i have just witnessed some the most rude and ignorant behaviour I have ever seen. A young Spanish girl (I think maybe she was on a power ride, one of these woman that need to assert themselves) and I assume her Father (or sugar daddy) came into the restaurant at the same time as myself. They insisted on being served first, even before customers that were there before themselves. 

The young obnoxious girl got up to harris the waiter a number of times to hurry up with the order after only 3 minutes of placing the order. I will explain that I’m in a Pizzarrier where the pizzas are made fresh to order. I would expect to wait at least 15 minutes and I believe 20 minutes isn’t too bad. 

The ignorant Spanish girl then proceeded to ask for the bill after maybe 10 minutes, which not surprisingly confused the waiter, 5 minutes later they blatantly walked out without a buy or leave. The waiter and cashier were dumb struck. 

If they were in a hurry, why oh why did they come into a restaurant. Maybe they should have stayed in Spain and gone to McDonalds!!! At least they would have got fast service, even if the food was a little mediocre. 

All they have done is to give tourists and especially Westerners a bad name. I hope they get indigestion or gastroenteritis!!

The lightening flashes and the thunder rolls in long and loud, just a few seconds later and the torrential rain pounds the window next to me as I drink my third cup of coffee at Hinalayan Java!! 

My thought was to spend a couple of days at Chitwan National Park, famous for its Rhinoceros and Tigers, but it’s a six hour drive each way. Too long to spend in a car when I only have two full days spare So I’ve decided to revisit some of the sites I’ve seen in past and see if I can look at them from a different perspective…..or should I say camera angle! 

It’s still a place that’s very diverse, the customers in the café range from youngsters taking a year out traveling, some not so young hippies, who probably started out taking a gap year, but never left or washed by the looks of them. To the returned trekkers and climbers, looking wiery and waiting to go home to the enthusiastic trekkers and climbers who have yet to venture into the Himalaya! 

It reminds me of a TV program called ‘Watching’ a comedy that I remember from the 80’s with Lisa Tarbuck and a girl with multi-coloured hair, her name escapes me for the moment. I’m sat here people watching…..a fascinating pass time. The difference between now and the observations of that 80’s TV program, though are quite stark. There still are a few people either reading or even talking to each other, but most are sat together on their ‘devises’, ignoring all that is around them. I assume they’re on some sort of social media. A couple are obviously on either Skype or FaceTime as they appear to be talking directly to a screen! Or is it something more sinister!! I’m just as guilty, I just happen to be writing down my observations on a ‘device’. Communication has moved on. Instead of communicating with the person next to you, people are talking, whether directly or by social media, to someone who could be thousands of miles away. I’m not condoning it as many of these people are on their own, like myself……although part of me would like to communicate directly with the people around me as the conversation, I’m sure would be far more stimulating, but first contact can be hard work! Maybe being a miserable old sod (like Uncle Les) does have its down side? 

Third day at Lukla! Not the most interesting place in the world, when you’re wishing the days away. It’s notorious for a number of things, it’s unpredictable weather, it’s copycat coffee shops (which do, however, sell exceptionally good coffe) and its airport. 

Why Sir Edmond Hilary chose Lukla to build an airport, I don’t know, I assume that the powers that be thought they could build an airport on a ledge, surrounded by some of the most stunning, but extremely steep mountains in the area. The runway is approximately 450m long and is on a 12% gradient! I have to say it’s like no other runway I’ve ever seen. As s pilot it’s a fairly committing descent. If you get it wrong and you come in too low, you hit a cliff….if you come in too high, you guessed it, you hit a cliff! But I have to admit it really is an exiting take off and landing……if you like that sort of thing, which I do.

This morning the weather was clear at both Lukla & Kathmandu so after two days of there being no flights and Lukla beginning to get a little overcrowded with some very frustrated trekkers wanting to catch homeward flights out of Kathmandu, the planes came rolling in. I mean one after another, after another, after another, to clear the backlog of passengers at both Lukla and Kathmandu. 

It appears that the trekking season has now started with a vengeance, hundreds of trekkers appeared to arrive today all keen and rearing to go. They looked at me with their noses in the air, a dirty, somewhat smelly old man watching them arrive with a rye smile on his face! How many I wonder will succumb to altitude sickness, bad knees, bad hair days and wonder why they ever bothered to wash in the past! 

Anyway I sincerely hope that the weather holds and that tomorrow I’ll be sleeping in the Radisson! 

Always been a fan of flying, in fact being a fast jet pilot might have been a tadg more exciting than a petrol retailer, close call though!!! The helicopter ride was one of the most exciting and interesting flights I’ve ever taken. I managed to film 90% of the flight out of the side window….the reason I didn’t get 100% was that I’m rather attached to my hand and I felt that it was a reasonable compromise to lose 10% of the flight to keep 100% of my hand, considering we were flying at nearly 7,000m!!! I think taking the flight justified our decision to concerntrate on Mera Peak and forgo Baruntse as it was clear that the path to Baruntse Base Camp from Mera La was still under a considerable amount of snow….but there’s still part of me that’s disappointed that we had to cancel the climb.

The last few days are, I think, going to drag a little. Yesterday I walked up to Thame, in theory a four hour walk, which I did in three. So I spent most of the day reading and wondering slowly up to a Monastery and tried to converse with a deaf eighty odd year old monk…..interesting if a little bizzar. Today I walked back in two hours and have spent the rest of the day in the various bakeries in Namche, talking to everyone and anyone!!! (Unlike me, I know).

Tomorrow we head towards the most dangerous airport in the world at Lukla and on Monday will fly back to Kathmandu only a day earlier than originally planned….looking forward to coming home…..I will miss the wonderful bakeries, though!

Exciting news we are to fly out of Dig Kharka by helicopter, that is Chandana, Tshering, Migma (Sherpa) and myself. The helicopter will fly us over close to Baruntse over Everest Base Camp and eventually dropping us off at Namche Bazzar. We will then walk to Tamel, which is on the way to Cho Oyu on the Tibetan side and then turn around and walk back directly to Lukla, which is the main trekking route to Everest Base Camp. This, of course, all depends on the weather! But the weather has been fairly kind to us over the last week or so, with wonderful blue sky mornings and the cloud coming in sometime during the afternoon.

To see the part of the Himalaya where most of my five trips have been, from the air is an unexpected bonus and I know Carolynn will be very jealous. Having said that I still would have preferred to climb Baruntse, but as you know the white stuff has had a considerable influence!

The porters, cook and kitchen boys (slightly deceiving name for men in their thirties) will walk back to Lukla via the normal route and will probably get there a day before us.

Not necessarily the end I was anticipating, but a very acceptable one none the less.

Day 1: The group that arrived the day before yesterday, were pushing on today up to High Camp. Fantastic they’ll be breaking the trail from Mera La upwards. As we’re not quite going that high. Our idea is to camp below High Camp (reasons given in a he previous blog entry). Just to give you a hint of what’s about to unfold, let me state now that the weather this morning was far from perfect! The other group dually started off an hour before ourselves and pretty much kept that distance between us until after lunch, when they appeared to stop just above Mera La! Then the distance between us shrank at twice the rate it should of done, you’ve guest it they were heading back towards ourselves. Another group retreating because of the weather and amount of snow.

Once again we are the only group left on Mera Peak. At seeing three groups retreat, all at different stages, the question ‘Should we still be here’ does run through ones mind. Well we didn’t get as high as we would have liked today, in fact we are at Mera Base Camp, sat snuggly in our tents eating chocolate marble cake and drinking Nepali tea, while the wind does its worst outside.

As I’ve said in the past climbing is a partnership based purely on trust and my trust in Tsherings judgement is 100% and I know that all I have to say is that I’m not happy and would like to descend and that’s exactly what would happen, without any argument.

We’ll wait and see what the weather is like tomorrow and decide whether to stay put or move up to above High Camp or above, as was originally planned.

 Day 2 : The weather was perfect, we woke up to brilliant blue sky that’s only possible at high altitude. So we headed up to High Camp or above. There was talk of going for an evening summit, we were all on a high. That white stuff put a stop to all of our ambitions. We did reach High Camp not long after lunch, but we were all tired especially the lead Sherpa, who ploughed his way through knee high snow for a good portion of the day.

High Camp is not for the faint hearted, it is precariously balanced close to a 500m sheer drop and is right next to a retreating glacier! The views are to die for….which if you weren’t careful you would do. 

 Day 3:  Summit day and a 3am wake up call. It’s cold and dark but surprisingly no wind and a view of the stars that you can only get where there is no light pollution. Four hours to the summit, although we wouldn’t see day break and I’d miss the golden hour, the light at that time of the morning should still be good on the summit. The weather was perfect….the only thing that wasn’t was that knee deep bloody snow. At 6,000m the snow should be ice, especially at 4am, so the four hours turned into just over seven!! The idea was to summit then return to Dig Kharka by late afternoon, well as with everything else on this trip, that didn’t happen. We all got back to High Camp after ten hours and collapsed. After saying all of that the view from the summit was spectacular. We could see clearly five of the top six highest mountains in the world, with hardly a cloud in the sky. So for all my moaning about the white stuff, the reason why I love the mountains hit me square in the face once again.

As before on these trips my Father was there with me looking out over this unique vista, enjoying a view together, that only Farther and son can and I hope I’ve shared with my boys and hope to many times again. My thoughts and love always go to him on these occasions and they remind me of the many days I spent with him in the mountains.

Homeward Bound.

Snow, one of those things reserved for Christmas cards and the east coast of the US. It’s a form of precipitation that I’ve always loved and I know brings out the child in us all….building snowmen, sledging and throwing snowballs at the teachers! Great fun.

Today I’ve walked in some of the most amazing snowscapes I’ve ever seen. Virgin snow…..bad metaphor as no virgin is truly untouched as this snowscape was! Pure snow smoothing out the landscape, taking away its harsh edges, smooth and rounded, and sensual in a none sexual way…..I’ve been in mountains too long, haven’t I!!! Even the Mera Peak glacier was smoothed over by the fresh snow.

All sounds fantastic, until you have to walk in it, then It’s a b….dy nightmare. Those smooth mounds no longer look so sensual as they hide rocks that you have to walk around and suddenly you are waist deep in snow, immobilised and thinking how do I get my legs out of here? At 5,500m, let me tell you it’s exhausting work.

For all the trouble that the snow has caused us on this trip i.e. having to forgo the attempt on Baruntse as we had to take a different route to Mera Peak, putting us over eight days behind and slowing the attempt almost to a crawl, it’s still a magical sight and still brings out the inner child in me.

Three Sherpas a porter and myself went up to Mera La, where an interim camp was set up. Tomorrow four Sherpas, Chandana and I will walk up to the camp and then the following day we’ll up sticks and Alpine style we’ll camp 500m above Mera Peak High Camp to make a summit bid in three days time. This should make summit day a little less strenuous as the hight gain will only be 500m, rather than the customary 1,000m…..the day is drawing close.

Day three at Dig Kharka….the first day was a rest day, the second day the Sherpas started the long task of breaking the trail to High Camp, on the afternoon of the second day the cloud came down, the wind started to blow and as things always come in threes, the snow started to fall. I’m now sat by the warm log burner, on day three, whilst the snow blows horizontally across this beautiful landscape, well I’m sure it is if you could see it. So looks like another day of, well I don’t think I need to say. I’m hoping it clears so at least I can get out for a short stroll this afternoon.

This, of course, puts us further behind time and after discussing the options with Tshering, we’ve decided to concentrate on Mera Peak, as time is now the major issue so it seems that Baruntse is going to have to wait for another day or not, as the case may be.

So we now don’t need to rush Mera Pesk and If the high pass over to Lukla is open then we’ll walk back if not we’ll cheat and hitch a ride on a helicopter. ‘Sacrilege’ I can hear you all shout, you know what, I don’t care. Is there, really a better way of seeing the grandeur of these magnificent peaks than from the air?

Well here we are at the highest habitable place in the Mera Peak valley. I have to say, that once again the lodges are extremely well equipped, electricity, telephones, WiFi, it’s a pity none of them work. To be fair the owner of the only lodge open turned up two hours after we did. So the place has been uninhabited for four or five months. I’m sure that all the services will slowly come back online, just not in time for me to use them.

The walk up from Tangnag to Dig Kharka should have taken just a couple of hours, but because we were braking the trail for the section the climbing Sharpas didn’t do the day before it took us close to six hours. Exhausting is an understatement and following someone else’s gait is far from comfortable.

It’s definitely turned colder now we’re at around 5,000m and it seems that we’ll be taking a couple of rest days so the climbing Sherpas can break the route up to High Camp missing out Base Camp altogether , so it could be another four or five days before our summit attempt. It appears that I’m in for another couple of days of reading, drinking tea, taking a wonder (but not too far, I’ve been instructed), anyway, you get my drift.

Tshering arrived this afternoon and it turns out that his son has had appendicitis and was in hospital for four days……if that had been explained to me in a he first place, then I would have completely understood!!! COMMUNICATION.

7.30pm, two porters in sleeping bags asleep, three of the older porters huddled around the stove, chatting away and two of the younger ones on their smart phones, listening to music one of them of which I’m having to endure! And Chandana on her phone playing a game and listening to music. Music has been a fairly constant companion whilst walking on this trip….not music I want to listen to either, but I’m not given any choice. I believe that I’ve said in the past that walking is a peaceful and often solidarity pass time, in which I find great solace in. Do you mind if after the revolution I put the inventor of the smart phone against the wall and have him or her shot for totally ruining that peace and solitude.

But then how would I have managed to write this Blog and cursed because I can’t get a WiFi signal to publish it as we go along….maybe I ought to give them a blast of J. J. Cale whilst we are walking along, instead!

Yesterday we walked up to a village called Tangnag. On the the way up, who should we meet….our trail breakers, the only trouble is, they were on there way down! It had taken them ten hours to break the trail up to Tangnag from Kharka and on reaching the Tangnag village, found that is was locked up and deserted, not yet open for the season. The porters staged a revolt as they didn’t have their own sleeping bags, but most importantly they had no shelter! So they have retreated. It was a group of three people from the UK, goodness me was it good to speak to someone. I asked if they minded if I kept them talking for two or three hours as I hadn’t spoken any serious English for nearly two and a half weeks (except the odd phone call to Carolynn). They told me that out of the seven groups that were at Lukla a few days ago intending to go to Mera Peak only themselves and another group (this group retreated before we got onto the main trail) decided to have a crack, the other five groups decided to head for Everest Base Camp instead, due to the unusual amount of snow fall. Other groups from the UK wanting to do Mera Peak, apparently, were told not even to bother coming out to Nepal!!! (Unverified).

So here we are at Tangnag , the only group still heading for Mera Peak. We are having a rest day, while the climbing Sherpas break the trail, ready for tomorrow. The weather, I must say is quite tropical….when the sun’s out, so a very pleasant day to take in our surroundings and take just a FEW photographs.

I can hear you asking has Tshering flown in today, as I was assured he would be. In fact to make it worse Chandanu’s high altitude boots that Tshering provided are too small, so a Sherpa has retreated to Khara to call him to bring the correct size…..does that mean that they knew all along he wasn’t arriving today, I’ll let you be the judge…or am I being just a little cynical?? I’m still very much hoping that he will join us soon, as over the past six years he has provided an excellent service for me as a client and I like to think also as s friend.

There’s one thing that suddenly struck me last night after taking a quick glance at the itinerary, we are seven days behind schedule. It hadn’t occurred to me to look before, but we should have summited Mera Peak three days ago and now be on our way to Baruntse Base Camp.

The reason we are behind is because one of the passes we should have taken has too much snow on it, so we’ve had to come a different way. This, of course, puts The climbing of Baruntse at risk. I’m assured that Tshering is arriving by helicopter tomorrow and that he will organise a helicopter to take us to Lukla once we’ve finished the climb. If that’s the case then the climb is still on as it saves the seven day walk back to Lukla Airport.

Like the rest of the habitations up the Mera Peak valley, Kharka, is here for one purpose only to accommodate the ever increasing number of expeditions heading for Mera Peak and Baruntse. So basically it’s a small village of Lodgers and Tea Houses. As we are here fairly early in the season there are only about four open. The one Cooks chosen is great, not anywhere near Raddison standard, but after a tent, I can assure you, it’s far better than any Raddison at this specific moment in time.

The reason we’re staying at the lodge is that the camping ground is under 20cm of snow, so rather than go to all the effort of clearing a space for the tents, it seemed easier to stay at the lodge. And I have to tell you it’s exhausting work clearing snow at this altitude, especially watching someone else doing it!!!

We’ve walked through snow nearly all day, sometimes up to 1m deep, but as I said in an earlier blog there is another expedition in front of us, so they’ve done the hard work and broken the trail. As I wasn’t expecting to walk through snow all day, I hadn’t put my gaitors in my rucksack….conclusion very wet boots and feet. However at present I’m sat in the Lodge next to a wood burning heater feeling extremely ‘toastie’ (how I hate that word), but I thought it might bring a smile to Colin, Stephen, Brita and Matthew. Most importantly my socks and boots are drying rapidly.

I suppose it’s a shame that now we’re on the main route to Mera Peak then our campsites/accommodation has moved away from the friendly local homes, where we would sit next to the wood fire, with the family in their smoke filled kitchen and listen to the laughter and chatter as the host family and their guests exchanged banter and songs. The good side of being in a Lodge, is being able to breath without inhaling smoke that has no means to escape and still warm……but I think the former has more to recommend it. An insight that I’ve never really experienced before.

The way to a mans heart is his stomach, so they say. Food on these trips in the past has been mediocre at best. Don’t get me wrong the cooks have been very competent but sometime in the past someone had told them what Western Europeans eat and I think wires had been crossed in translation.

The breakfasts are very English with cereal, fried eggs, toast etc, but lunches are a full blown two course meal of a dubious assortment. Such as spaghetti and potatoes or cheese pasty and a form of sweet dumpling. There are always a mixture of vegetables etc. to compliment the vast amount of carbohydrates. All this is all well and good but by the time they’ve fed themselves The traditional Dal Bat it makes lunch a two hour stop and at 3,500m and below freezing it can make for a very uncomfortable two hours, but no matter what is said they insist on taking this long unwanted break in the middle of the day.

The evening meal is always three courses consisting of soup with popcorn or popadoms, again lost in translation! A main course of say pizza, not very appetising when it’s not been steamed baked and a pudding. The puddings range from a portion of fresh fruit to a full blown sponge cake or banana pie. Again all achieved without on oven.

So what’s been different about our current cook…..he actually listens to what you say to him, whereas on every other trip the cook always knew best, no matter what you said, on what the recipient of the food wanted. This cooks breakfasts are suitable for both an Indian and English man and has baked (without an oven) some of the most exquisite cakes and banana pies I’ve ever tasted. At long last I can say that the food is excellent.

I haven’t really mentioned the weather recently, the reason is that the day starts with a crystal clear sky and by lunch time the clouds come rolling in, obscuring all in their path and by evening it’s like the old London smogs in the early 1900’s. A thick impenetrable mist, both damp and cold and this has been the case for the last four or five days.

Yesterday we started the five day trek to Mera Peak on the usual trekking route. Apparently there is one expedition three days in front. As there is rumoured to be a considerable amount of fresh snow higher up, they can have the hard work of breaking the trail! And I know what that’s like, as it’s the only time Uncle Les has dropped behind me, when we were in the Dolomites one winter and we had to break trail up to the Sella plateau and it was b…..dy hard work…he’s a cunning old b…….r!!!!

Again I’m writing this during our usual two hour lunch stop, however there’s even more to feed, as we have taken on six extra porters…..let’s hope it doesn’t drag on any longer than usual, as it makes either the morning very short or makes it late before we arrive at camp. I am, however, getting used to these breaks and on a couple of occasions when it’s been particularly cold the Sherpa has lit a fire and forty winks, is then the order of the day, I think I must be becoming like my Father, who took forty winks every lunchtime (some would say I’m already like him and I don’t necessarily think that it’s meant as a compliment….although I do!!!!)

As I said It should take about five days to get to Mera Peak Base Camp as we will have to ascend reasonably slowly so as to acclimatise….around 300m – 500m per day. So yesterday wasn’t too strenuous, a fairly gentle ascent from 2,800m to 3,200m.

Today, however has been a day of Nepali flat at its worse. We’ve only just stopped for lunch after five hours of walking and although we have ascended and descended many times we are 200m lower than where we stopped last night and I think our campsite is supposed to be 200m higher. Actually I’m not looking forward to this afternoon, I think it will be well after 5pm before we arrive, making this the longest day we’ve done so far. (Scrap that we camped where we had lunch as the porters were so far behind us)!

So what do I think to it so far…..well the walking has been very enjoyable, with the hot , reasonably easy walking of the Aaron Valley to the ever increasing cold as we edge slowly towards Mera Peak and the walking is certainly getting more challenging. The Sherpas, Cook and porters have all been fantastic. They’ve been helpful, friendly and fun to be with. The other client, Chandanu, has been easy to get on with, but as the days draw on she been spending more time with the Sherpas etc. as their language is very similar and her English, as I’ve mentioned before is limited. As usual I have AHS (acute homesickness syndrome) compounded by the lack of conversation, but as with past expeditions I’ll have to live with that. The only real downer is that Tshering still hasn’t turned up and nobody seems to know where he is, but the Sherpas keep assuring me that he is on his way. They have been saying that for one and a half weeks now. I’m disappointed and saddened, that he has not yet joined us, but am still hoping that he will before we get to Mera Peak.

After spending a rest day at the village where Tshering was born, It seemed that the whole village turned out to see us off this morning. This delayed our departure by about an hour, but it was worth it. We were all given preyer scarves as a parting gift of good luck for our continued journey and climb. However it wasn’t just one preyer scarf but several, one from each family and two from the monastery. We were also thanked for coming to their village numerous times. Again their kindness and selflessness astounded me and I have to admit made me quite emotional. Have we, the so called more advanced, civilisations lost the art of hospitality to strangers?

Anyway enough of my preaching. This could be the last blog I can post before the mobile phone signal gives out altogether. One thing is for certain the mobile phone service is far superior here than in the UK where I loose signal every time I walk into one of our offices!

Seems today is all about crossing from one side of the valley to the other. These, however, are not your average valleys that you find in the UK, these are very steep and VERY deep. We descended 800m through dense forest down steep unrelenting stone steps…..to then ascend the same hight on the other side of the valley and the distance covered as the crow flies, probably less than 1k. I believe this is called Nepali Flat…I’m very close to telling them what they can do with their Nepali Flat!

Just a very quick aside, I met my first European on the trek this morning and I have to say she was the rudest person I’ve met on the trek so far. She was somewhat abrupt and a little dismissive, making our conversation last no longer than 10 seconds!!

Before our rest day the 5 porters that had been carrying our gear for the last 6 or 7 days left us and some new porters had to be found. Unfortunately Pasang only managed to find 4 and it turns out one of those was, shall we say, a little disturbed and blind drunk! This meant we had to temporarily use some of the locals, which turned out to be one very young child of about 12 years old, a 14 or 15 year old and his Mother! I have to admit I was a little distressed to see the 12 year old carry a load I would have thought twice about. Although he did take the job on with both vigour and happy enthusiasm as did the older child and the Mother. However, what this meant was that we didn’t walk as far as expected meaning a long walk the following day. I’m glad to say the porter situation has been resolved and the youngsters and Mother have returned to their village.

It’s been a long and somewhat demoralising day, I went to bed last night at 8pm and rose to a glorious morning at 6.15am. I opened the tent to the sight of sunlight slowly engulfing Mera Peak in a wonderful warm golden light that only occurs for that short period in the early morning and as the sun sets.

I can hear you saying, ‘what’s so demoralising about that’. Absolutely nothing, it’s the very reason I love this area so much…..but today has been a day of sitting and waiting for four more porters to arrive from Lukla. Reading a book, drinking tea, having a wonder, reading a book, having a snooze, drinking tea, you get my drift. We should have pushed on towards Mera Peak but I believe Tshering has had a few issues with the extra porters required for the climbing part of the expedition. Three were here waiting when we arrived yesterday, but the other four were still a day away and they are carrying climbing equipment for both Chandana and one of the Sherpas. Doing nothing for an hour or two is heaven, but all day is exhausting and down right boring.

There is still the issue of Tshering not having yet joined the expedition, I’ve tried to speak to him directly as I know that the other Sherpas are telling me what they think I want to hear, which I am finding extremely frustrating . The new Sherpa that arrived this morning speaks far better English than the other Sherpa and Cook. So I have some insight into what the issues are but he still insists that I speak to Tshering directly and communication here is little bit hit and miss and depends very much on the weather. There appears to be two problems, one, Tshering is struggling to get the necessary climbing permit for Baruntse and secondly he has some sort of ‘public’ issue. Like you, I have no idea what a ‘public’ issue is until I can speak to him. So as you can probably tell I’m a little frustrated. I managed to speak to Carolynn today, seems that Lutterworth is easier to contact that Kathmandu, and she is going to email and leave him a private message on Facebook to try and clear up the situation.

You’re saying ‘you have two climbing Sherpas already with you, so what difference does it make?’. Climbing is a partnership, one built on trust and it’s that trust that I have built up with Tshering that brings me back with him to the Himalaya as my climbing guide and partner. To suddenly find that he might not be joining the expedition does nothing for my confidence in both the climb and expedition!

Anyway, enough moaning. Back to Nepali Flat. The two days before this enforced rest day, were best described as ‘brutal’ to say the least. Brutal in two ways, firstly we did that unforgivable thing while walking, we lost height in the morning only to gain it plus some in the afternoon, on both days and secondly, on each day we could see where we started from! Very disheartening as we had been on the trial for six or seven hours each day. I believe now that it’s mainly up as we slowly gain height towards Mera Peak.

I’m sat in the one roomed house that belongs to Tsherings Father, a devote Buddhist. One end walk is a testament to his faith. I have to admit I feel a bit of a fraud, not sure whether that’s the right word, but here is a man who, I believe, is totally content and at ease with life. His thoughts are on a far higher plane than this small group of ours, that is just passing through. A group who’s most important thought is whether there is a mobile phone signal or when can we recharge our electronic devices. I’d be surprised if he even owns a mobile phone. Looking around his small one roomed house he appears to have succumbed to one item of modern technology, a solar panel which runs just two small lights.

Don’t get me wrong I’m not advocating that his way of life is for me, I’ve gone too far down the technological road to ever turn back, but part of me envies his apparent happiness and simplistic lifestyle, especially after loosing one son to the mountains and another who was shot by the Taliban. I could be very wrong and deep down he could be in considerable turmoil, the turmoil that loosing a child, never goes away. I can only assume his devotion to Buddhism and its teachings have created this calm, happy and helpful man.

The first week or so of this trip have been a bit of a revelation to me. I’ve always said that the Nepalese are friendly and helpful, which is one of the reasons that I keep returning, this time, however, even my expectations have been surpassed. I believe that once off the normal tourist trails then the true character of the people surface, rather than the avarice that tourism seems to bring out in many people!

This time I thought I’d go Hi Tec. I have in the past taken small solar panels that have charged up my phone and camera battery, But this time I’ve brought a laptop and after some research I realised this has a totally different requirement as far as the amount of power required is concerned. I was told that I needed to multiply watts by amps plus my inside leg measurement divided by shoe size, which would equal my total power needs, to say I was confused was an understatement! In the end I found a company called Humanedge who specialised in solar energy and exploring. Tom, was very helpful and recommended a solar panel plus a suitable battery. He also recommended a converter, which he would purchase from Amazon US for me as it wasn’t available on the UK website.

Well I have to say the solar panel appears to be working very well. However the Kingston Converter, well what can I say, blew its top when I plugged it into the solar panel. The fan started to whirl rapidly then …..BANG and lots of smoke. I’m one of these people who read instructions only if I have to and in the case of all this Tec I decided it was worthwhile to do so before I came. Therefore I’m pretty sure that I’ve done nothing wrong!!! All this means is that I won’t be able to charge my camera batteries or use the laptops own power supply, but I can still charge the laptop through the battery. Provided with the solar panel. I’m hoping that I can charge the camera battery while it is in camera, but I’m not sure. I have brought five with me maybe they will last?

All of this gear comes at both a monetary cost, but more importantly is the weight cost. To see what the Porters carry is beyond belief and my guilt lasts for at least 10 seconds.

The only thing that I’m missing is a satellite receiver. I did find one a week before I left, but that wasn’t sufficient the me to do any research. This particular satellite receiver clipped onto your mobile phone and the mobile would work as normal but over satellite instead of just be of the mobile networks. You could also use all of the Apps…..the down side and quite obviously there has to be one, is the internet speed and most of all the cost. Maybe in a couple of years they will be more reasonably priced!!!

It seems that even in today’s world, the big hitec companies still haven’t cracked it. Part of me is glad, to be free from contact has its romantic side, but to be completely out of contact with home for four metric weeks is too long, so I’ll go with the flow and use it to my best advantage.

One other thing worth mentioning is that Nepal would probably fall apart if its mobile phone network didn’t reach every subsistence farmer in the most remote part of the Himalaya.

After a slow start yesterday i.e. around 10am, as the porters were obviously arguing about the weight of the bags, after a lot of gesticulating and money changing hands all seemed to be agreed. I’m assuming it’s a ritual that takes place at the beginning of most treks. The actual expedition began. The waiting was over and the long trek to Mera Peak and Baruntse had begun. The day was uneventful, we walked along a good path or dirt track through many villages and hamlets, all with a peculiar beauty of their own. I say peculiar beauty as many would probably describe them as dirty with very little appeal. However, look deeper and you will find a people who are friendly, honest and appear to be happy, which is more than can be said for many people I’ve met. I think to ponder why that might be is beyond the limited time and space that this blog encompasses.

Today we had a blistering start, up at 7am and off just after 8am. The Himalaya foot hills run East to West, however most people  want to go South to North….doesn’t make for easy walking. After climbing a good 1,000m before lunch, we promptly lost 600 after lunch, demoralising to say the least!!!

The day’s walk is over and I’m sitting alone in the mess tent. It’s a shame a blog doesn’t have sound as you’d realise that the Monsoon has come early. I’ve been to the Himalaya five times now and this is only the second time it’s rained. I have encountered other forms of precipitation, but rain is, well, wet, if you know what I mean and just a little unpleasant!

I’m slowly getting to know my traveling companion. She’s quietly confident and has a slight mothering instinct, which, as a man, I’m very happy to take advantage of. Her English is limited, but then my Indian is totally non existent, so who am I to complain. Our conversations are generally brief, with a number of misunderstandings, which we can laugh off. From what I’ve seen of her so far, her quiet confidence could well take her to the summit of Everest in May/June of this year.

Enough of an old mans ramblings for one day.