The day
started with departure from the hotel at 0800 and driving to the airport. Here the
group (15 people (1 Dane, 1 Swede, 1 German, 1 Aussie, 2 Canadians, 3 Americans and 6 Brits), 2 guides and a stewardess (!)) were crammed into a small
plane that took us to Lukla.
Lukla is
generally considered as one of the most extreme airports in the world. The
runway is 460m long and has a gradient of 10%. Down we came, quite rough, but
otherwise fine. Probably the worst I have experienced in a motorized plane, but
flying in a glider plane you do at times get rougher landings than this, so in
the end it wasn’t as bad as I had been afraid of it would be.
We
started off with having lunch in Lukla after which we started our trek. It was a
relatively short day, 6,5km and app. 3 hours of walking before arriving in
Phakding and checking into Hotel Shangrila.
On the
day’s trek we basically passed a hotel, guest house or similar every 10-15 minutes
and the same time also stores selling everything from soda and chocolate to
backpacks and model cars (!). I assume that when going further there will be
less choices, but right now it doesn’t feel much like walking around in the
wild mountains of Himalaya due to the dense traffic and all the buildings.
Tomorrow
is a 7-8 hour walk with an ascent of 600 meters to Namche Bazaar where we will
spend two nights. The town is considered the main town for the sherpas so it
will be quite large compared to everything else in the area.
Landing at Lukla.
Plane taking off at Lukla.
The group before leaving Lukla.
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