A group of 7 trekkers and myself departed Kathmandu on the 9th April bound for the Solu Khumbu are of Nepal. our final destination Gokyo Ri at 5563 mtrs. Our first awe inspiring experience was the flight to Lukla which is classed as the most dangerous airport in the world. The  check in at Kathmandu’s domestic airport went without any delays, this is my 10th trip to the Everest  area,and I can honestly say the fastest departure I have ever experienced, we did not even have enough time to finish our coffee before the flight was called. Obviously our prays were answered for fine weather and a safe flight. The scenery was spectacular, waterfalls bursting out of the forest canopies, and above we caught our first glimpse of the snow capped mountains, rice paddy villages stepped  below us as if there were about to fall away into the valleys. Our group were by no means hard core trekkers, and at times found the trek quite challenging, especially when you are hiking above  helicopters and  air crafts cruising altitude.  It takes a while to get yourself accustomed to carrying a light backpack, and  manouvering through donkey and yak trains carrying loads of supplies to lodges.Our first day was relatively easy  enabling us to acclimitise,
Day 2 and the toughest  was sheer exhaustion as we climbed on a switch back trail 400 mtrs to the large trading village of Namche Bazaar, and our lodge for the night. I was so excited to see my long time friend Ang Mai who runs the Namche Lodge, I remember when I would nurse her 2 year old daughter Cherring whilst Mum and Dad would be busy feeding exhausted trekkers, now Cherring is 21 wow! time just passes us by so quickly. The following morning our rest and acclimitization day we hiked to the view point 100 mtrs above Namche village, the morning was perfect and our first glimpses of Everest towering above the other 7,000mtr peaks was definatrely worth the climb grueling climb the previous day. The following 5 days we ascended slowly to our destination of Gokyo Lakes, our group learning new words along the way such as Nepali flat, (which was always up or down) Bistari Didi (slowly sister), and of course we would say hey where is the lodge? Just around the next corner our guide wad respond with a chuckle, I k new full well it would be another 1/2 to 1 hour before reaching our destination for the night. On their arrival at Gokyo everyone was in high spirits and excited although some what apprehensive about the  next mornings climb to Gokyo Ri.  Departure time  4am everyone layered up for the cold morning -10 to make the  difficult  climb to Gokyo Ri 5556 mtrs . The first person to arrive at the top made it ins 2-1/2 hours, the others continued one foot in front of the other rest 2 minutes take 10 steps, encouraged by our trusty guide. Defeated and exhausted 100 mtrs from the top they decided to turn around – safety is more important that reaching your goal. The return journey to Lukla was set in a happy and relaxed  pace, breathing became less difficult, we were all looking forward to some luxury at our hotel in Kathmandu. Our staff entertained us all the way by  singing some beautiful Nepalese songs.. Our flight from Lukla to Kathmandu went without any problems which made for another amazing  trek in Nepal. Sincere  thanks to a wonderful group of new found friends for making this a memorable trip, and be be forgotten a hearty thanks to our support staff who without their patience and strength  we would never have been able to do push ourselves beyond our boundaries.