Day 4 - Helicopter heaven

Apologies but photographs are going to be hard as we are now in the mountains and wifi is poor at best.  

A long but thoroughly enjoyable day which concluded with us finally up into the Himalayas.  At numerous stages it was touch and go but we got high enough in the end to start walking.  The problem has been that despite this being the 'walking season' the monsoon season has been extended somewhat so low cloud levels meant limited visibility.  Hence yesterday being spent at the hotel as no flights went up to Lukla.  On to today....









We were up at 4:30am to leave the hotel and head for the airport at 5:15am with packed breakfast and lots of fingers crossed as the weather was still looking dodgy.  We arrived at the airport and went to our helicopter check in where we were all weighed, went through security and hopped into a minibus to head for the heliport.  We half expected to be waiting for a while but we were divided into two helicopters and Charles and Simon went first only for there to be a mechanical issue and the rest of us took off first.






















As we approached Lukla it became obvious that the visibility was poor.  The next thing we knew we were landing on the side of hill and waiting with two other helicopters for the sky to clear so that we could complete the journey.  There was a moment when we might have walked from where we were up to Lukla which would have taken 6 hours!  Fortunately we didn't have to wait too long before we climbing back in to the helicopters and heading up the mountain.  Sadly Lukla was closed so we had to land in Surkey helipad which was a couple of hours walk south of Lukla.

As we approached Lukla it became obvious that the visibility was poor.  The next thing we knew we were landing on the side of hill and waiting with two other helicopters for the sky to clear so that we could complete the journey.  There was a moment when we might have walked from where we were up to Lukla which would have taken 6 hours!  Fortunately we didn't have to wait too long before we climbing back in to the helicopters and heading up the mountain.  Sadly Lukla was closed so we had to land in Surkey helipad which was a couple of hours walk south of Lukla.

Our improvised helipad










It was at this stage that we breathed a sigh of relief as we were now able to start trekking and get back on schedule.  However the sherpas were up in Lukla so we had lunch while it took them the 45 mins to run down to us.  At c. 1pm we then set off in extremely high spirits as we were now finally on our way.

Lunch at Surkey:


t didn't take long for us head up into the cloud with limited visibility which was a shame as we were missing some of the stunning scenery.  The good news was that as Lukla had been closed for a couple of days (and was closed all of today) and only a handful of helicopters made it up the mountain there are very few people on the trail.  

What was meant to be a quick 2-3 hour walk from Lukla to our first stop ended up with being a 5hr trek but it was good to get moving and we crossed a couple of suspension bridges, attempted to turn the prayer wheels that we came across and stood out of the way of mules coming down the mountain.  



We are now settled in to the Yeti Lodge in Chhuserma Khola.  It is very comfortable and we are now enjoying 'happy hour' sitting with our lemon, ginger and honey teas about to have dinner.

Hoping that the wifi is better in Namche which is our destination tomorrow.  Sorry for the lack of photographs...

Our accommodation last night: 




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