We were up early again today. We were up at 6:30, breakfast at 7:00am and on the trail by 7:30am. We had another long day of trekking. We went from Namche to Lukla-about 20 kilometers. We had another beautiful day, with clearly blue skies and the sun shining. We went at a nice comfortable pace and enjoyed the spectacular scenery and nice weather. We stopped in Phadking for lunch. We had really good homemade pumpkin soup and hash brown potatoes. Most of our route today followed the Dudh Khosi or Milk River. It flows down from the mountains and is a beautiful colour light blue/green. There is much more vegetation, villages and people as you get lower in elevation. It was a fun trek today. We arrived in Lukla about 3pm. We are staying in the Sherpa Coffee House. We are enjoying a treat of chocolate cookies we bought from the German bakery next door to our lodge with some grape juice. What a treat! We are supposed to be on the first flight out of Lukla tomorrow to Kathmandu. Keep your fingers crossed that the weather is good and we make it out. Susan   There are two things I find fascinating about this region; the farms and how hard the people work. All along the trek there are farms. Most everything you eat is grown or raised here. Up high where the ground is too rocky, the soil infertile, and the growing season too short, are the Yak farms. The Sherpa people have built huge stone walls to provide a fenced in pasture for their herd. These fences are amazingly long, straight, and strong. Lower in the valley are the vegetables farms. Fields have literally been carved out of the hills. They are ringed by stone walls and present a beautiful site when seen from above. Cabbage, potatoes, carrots, cauliflower, and pumpkin seem to be the main crops. Obviously, the people must work extremely hard to build and maintain their farms, but where the hard work is most obvious is with the porters. As this is the start of climbing season, there are tons of goods coming in to support the trekkers and the climbers. Much of this is carried in on the backs of porters. They tie a simple rope around their load and support it with a tump line on their head like the Canadian Voyageurs. The loads they carry are staggering. Most loads out weigh the carrier. The Sherpa people are not large and many of the porters we saw we no more than five feet tall and could not have weighed much more than 100lbs. They will either carry a single or a double load. A single load is 30kg and will get them 500rps a day (about $8.00) and a double load is 60kg (much greater than their own weight) and will get them 1000rps a day. They stager up hill all day long to deliver their loads to their destination. It is quite awe inspiring. Scott. We are now back in Kathmandu and all of our climbing team are here except Angus who will arrive later tonight. We have our permit to climb from the South side and all our logistics are set. This took some fast manoeuvering in kathmandu, but it looks like all has worked out. I have even heard that there will be less climbers on the mountain this year, but we'll see once we get to base camp. From what I have been told there will be a ban on climbing above base camp between May 1-10 and there will also be a communications ban at this time, but we'll see what happens. Our plan is to fly to Lukla on April 1 and start our trek in, arriving at base camp around April 10. We will then take a couple days rest and then start to climb. As Susan and I were hiking out from our trek we saw tons of gear and supplies headed to base camp. We also saw many of the climbing Sherpa going in to start to set the route through the ice fall. I'll keep you posted as we get clocer to the mountain. Thanks again for all your comments. We read them every chance we get. Once Susan is home she will forward your messages to me through my sat phone as I will no longer have access to the internet. Scott.