1. Lukla to Phakding

We woke up early to get to the airport to get a flight to Lukla, upon arrival at the airport our main guide announced to us that we were in fact going in a helicopter as the weather was so bad. We were both super stoked with this news. When waiting we met an American couple who were actually flying out for the 10th time to do the three passes, but they are going to be trail running! Mad right!
The helicopter was phenomenal, we were skimming over valleys and villages and cruising at about 150mph. It was one of the most scenic things we have both ever done, landing in Lukla (the gateway to Everest) was great and we can see why it's called the world's most dangerous airport (we were rather happy we flew via helicopter when we saw how short the runway was!) We are coupled with a single Korean guy called Kim, who can speak really good English and is really nice, he has a seperate guide but doing the same programme as us. Our guide Phure Sherpa and porter are lovely, they are so welcoming, polite and very warming and attentive towards us. We chatted all the way and it's great to learn about their culture and family history.
We had a 4 hour walk today rather short weaving up and down the Khumbu valley and crossing some awesome wire rope bridges. We stopped at Eco House Tea house in Phakding 2600mtr and had some lovely food whilst chatting around the fire, with Kim learning about South Korea and some new friends we made from France called Andrea & Elodie, who are doing the same route as us (minus the Kongma la Pass as they are not crazy like us) so hopefully we will see more of them. They are literally the French version of Gracie and I, which was hilarious- Self built camper, love hiking and surfing. We went outside when dark and could see some 6000mtr peaks with the snow glistening in the moonlight. Weather is clear and no rain about 17'c. We are having an early night as up at 6am as we have a big 8 hour challenging hike to the wonderful town of Namche Bazzarr, the highest town in the world.
Safe to say so far we are absolutely loving this trip and the scenary is something else.Read more