成人快手

Kathmandu

• Kay
• 28 Aug 06, 03:51 PM

Kathmandu

Well we arrived safe and sound in Kathmandu, and amazingly, all the kit arrived as well. Well apart from my Leatherman which disappeared out of the top of my rucksack en route! Our airline was great, as we had a few too many kilos with so much science kit, and limits to hand luggage. We are extremely grateful to them for their tolerance. The checking in was a nightmare. We arrived four hours early, and by the time we had sorted all the luggage it was time to board. No one even got a look in at duty free.

When we arrived at the Summit hotel in Kathmandu we were greeted with a special ceremony. Red marks on our foreheads, hard boiled eggs, and a very strong kind of alcoholic spirit. They also presented us with garlands, and there was a banner over the front entrance. We felt very special. Yesterday was the first time that the majority of the team had the chance to relax from the stress of the last few weeks. Consequently, rather too many Everest beers may have been consumed by the majority of the team, and there were a few sore heads this morning. Unfortunately, no one was allowed a lie in, as we have had to spend the day gathering baseline data for some of the scientific tests, and repacking kit. This is because we can only take some of it to Lhasa on the airplane. The rest has to go straight to Chinese base camp by road.

I have repacked my bags about 5 times today, as the weight we are allowed to take to Lhasa on the airplane kept changing. At one point it looked like we were only going to have 8 kgs for enough stuff to last four days. Not much when you need to include a sleeping bag and a down jacket. Thankfully, someone had got their maths wrong, and it turns out we have 14kg each in order to avoid excess baggage charges. We will still get pretty smelly though!

Off to the airport at 7am tomorrow morning for Lhasa, so it will be an early start. Maybe, there will be less alcohol consumed this evening. Mike, our leader, is looking forward to getting to Chinese Base Camp in about a weeks time. Then, there will be no more worries about transporting kit as we will be there!

Will blog from Lhasa

To read more visit the Xtreme-everest website at www.xtreme-everest.co.uk