• Day 12 – Monday 9th October 2017
• Lukla to Kathmandu

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So 5.40 am comes and goes and at 6.40 am our breakfast appears – this is what we call Nepalese time!

Then we rush to the airport…this literally involves us taking about 100 steps and hey presto we’ve arrived.

We hand our passports reluctantly over to some guy in a tracksuit/shellsuit at the ‘check in desk’, we go through ‘security’ which involves someone asking you if you have matches or a lighter on you…if you reply no your good to go and then we sit in the ‘departure lounge’…in here ‘duty free’ consists of fizzy juices, biscuits and eggs!!

We wait and wait and watch several planes come in and take off on the crazy mental runway which you can clearly see is a tiny strip, then off the cliff you go!

The turn around on these things is quite amazing and alarming at the same time, and we wait some more trying to work out what the actual system is, how does this airport work?

Clouds appear and clouds go…and it looks like this is what determines if we can fly today!

Then about 3 hours later again Nepalese time our/a plane arrives…only 6 of our group have this plane along with BK our guide who is actually managing to get home for a bit to see his family as he is up and down that mountain constantly.

We are shouted on “flight no 2” by some guy running around the ‘departure lounge’ (read : square room) and out the door we plod onto the runway and into the plane.

BK sits nervously in the back seat of the plane and offers up one of the front seats to me….thank you BK.

The ‘airhostess’ walks in the small isle with a tiny basket which holds cotton wool for your ears to act as ear plugs and hard boiled sweets….I take both and prepare for impact!

The plane fires up its screaming engines…we hit the runway and 5 seconds later we are off the runway into thin air…it felt rollercoasterish as we took off…it was rather scary!

The sights were once again amazing, we watched the Himalayas for one last time…and Mount Everest appeared and said her goodbyes.

Some of the flight was a bit sketchy as we hit patches of clouds…this was quite scary as on the flight in you knew how close to the mountains you were flying…you were literally flying right through the middle of them almost within touching distance…one wrong move and it was game over…but we arrived safely in Kathmandu airport where we were then transferred back to our hotel.

On arriving the first thing I done was shower – this would be the first proper shower since I had started trekking – now I usually do have better hygeine routines people – family I apologise for any embarrassments caused by my total lack of hygeine here but it could not be helped baby wipe ‘showers’ were the only way to go…OMG it felt so good!

And how amazing…I had a proper flushing toilet…now this is utter luxury!!

We then spent the day in Kathmandu…trying to get used to this crazy world all over again.

In the evening we were treated to a Nepalese show and farewell meal which consisted of Dal Bhat (lentil soup with rice and spiced vegetables) – it’s made fresh daily and is a great source of protein and energy…we were given it on the trek as the saying went ‘Dal Bhat power, 24 hour’!

The guides and porters would eat this twice a day…and it was the only meal that they would continue to fill your plate up with at no extra cost!

Then we said our sad farewells, we had been such a great group.