Phone call from Adrian

Wow, the ESP is working well between us...just as I posted the blog update, my phone rang and it was Adrian. He called using Chris's satellite phone (the guide), and it was so good to hear his voice!

He said all is on track for their plans, with a summit attempt starting at 2am Thursday morning. The tents are set up and waiting for them at Island Peak Base Camp and there will be food for a week, allowing for multiple summit attempts if necessary.

He said that groups coming down at the moment have not been able to summit due to it being too windy at the top, however, the wind has been subsiding the last couple of days, so the boys' chances of summit success are looking good. Adrian did repeat how bitterly cold it was, obviously made worse by the wind chill.

I will update with any other news as I receive it....Cheers, Heather.

Update on the boys - currently in Chhukhung

For those of you waiting for further information.... as you can probably guess, the boys do not have much access to internet/mobile signal now. Adrian and PaulD have managed to call/email/skype myself and Rosemary most days - the power of technology! The last contact being a broken and brief mobile call on Monday morning, when Adrian noticed a short burst of service. They are well, however very cold, and PaulD has recovered from his mild altitude sickness.

His recent email updated their movements and plans...from Pheriche, they had a short walk to Dingboche, where Adrian did some more reading, washed a t-shirt, took more photos and downloaded them, and also the GPS. He said the weather had cleared up but it was still very cold, quite the opposite to the 30+degree temperatures we are "enjoying" in Perth at the moment!

Then on Monday, they hiked to Chhukhung (4,730m). The plan was to have a rest day there on Tuesday, and practice "rope stuff". Then, they would be hiking to Island Peak Base Camp (4,970m) on Wednesday, and weather permitting, they would make a summit attempt starting very early Thursday morning(6,189m).

He suggested we keep an eye on the Spot, as there was unlikely to be any internet or phone service for a little while.

Cheers, Heather :-)

Days 5 & 6

We are now in the thriving village of Pheriche, having taken it quite easy during the last two days. On Thursday evening PaulD started not to feel so well and clearly had some mild altitude sickness. As a result, he slept most of Friday morning before we shortened our day and only walked 1.5hrs to Pangboche instead. This meant another afternoon of relaxing/reading/playing cards etc while Paul slept again.

Today we continued our walk up the valley with Paul feeling quite alot better. Pheriche is quite deserted at the moment as we are right at the end of the trekking season and we have been passing alot of trekkers heading back down to Lukla - we see less and less people each day. We are at quite a large and new lodge - the four of us being the only ones staying in it! To pass the time I've been reading my book which is good as I've been going on the same book for about 2 months - I might actually finish it this trip.

So where is Pheriche and all the other places we've visited? If you look at the following link http://www.enigma.id.au/spot.html and use the password nepal, you can follow where we've been each day.

Day 4 - Hiking to Tengboche

This morning we left Namche Bazaar and hiked up to the Monastery of Tengboche at an elevation of 3,860m. This hike travels along the hill side high above the Dudh Koshi river so is relatively flat for its first half. Once again, the views along this track were fantastic and we could see Everest and Lhotse the whole way along it (see photo to the right). We then dropped down to the river and stopped for a tea break before crossing another suspension bridge (I think this is our last one) over the Dudh Koshi before commencing a 500m climb up to Tengboche. Compared to the other day when I was not feeling well, this climb felt like a doddle. At the top of the hill is the Monastery and we are staying in another small lodge just down the hill slightly.

We got to Tengboche around lunchtime so will be having another relaxing afternoon to look around the Monastery and to help our acclimatisation as we continue to head further uphill. So far I've not felt any affects of the altitude and the climb this morning was not very taxing. However we still have a long way to go!

One of the "positives" of this area is the mobile phone signal - it seems to be everywhere. This meant I did not miss out on hearing about Peter Siddle's hat-trick at the Gabba either. All the locals have a mobile and it is their way of communicating in an area where this is difficult.

Day 3 in the Khumbu Region

It has certainly been an interesting 48hrs since I last posted here. We are now in Namche Bazaar which is a magnificent village set in a natural amphitheatre-style valley.

However rewinding to Monday evening, problems began for me when I lost my appetite soon after ordering dinner. I went to bed not feeling well at all and woke up in the middle of the night feeling quite sick. I won't post the details here, but it wasn't a pleasant night for either myself or PaulD who was sleeping right next to me. It seems that I caught the same bug that PaulT had and which could have come from anywhere. On Tuesday morning I couldn't eat breakfast but felt OK enough to walk. So off we headed to Namche Bazaar with the first couple of hours continuing to follow the Dudh Koshi river. This section was quite undulating and passed through a number of small villages and crossed the river by suspension bridge several times. After lunch (I still couldn't eat), we made the final crossing of the river and headed uphill for the final climb to Namche. It was at this point that having not eaten for 24hrs started to take its toll and I really struggled on this climb. The climb offers great views of the valley below, and by 2pm I had finally made it to our lodge for the evening. By this stage I could stomach some softdrink which at least allowed me to replace some energy. Then it was just a case of relaxing for the rest of the afternoon. By evening I was feeling a bit better and had kept a reasonable amount of dinner down. So it was then off to bed after a very hard day's walk, and hopefully feeling better in the morning.

On Wednesday we were greeted with a magnificent blue sky and fantastic views across the valley. The first picture shows this view from our lodge, with Namche below us. After a light breakfast (I am still taking it easy), we headed into town to sample the local bakery and its coffee. It wasn't anything special, but still quite nice to have a reasonable coffee at 3,400m. As part of our relaxing day around Namche, the four of us went on a short hike up to a ridge about 400m above the village which gives trekkers their first view of Mt Everest. That's me in front of Everest, Lhotse and Ama Dablam wearing my Collingwood Premiership cap (as promised), as well as drumming up local support for the Australian 3-days Orienteering carnival at Frazzle Rock next Easter (no takers yet).

On returning to Namche we had lunch before wandering around the village and taking it easy for the rest of the day before we hit the track again tomorrow. We climb another 1,500m over the next three days so it will be tough few days as we continue to gain elevation.

Off to Island Peak

Today we started our journey to Island Peak by flying from Kathmandu to Lukla, a tiny airstrip at the base of the Khumbu region. I have spoken to a few people who have done the flight into Lukla but nothing could have prepared me for the most amazing scenery on the 25 minute flight as the plane passes over ridges and down steep valleys. The airstip is only about 400m long and is quite steep (see photo) so the landing is very quick, comes in with a thud and then very quick deceleration. As soon as one plane lands another one takes off - it is quite an operation. After collecting our gear and leaving most with our porters we headed off to Phakding which is about 7km up the Dudh Kosi valley. This was mostly downhill, but apparently we will make that up tomorrow when we walk to Namche Bazaar. This afternoon we are justing taking it easy, though mainly indoors at the moment since it is freezing outside - and were only just starting our journey up the valley.

Another post from Kathmandu

Today is our last day in Kathmandu before flying out to Lukla tomorrow morning. First thing this morning the four of us went to "Mike's Breakfast" which is an old institution in Kathmandu and actually sells more than just breakfast. We lazed there for a couple of hours in its nice garden surrounds eating a big breakfast and drinking a few coffees before wandering back to our hotel via the old King's Palace (he abdicated a few years ago so its a museum now). We spent the rest of the morning sorting through our gear, packing what was being sent to Island Peak base camp and what would be coming with us while we trekked up there. Needless to say there was a bit of gear shedding as we got rid of things that weren't entirely necessary. We then spent some time mucking around getting a local sim card so that we could pay $0.25c a minute to call Australia rather than Telstra's bargain price of $3.30. The hassle is that you needed a copy of your passport and visa as well as a passport photo.

After lunch we headed off to Swayambhunath, or Monkey Temple, which is a buddhist site founded in the 5th century. The photo to the left is of the stupa at the top of the large hill which the temple sits on. There are great views over Kathmandu (photo at the top) as the temple is on the highest point in the city. As the name suggests, there are plenty of monkeys roaming all over the site, scrapping for food and just playing around.

Tonight will be an early night. Our flight to Lukla leaves Kathmandu at 7am tomorrow and we will be leaving the hotel at around five. We only have a couple of hours walk when we arrive at Lukla so it should be a fairly easy day. Hopefully the sun stays out so that I can wear my 2010 Collingwood Premiership cap which Heather bought me - I will be sure to post a photo of me wearing it!

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!