Sunday, September 19, 2010

September, 19th 2009 Nepal Journal Entry

09/19/2009 5:19am (KTM) 6:34pm (OKC)
Just got off the phone with Sherrie, and I got a little emotional. She and the kid’s were at Mom’s for dinner. It was a very short conversation, but I needed to hear her voice before I left Kathmandu. After dinner last night I edited pictures and packed, and repacked my stuff. I turned the TV off at 10:00pm local time…. ESPN only covers cricket and soccer here, but I did find the Oregon/Purdue game. I don’t know when it was played but it was on. I am ready to start my trek…. I have been up since 4:00am this morning. I took a shower, because I could not sleep.
09/19/2009 8:36am (KTM) 9:52 (OKC)

Just landed in Lukla… We met our porter. His name is Diel, he seems very nice. Prem has used him before, and thinks a lot of him. We boarded the twin otter first and sat in seats 1 & 2. We had the mountains just outside of our windows. We could also look through the cockpit at the mountains in front of us.


09/19/2009 11:17 (KTM) 12:32am (OKC)
We have been trekking for about 3 hours now and the temperature is about 65 degree’s. We stopped at a patio restaurant called “Everest Summiters.” There is a great view of the river below.

We will be following the river for the next several days. Most of the trek today has been downhill, as we crossed two suspension bridges. There are heavy clouds at about 12,000 feet. We started in Lukla at 9,800 feet and have descended to 8,221 feet. I found out why the restaurant was called “Everest Summiters!” The Sherpa that owns it, took my order, brought me my lunch, and gave me extra onion’s, has summited Everest “SEVEN” times. Every attempt…. He was really nice and on the way back down I will get his name. After lunch we continued through the Khumbu valley, we are following the “Milk River!” It is called that because the water is white. I have taken several pictures and we were going to stop in Phadking, but we pushed through to the small village of Benkar. Benkar is about 6 kilometers past Phadking, but it is very quiet, and beautiful. There are huge waterfalls coming off of the mountain. Our lodge is called Waterfall View guest house.


Prem knows the lodge owners here and they are very nice. I had my first run in with a Nepali toilet. Gross! I was in the dinning hall and a young lady from Sweden came in and we talked for a bit. She told me, she and her boyfriend just came from Island Peak…. They were unsuccessful, due to a crevasse in the headwall. Prem called Naba and when we get to Namche tomorrow, I am supposed to call him to discuss options. If he has not obtained our climbing permit yet we may have to look at climbing a different peak. I had eggs and toast for dinner, with some pineapple. It was good. Trying to keep my protein intake up!

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