hour to transfer from the domestic to the international terminal. There, we had to get a boarding pass for Adrian, whose itinerary seemed non-existent to Cathay, and it took a couple of staff members a few anxious moments to get him back onto the flight. Some kind souls let us push our way through the final queues for security, and we just managed to make the flight to Hong Kong with 15mins breathing space. Let's hope our bags managed to make the flight as well......

The flight on Cathay was by far our favourite, probably made better by the fact we were snuggled into business class seats on the upper deck - highly recommended, especially for a 14hr longhaul flight. The seats are all at 45degrees to the isle with the windows behind you. They are designed for personal privacy, and boast an amazing entertainment system to while away the hours (note the photo of Adrian watching movies on the big screen in his "console". The meals were extravagant and Heather turned a blind eye to all foods she was banned from eating and indulged in every course offered. We won't tease you with details but needless to say, an extremely memorable eating/drinking experience. Our seats were right up the front, closest to the pilots, who were quite happy to come out and chat before take-off. Once meals had been served and sleep was creeping up, Heather took advantage of turning her seat into a completely flat bed and headed off into dreamland. Adrian was too enthralled by his movie-watching so did not get much sleep. He would attempt to catch up on the Hong Kong to Perth Qantas flight.

On landing in Hong Kong, we had a few hours to waste before boarding our final flight home at 11.30pm. We wondered around the shops before taking advantage of the Qantas lounge for refreshments and a welcome hot shower. The flight home was uneventful with a quite spectacular sunrise over the Pilbara. We passed through passport control at Perth Airport and proceeded to baggage collection where we heard over the speakers "Would Mr Adrian Day please come to the Baggage Collection Desk". Yes, you guessed it, all four of our bags had missed the connection in San Francisco, and would be delivered to us the next day! Needless to say, we passed through customs in record time. Overall, 59hrs from the Minnesota Cabin to home-sweet-home Kingsley - 29hrs in the air, a night at Days Inn, many hours transiting and a few more sitting on the tarmac waiting for takeoff clearance!

Muppet (our kitty) was waiting eagerly for us at home, having been spoilt by Petra (Heather's mum) in our absence. We also had another surprise waiting for us, as Heather discovered when snuggling into our bed for her desperately needed afternoon nap. Our bedroom ceiling had suffered storm damage a few days earlier when a recent hail storm hit Perth suburbs. The mattress was saturated, so looked like we would be juggling insurance claims with unpacking and many loads of washing! Still, nothing could "dampen" what was an absolutely fabulous holiday for us and hope you all enjoyed reading along with us too :-)

Minnesota - lakeside laziness

Firstly, Adrian's missing bag did finally arrive on Wednesday, three days after being lost.....luckily, as clothes shopping needed to be done in Fargo, an hour's drive from the cabin and not as much fun as lazing in the hammock or engaging in lakeside pursuits!

That night, we went to "Zorbaz on the Lake" - a pizza and mexican place that was abuzz with teenagers and family groups. We settled into a booth and had a fantastic night polishing off a "huge" plate of Macho Nachoz with marinated chicken. We then ordered individual meals of Tacos, Burritoes, and cheese pizza for the boys. We rolled out of the joint a couple of hours later, having watched the sunset, and Adrian was nominated chief navigator and deer-spotter during the drive home.

Thursday 16th July - happy birthday Adrian. John did a splendid job of the morning coffees and Shell cooked up some cinnamon rolls which were a hot and gooey treat, perfect for breakfast. After card and present opening, the highlights of the day included lunch at Riverside Cafe in nearby Pelican Rapids (the local Walleye Fish burgers were great), followed by nine holes at Rockpile Golf Course. Funny enough, we were still rugged up with wind-stopper jackets, but the excitement of zooming around in the buggies soon warmed us all up. The experience brought out the inner hoon in Heather, and she often had Adrian hanging on for dear life as she accelerated to each spot. The rest of us (John, Shell, Adrian, Ben and Noah) played a nice game of golf, with John winning by just one stroke over Adrian. Ben and Noah tee'ed off 50m from the pin, with Ben showing us all up with a birdie on one hole! Dinner for the adults was a fancy affair that night as we had fun sitting round a "Raclette Grill", melting the selection of delicious cheeses and sipping fine wine. Finally, we sang "happy birthday" whilst Adrian blew candles out on his black and white Collingwood chocolate cake.

The next day or so continued to be chilly; in fact locals said they had not experienced such unseasonally cool weather for over 30years - just our luck! But this gave us the opportunity to laze around, eat lots, sleep in, keep tabs on the Tour de France, and do some fishin' out on the boat. Adrian triumphed with a good-sized Large Mouth Bass and Heather gave him a run for his money by pulling in 5 smaller fish over a couple of days, both on the boat and off the jetty.

We also spent a couple of evenings shooting a multitude of fireworks up into the night sky. Somehow, no buildings or trees went up in smoke, and it was always exciting to see what was actually going to explode above you! We also huddled around the fire-pit for more toasting of marshmallows for "S'mores" (see photo in the previous posting) - hot marshmallows and a piece of chocolate sandwiched between two biscuits - gimme some more!!

Our final morning was spent packing then soaking up a little of the nice weather that was finally peaking out over the lake. The wind had dropped and the skies were blue, and the views over the slightly rippling waters were glorious. The hummingbirds were buzzing a-plenty around Shell's sugar-water feeder, and Tilly (3yr old golden Labrador) was bouncing around after Adrian and the boys as they played with the ball and frisbee. We were sad to leave the family, especially as the weather was improving rapidly, but we had a flight to catch and could not afford to dilly-dally. After goodbyes to John, Shell, Ben, Noah and Tilly, we left the lakeside cabin with plans to return during another "summer" in the not too distant future!

"Summer" in Minnesota

Well, summer hasn't quite reached Minnesota yet. The usual average at this time of year is well into the 30s, however the temperature outside at 2pm is 17 degrees! Consequently, we haven't yet been swimming, water skiing or fishing yet.

We arrived at Lake Lida in NW Minnesota on Monday afternoon, arriving at the lakeside cabin to meet Adrian's brother John, his wife Michelle and their two boys Ben and Noah who had travelled down from Calgary. We arrived minus one bag which British Airways (typical Poms!) managed to mislay and put on a later flight out of London. Nearly 3 days later, we are still to see the bag.... it contains all of Adrian's clothes, both of our toiletries, Adrian's running shoes and his precious GPS watch! As a result we used the cooler-than-usual weather to go shopping and use our travel insurance to replace some items (we are still pretty confident of receiving the bag in the next day or two).

On Monday afternoon, we went for a drive on the lake on the boat and John wakeboarded off the back. With cool weather forecast until Friday, we purchased fishing licences today and will no doubt do some fishing as well as play some golf over the next few days.

Stay tuned for further weather, luggage and fishing updates!

The Final European Stop - Lake Annecy

Lake Annecy was our last stop in Europe. We were generously offered the chance to stay at our friend Ben's parents' house just up from the lake. Ben lives in Australia but is French and most of his family still live in France. The house had a fantastic view of the lake (see photo to the right at the dining table looking out to the lake) and is located on the edge of Annecy, and a ten minute bus ride away to the Old Town on the Number 4. The old town of Annecy is very pretty and has a number of canals running through it (no overpriced gondolas here!). There are restaurants lining the sides of the canals offering a multitude of local dishes - see photo below. Friday morning is market day in the old town so we wandered through and bought some local produce for our evening feast - Tome des Bauges, Beaufort and Reblochon cheeses as well as olives stuffed with garlic and herbs and some figs...!


We also enjoyed a drive around the lake, stopping off at a few lookouts and hills for some great views of the lake and the mountains surrounding it. Adrian was intending to ride around the lake, travelling on the same course that will be used for the Tour de France when it stops off at Annecy on July 23 for the Individual Timetrial. Unfortunately there were roadworks on the only climb of the course (Col de Bluffy - say blue-fee in your best French accent) as well as some very busy, windy, narrow roads meaning that it would not be an easy ride. However, we still drove most of the course which means when we watch that day of the race on our return to Perth, it will have some extra meaning.


And thankyou to Mr and Mrs Falletti for use of your house for the four days we were in Annecy!!

Back in France

We were back in France after crossing the border from Italy near Nice on our way to the Canyon du Verdon in the Haute-Provence region. We stayed in a lovely old stone B&B near the Canyon, where Pascal (using his excellent English) told us all about the area. The village of Chastueill (population 7) where we were staying was up a very windy dirt track, only one car wide and with many treacherous dropoffs and hairpins . We went back down to the nearby town of Castellane for dinner, and got our Tour de France fix by watching the Prologue stage over a beer at a pub called L'Etape. The photo is the outlook from the B&B's breakfast room the next morning, along with Pascal and the local cat, Pioup, who adopted us during our stay here.

That day, we drove to the Canyon and admired the amazing views from lookout points, as well as bungy jumpers taking off from Europe's highest bridge - the Pont D'Artuby at 180m above the river bed. We called in at a little bakery where Pascal gets his woodfired sourdough bread and bought some brioche and croissants - delicious! Then it was off to the Alpes; a relatively long drive through the Col de la Bonnette, the highest pass in Europe (2,802m). Although it was quite cloudy, the views were still great, and once again there were plenty of cyclists torturing themselves on the long climb to the top - even Adrian's not that silly!

That evening we arrived at our next B&B called Chalet La Maitreya near the mountain village of Vaujany in the western Alpes. Our room had a balcony overlooking the nearby valley and mountains surrounding us. You immediately got a sense of wellbeing and relaxation and a couple of beers definitely helped at the end of a long drive. We only had two nights here so we used this purely for rest and relaxation and thoroughly enjoyed many conversations with our lovely hosts Anne and Pascal and Anne's sister, Bregje, over breakfast and coffees. The photo is of Anne, Heather, Bregje and Anne's husband Pascal on the main balcony overlooking the valley. Unfortunately our stay was over too quickly but we will definitey return another time for a longer visit with our new friends. It was now time to head to our next destination - Lake Annecy.

Cinque Terre Run

There is a fantastic hiking trail at Cinque Terre which goes from the western most village, Monterosso, to the eastern most village, Riomaggiore, where we were staying. Known as the Sentiero Azzuro (Blue trail), it offers fantastic views of the area and the five vilages. I had decided that I would run the trail, and given the heat during the day an early start would be necessary. I caught a train to the western end at Monterosso as the track gets progressively better towards the eastern end. I was on my way from Monterosso by 6:30am, with first section from Monterosso to Vernazza quite narrow, steep, rocky and with alot of uneven rock stairs carved into the hills. However, the views of both Monterossa and Vernazza were superb and you have to be on the trail to see them. The photo attached is above Vernazza. Although the morning was still coolish, the humidity was very high and I was saturated in sweat after the first climb alone. After a steep descent and a short run through Vernazza it was back uphill on the way to Corniglia, again on a rocky trail but a bit wider this time. The descent back to the ocean after Corniglia is down about 400 stairs and then it's mainly flat concrete through Manorola to Rionaggiore for the final 3.5km. After 10.8km and a very slow 94 minutes (a whopping 8:43/km) due to the nature of the trail, I was back home after a very rewarding run.

The link below shows the trail in Google Maps as recorded on my GPS watch:

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=fr&msa=0&msid=107625359958396125227.00046e1a4f56116bc9048&ll=44.12518,9.707108&spn=0.05927,0.15398&t=h&z=13

Beautiful Cinque Terre

We had three nights in Riomaggiore, one of the five villages that make up the Cinque Terre region on the coast of western Italy. The views looking out over the village and over the water from our self-contained apartment were gorgeous (see photo from our garden balcony). On arrival, Lorenza met us and showed us where to park the car on the outskirts of the village then it was a long sticky walk down to the village and then a further 136 stairs up to our apartment. Luckily Lorenza delivered cold beers to welcome us!

That evening, we had a fantastic seafood dinner at a little restaurant overlooking the main street. Giovanni, the head waiter, even showed Adrian how to extract the meat from Scampi (cross between a prawn and marron), and then ceremoniously fed it to Adrian in front of a watching restaurant!

The next day we explored some of the nearby villages. We travelled by both train and boat, with the latter being more scenic and definitely the more punctual form of transport. At Corniglia, we decided to walk from the Station to the village rather queue for the shuttle minivan. 360+ stairs later, two sweaty walkers emerged at the top - the weather was very hot and sticky by now. Heather took opportunities at each landing to take photos and recover! Each of the villages we visited was unique and quaint in its own way, but we still think that our's is the best (see photo from the ferry approaching the village).

Our last day was spent taking it very easy. Adrian had run the length of the five villages in the morning (see separate posting), but unfortunately Heather spent the day in bed due to a stomach bug. The local pharmacy and many trips by Adrian up and down the 136 stairs came to the rescue. Within 24hrs of leaving she was well on her way to recovery. We will definitely return to our apartment Casa Lorenza and the lovely Riomaggiore.

The Dolomites

We had a couple of days in the lovely village of Ortesei / St Ulrich (Italian and German names) in the Val Gardena area of the Dolomites. It is a very German part of Italy and the majority of locals speak German over Italian. In fact, Adrian's German came in quite handy at times and the lady at the post office actually thought he was a local such was his prowess in purchasing stamps in German.

Our accommodation was actually a self contained unit with large bedroom, kitchen, bathroom and balcony overlooking the village. This meant we (well, Heather actually) were able to cook our own meals, a welcome change to eating out every night - there's only so much pizza and pasta you can devour.

Being back in the mountains meant Adrian could do another hike, this time up to a peak called Seceda. There was also a gondola / cablecar which went 95% of the way to the top, so Adrian headed up and sms'd Heather when he is an hour from the top and she caught the two lifts to the top. She was waiting for him as he trudged the last few steps and we both headed into the cafe for a welcome lunch, though there were no hot chips on the menu which Adrian had a hunger for after the 1,400m climb to the top. After a short break we both headed up the last 60 vertical metres to the top of the peak to admire the magnificent view of the Dolomite mountains, meaning Heather also hiked to the top of Seceda!!

Back at the bottom, Heather cooked up some fantastic meals, and like Lake Como, we spent much time on the balcony chatting and admiring the views that make the Domomites so unique. Our landlady (who was also impressed by Adrian's German!) gave us some pieces of her home made cherry cake for dessert. She also did two loads of washing for us after we simply asked for the nearest laundromat! We also had a TV in our room for the first time, however there was no news on CNN as they were only showing Michael Jackson "news" - Iran was off the agenda. We did manage to watch Beverly Hills Cop II in Italian - quite amusing watching Eddie Murphy "speak" Italian.

Meet Richard, the Austrian Sausage Seller

On our drive from Lake Como to the Dolomites, we decided to drive through the Stelvio Pass near the Swiss border. This wasn't necessarily the quickest route, but was definitely the most scenic. The pass is 2,757m and one of the highest that you can drive through in Europe. There are a whopping 48 hairpin turns on the eastern side of the pass, the side that we descended. On the way up there are plenty of one car width tunnels to pass through which cause all sorts of headaches with the large amount of tourist traffic heading up. At the top of the pass there are a plethora of souvenir and food stalls, including some genuine German sausage (Wurstal) stalls selling something similar to hot dogs. We happened to purchase one from Richard, an excitable Austrian fellow who made buying sausages fun! The roll, wurst, sauerkraut and sauce was delicious. That's our VW Polo in the background of the photo. After about half an hour of exploring the shops around the pass, we descended the 48 hairpins and headed to the Dolomites, arriving at about 8pm after hitting an traffic jam we were never quite able to work out the cause of.

The name's Bond........ James Bond

As we settled into our hotel room overlooking lovely Lake Como, a familiar site could be seen a kilometer away. Sitting on a nearby peninsular was a magnificent looking Villa which looked just like the one used in the last scene of the Casino Royale movie. A quick Google search by Adrian confirmed that his James Bond knowledge is still spot on and he ran past it on one of his evening runs to take a look (unfortunately closed but available for rent at 1,000 Euro per night!).

Now back to the trip...... we had a couple of lovely days at Lago di Como. Our hotel was near the town of Menaggio and our room had a fantastic panoramic view of the lake. We spent much time on our balcony eating pizza, drinking, playing cards and just taking in the view. We cruised down the lake on one of the regular ferries to the town of Como, calling in at a number of small villages along the way. The views from the boat of the villages and magnificent villas set against the mountains were breathtaking. The town of Como didn't impress us that much, but we did ride the funicular railway up to the village of Brunate high above Como for some great views of the lake (and more gelati!). We also visited one of the oldest and best kept villas on the lake, Villa Carlotta, which is some 350 years old. The botanic gardens were very expansive and had plants from all over the world. The villa itself was also impressive and contained furniture from different eras of the region. We wish we'd had some more time at the Lake, but it was time to head back to the mountains, this time the Dolomites in the NE Italy.