The day began with a most unwelcome wake up call in the Yak and Yeti Hotel at 4.00 am... However, a quick shower and shave and it was time to board the bus for the airport at Kathmandu. This part of the journey was very surreal as Kathmandu has no form of street lighting except for the dim glow of the many shops that are already open at this unearthly hour. Streams of people are already flooding the streets and are captured in the headlights of our mini bus convoy. Where they are all going is a mystery, but the dusty alleyways are full of people and dogs going about their business all their faces lit up for a brief second as we pass like strangers in a strange land.
At the airport we were met by Dr. Paneer from the Bakhtapur Cancer Centre who came to bless us on our journey by giving each of us a Tikka (a red symbol placed onto the forehead to symbolise the third eye... The eye of the soul), he also annointed our heads with a confetti of flower petals. It was an emotional moment for for many as the magnitude of our endeavour lay before us and above us in the clouds above the airport.
Somehow we all survived the airport security... A token pat down to see if we were carrying any batteries!!!! And then our bags were put through an x-ray machine with no one in attendance. The Gods were with us (perhaps Mr. Paneer’s prayers were being answered), and within minutes we were walking through another security check, boys to the right and girls to the left, accompanied by a quick glance to see if we had a ticket and then we were on a bus bound for the plane.
The lack of security meant that I could get out of the bus and film planes landing and helicopters flying over our heads as we watched the porters literally stuffing our bags into every little space available (one even went in under the Captains seat....). It felt like we were about to go ‘In Country’ as part of some expeditionary force. Sadly our excitement was dashed as were ushered back onto the bus and back to the ‘terminal’ as the cloud base had come down on our destination of Lukla and all planes were grounded for the time being. I managed to buy some postcards bvefore we were called back to the plane, it was like a stampede as people headed for planes in all directions to get in the air before the window of opportunity closed... It was as if someone had ‘scrambled’ us rather than ‘called’ us to get on an airplane. Within seconds we were in the air and flying through the clouds, I put my iPod on and hit the shuffle button... I was rewarded with ‘Highway To Hell’ by AC/DC.
As we flew high into the Himalaya the excitement mounted as we all braced oursleves for the legendary landing at Lukla..... The airstrip loomed ahead, I could see it as I was sat in the front seat just behind the pilot.... It looked about the length of a football pitch and not even the length of a decent aircraft carrier...... Bang!!! the plane touched down although it felt to me more like a crash landing!!! We all burst into spontaneous applause. We deplaned as fast as we had boarded and were thrust into a place that can only be described as being something like a scene from Apocalypse Now..... Everywhere we looked we were surrounded by towering mountains and clouds bearing down on us. In our near field vision the anxious and hopeful faces of thousands of Nepalese waiting to catch the eye of one of these crazy westerners for the chance to carry the bags up into the Khumbu Valley.
Every single person was in the grip of culture shock as we walked through the crowd of Nepalese who stood in silence as we walked by. I felt like an invader. In act it felt like I had been taken captive and was being paraded through the streets to the bemusement of the locale. As we walked planes were careering down the runway to get back to Kathmandu to fetch even more adventurers and as the air filled with the noise and smells of aviation in action we were ushered into the relative calm of the Sunrise Café / Tea House. A quick cup of tea and a rifle through our bags saw us ready for the trek. James Chippendale made an emotional speech and introduced us to Ade (Our Head Guide from The Mountain Company and also another Weslh Boy), who also introduced us to our Sherpas. We all filed outside for a group photo and I lead the assembled through a version of ‘Strength’. With our hearts filled with song we once again entered the rough and tumble of Lukla and soon found ourselves in the solitude of the Khumbu Valley.
Every step we took revealed another photo opportunity, every corner revealed another video shoot opportunity and so it wasn’t long before the guitar was out and I found myself singing to the locals in Welsh (Hwylio Dros Y Mor), with a quick burst of ‘Scooby Doo Where Are You?’ for the kids.... All the children want to touch the guitar and strum the strings.... They are all very gentle people and close their hands together and say the greeting “Namaste” (My soul is with you) as they pass. We pass lots of holy and spiritual sites which we have to pass on the left hand / clockwise side. A couple of hours and we are met by the sound of prayer wheel bells and after we all spin the drums and say a prayer or two, Alex Coletti asks me to sing ‘Bells Of Rhymney’... Sandeep our sherpa leader helps by spinng the prayer drums to trigger the bell as I sing the song... It was a beautiful moment even as a herd of Yaks passed by me and nearly knocked me over..... Amazing moment all captured on sound and film......
We crossed over makeshift bridges and even saw a dead body being mummified outside a village house with relatives hugging the wrapped remains. You couldn’t help but look, it was very humbling and made me think of home and how lucky we are to live in our little corner of the west. We stopped for luck beside the D’ud Ghoshe river which translates as the Milky River a peppermint torrent of glacial water throwing itself down the mountainside from it’s spring high up on Everest.
The afternoon was taken up with making up some time to get to our evening destination of Monjo before sundown and I walk along the banks of the river with Jake Norton who was gracious enough to answer the thousand questions I asked him about his two successful Everest Summit climbs and the role he played as official photographer on the successful mountaineering mission to discover the body of the legendary George Mallory. We are so lucky to have with us three men who have been all the way to the top and at dinner in our lodge tonight we were treated to a candlelit dinner reading of ‘From Everest To Enlightenment’ by Everest summiteer and cancer survivor Alan Hobson.
All that remains is for the team to edit the podcast and get it out onto the internet and for me to go bed... I am absolutely shattered emotionally, spiritually and physically...... Can’t wait to do it all again tomorrow....
Mike Peters
Monjo, Khumbu Valley, Himalaya, Nepal
13th October 2007
