Today we wake early full of anticipation, for today we leave the mountains and head back to Kathmandu. However as we found out yesterday many people had been stuck in Lukla for up to 7 days so the village was full of trekkers all wanting to get home so hopes were high.
I take a sneaky peek out of our window and I could see blue skies, however by the time that I walked down to the dinning room the clouds had rolled in and it was a thick as pea soup. It was not looking good, our tour manager Prasant was silently confident, he new this mountain better than anyone.
We got the call and we all rushed down to the airport caring everything we had. By the time we arrived it was obvious that the word had got out and the entire village full of trekkers were there all fighting to get on a plane. It was utter chaos, however what happened was something I would never of imagined would happen in such a peaceful and magical place. In amongst the chaos tempers rose to boiling point, voices were rising and heated words were exchanged. Right beside me a fight broke out between a couple of trekkers and the flight staff. It was a full on fight, with punches thrown, people getting knocked to the ground and the cops having to physically restrain the culprit.
Once we managed to get our way through bag checks and into the waiting room, we were able to relax. It was a mission to get through all that. Prasant came over and said “Now we wait”, and wait we did. Three hours in and we hear the call, “First Flight”. You could feel the energy lift in the room and we were all excited, we were actually going to get out and not be stuck here for days or even weeks. Watching the first plane land and take off was a strange feeling for me. One side I was well this trek is over and I was a little sad, then I was like well lucky we were not getting stuck here for weeks and at the same time I was feeling even more excited as I new I would soon be jumping on yet another plane and heading to Bhutan, it was a little bit of an emotional roller coaster. Then the actual roller coaster started, the flight down the mountain. It is a strange feeling in that plane, on the way up after take off all you do is climb, there is no levelling out at cruising altitude, then you land. Its even odder when you are returning to Kathmandu. You take off from Lukla and start to descend, almost your entire flight is downwards. You can feel it in your guts, really odd. Due to the clouds we were flying much lower and much closer to the mountains. This was both an incredible way to see the mountain, we got a real close up aerial view, however it did mean it was much, much more bumpy.
Once we landed in Kathmandu it was straight to the showers. We had not had a real shower for 18 days and were starting to be a little on the nose. So after a quick spruce up it was out to Kilroys for a last dinner and some celebrations, speeches, singing and later on some dancing.
The crew Celebrating at Kilroys
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One Life, One Search,
Peace Out.
Shane
