Hi David Duncan here.

As everyone knows we had one false start on the 22nd where the clouds prevented our plane from taking off. Now as a well drilled team, we got up at our regular 4am start in Kathmandu, left to go to the airport at 5.15am, and arrived at the airport at 6am. After pushing through the crowd and a very interesting inspection of bags we were almost immediately ushered onto our plane. There was a open flight window under the clouds to Lukla and the flights were on! Of course this got everyone very excited to be finally sitting on a plane bound for our destination, however about 5 minutes into the pilots pre-flight warm up there was a tapping of dials, shaking of heads and then the pilots turned the engines off. Everyone let out a groan.

A ground crew gathered outside and another pilot came across to check whether the problem was serious. After a few moments he flicked a switch our pilots had missed, made a joke at the pilots expense (which received some laughs from the ground crew outside) and then promptly left leaving us with a working plane!

The flight was a highlight. We flew out from Kathmandu, staying under the cloud cover and zigged-zagged our way across mountains (sometimes only a hundred feet above ridge lines) and up a large valley until Lukla landing strip came in site. Basically  from what i could see out the front window there was a small strip literally cut at a perpendicular angle straight into the mountain. To say the landing was hairy would be an understatement, however at about 8am we finally landed at Lukla airport at 2900 meters on the 23rd.

From there we had a quick stop at a tea house for a Nepally tea and a gear check. Larry gets  a special mention for leaving his boots back at the hotel. Our heavy bags were loaded on two yaks, although the rest of the heavy bags were loaded up on the back of Nepally porters and carried off. What these guys can carry on their backs beggars belief. Some of these guys are 5 feet high and carry 60 to 100Kg on there backs supported by a head strap. Loads I would struggle to lift even at sea level let alone at nearly 10000 feet.

Our fist stop after about 4 hours trekking was lunch at Phakding at 2400 meters (yes we had to go down before we went up), where we all dined out on Garlic Soup and Momo's. Indy gets the bravery award that day for ordering chocolate pancakes (which in the end turned out to look quite good - everyone else was quite jealous).

After lunch we had another two hours of climbing (at a very leisurely pace) up to Monjo at about 2950 meters where we slept the night after another huge meal. I think everyone felt pretty good, with really all of us feeling pretty good at this altitude. One of the amazing views during this first day was the sheer steepness of the ravine/valley we were traveling through. Because we are fairly early in the season (just after the monsoon) the river running through this valley was swollen with melting snow and water run off. This made for huge white water and rapids without break along the whole days trek. We all took the opportunity for a few good photos.

We came across one porter on this leg that had about 10 5x5inch Hardwood planks (each about 2.5 meters long) strapped to his back. We calculated a weight over 100Kg. It made us all feel pretty inadequate.

After a great breakfast on the 24th, we set off for Namche Bazaar at about 3400 meters. This is where you start to feel the altitude. Both David A and Paul let us know this would be where we might really start to suffer a bit, and to make sure we all took a very slow pace on the climb so our bodies could handle the change the best. The climb out of the valley up the spur towards Namche Bazaar started with a nice suspension bridge crossing and then zig-zaged pretty much straight up. We all need a few stops along the way to get our breath back, and luckily at one of the stops we all got our first view of the mighty Everest towering almost 6 vertical kilometers above us in the distance. We have about half of that to climb before we reach the top of Island Peak (still a pretty daunting thought).

The views across the valley are amazing, with sheer vertical rock faces, laces with waterfalls that dissapear into the clouds above.

Well after some good trekking we all made Namche pretty well. The advice of just plodding along slowly really paid off,and apart from one or two mild headaches with in the group that disappeared pretty quickly everyone felt pretty good. Personally i felt great the whole way up and have yet to really suffer, although any quick bursts up stairs to our rooms or through the town is met with dizziness and quite a bit of puffing.

We had a feast at lunch at Namche and have spent the rest of the day walking though the local markets browsing for nic-naks and just having fun. the bakery at Namche is a definite must, with a particularly nice chocolate filled pastry I sampled.

Well i have been typing for long enough now. Tomorrow we are off to Khumjung up to about 3900 meters i think. Unfortunately Paul's PDA is playing up a bit so we cannot use it for providing updates on Myeverest.com.au so these updates may be few and far in between where we can find an Internet Cafe. Alternatively Paul might be able to relay out a message via SAT Phone, so stay tunned.

Love to everyone following our trip back at home and online.