The Diary

We are back down in Namche en route for Lukla. Unfortunately we did not summit Kyajo Ri. Because of flight delays in Kathmandu we lost nearly four days climbing time and had only 6 days to climb the mountain. We spent three days on the mountain setting up advanced base camp at just over 5000 metres before climbing a loose rock face to the start of the first glacier and climbing all day to the 80 metre headwall at the top of the glacier where we set up our camp 1.

The next morning we decided that it was going to take us too long to get everybody over the headwall and set up camp 2 on the Kyajo Ri glacier and so we went down. Very frustrating, however we have learnt a lot and I will definitely be back for another go.

It remains a beautiful, and rather mysterious mountain. We learnt when we came down that a previous Korean expedition had lost one of its members in a crevasse on the hanging glacier facing Machermo. Apparently they are still there. Re the photos we will try some uploads back in kathmandu - they just take too long here. I would love to get together with you on

We have made it to Namche Bazaar and our luggage has finally caught up with us. It was like Christmas getting our personal gear again. Today the mountaineering gear is being loaded onto yaks and being sent up to base camp at Machermo.

Cheryl Sunday 9 October

Finally after being stuck in the Kathmandu airport for 4 days we have finally made it to the mountains. I was starting to get frustrated and feeling like it was ground hog day. Every morning we head to the airport - sit around for about 5 hours then get told that the flight was cancelled.

So go back to the hotel and try again then next day.

Now we are in Lukla. the airport is perched on the side of the mountain - 25% gradient. To fly in the pilot must navigate up the valley around the cliff line then straighten to land up the run way, I admire these pilots.

This morning we are still waiting for our luggage - we are here in Lukla the luggage is in Kathmandu - mmm more hurdles to overcome. However we I woke this morning I see mountains and cliffs in all directions I look. It's going to be a great day for a walk.

Still in Kathmandu after 3 days. All flights to Lukla closed because of bad weather. Hoping to leave today. We have 300 kgs of gear which could be a problem for us if some of it has to go on a separate flight. We'll see.

We went out to see a Bollywood movie last night at a Hindi cinema near the palace. What a hoot. The movie was called "Salaam Namaste" and was actually filmed entirely in Melbourne Australia. It was a love story..same old stuff with incredibly loud music. Pretty girl Radio Jockey living in Melbourne meets pretty Hindu boy who is chef and hate each other on sight (crank up the music and sing a song), girl and boy fall in love (crank up the music and sing another song with many tits and bums on an Australian beach), half-way through movie add a Hindu Crocodile Dundee with knife and hat; girl and boy fall out of love (turn down the music and sing a sad song), girl and boy fall in love again (crank up the music really loud and sing and dance down Collins Street), get married and have babies (crank up the music till the plaster falls off the walls, bring in an insane doctor, and sing very

loud) end.

Graham Wednesday 5 October

 This is my third time in this crazy city and every bit as enjoyable. This place can be described in the Buddhist sense as a place in the process of becoming. It is sometime hard to tell if parts of it are in the process of being built, or in the process of falling down. It is mad, chaotic and anarchic and hits you full in the face with its intensity and vitality. I love it! Looking forward to beginning the trek to the mountains tomorrow....Graham

Here I am on Tuesday morning in an Internet Cafe on a Tuesday morning catching up on the world and Australia. I find it so interesting that I'm here about 10 hours flying time away from Sydney and I can do my banking and check most things like I would at home, the only difference is the street noises.

After a stop over in Bangkok over the weekend which was fantastic we flew to Kathmandu yesterday afternoon. Finally the whole group meet up and it has finally hit me why I am here, before it seemed like a distant dream that would one day happen, but now I am here. We also have so much gear which we need but I just can't believe how much we really do have. We also had to pay excess luggage - a total weight of 300kg of gear between us all - wow

Since arriving in Kathmandu a few of us decided to go exploring and even though I've been here before nothing looks familiar - probably staying in a different place. After walking around for a while we actually lost our bearings, after having our pride dented I asked for directions, eventually we got back to the Hotel. Thamel (where the hotel is and the tourist area in

Kathmandu) is really quite, not many tourists at all, locals are also very subdue.

Today we are getting ourselves organised, we need to purchase some more mountain climbing gear and repack stuff so that the porters can just take most of the stuff up and going at there own pace. Hopefully we will get to do a bit of exploring as well

Chat soon

Cheryl

Since I have arrived in Kathmandu

Kathmandu