Saturday - 8.37pm Kathmandu (3.52pm UK)

Hi All

Yes, we are all here at the Summit Hotel, although it is dark and we can see no view. Arrived about 5.30pm and had a chat about how to convert our gear into about 15kg for the flight to Lukla.

We will get up at 4.30am for breakfast to then leave the hotel by 5.30am to go to the airport for the 1 hour flight to Lukla. We need to wear a lot of our bulky clothing so glad we are leaving early in the morning as it will be cool. 26.7C at the moment having cooled down from 28.5C when we arrived.

Need to clarify, the bags were not strapped onto the roof of the bus from the Airport. there was a man lying on them to make sure none dropped off. I think health and safety is a bit of an issue over here. Folk on motorbikes with no helmets - best one was a father, young daughter and the wife and only the husband had the helmet!
Cows wander about the place, sacred cows I'm told - streets were very busy, lots of noise from vehicle horns and folk staring at our bus, but I now know why, they were watching the guy on the roof no doubt.

Dinner was lovely, Chinese buffet. Changed my money into Nepalese Rupees and for my $160, I have a huge pile of notes, so many they won't fit into my purse. Thankfully Helen did a laminated money converter, very useful, pounds into dollars into rupees. We think the dinner was only 4 pounds and that included pudding.

The flight out was really good. Heathrow is a nightmare of a place, so glad to have left it. Qatar Airlines vey posh, TV on back of each seat and a huge choice of films to watch. On talking to the group, Happy Feet, Night at the Museum and The Queen seemed to be the selected films.

At Heathrow, we had excess weight because of the sports gear we are taking out and the 9kg cost over 240 pounds (this key board does not do pound sign). Manchester were much nicer and charged no excess.

Helen was searched at Manchester Airport, had to take her boots off and Jayne lost her soap that was in her hand luggage. Christin lost her soap at Heathrow - all those clean Guiders! Don't take soap in your hand luggage.

Doha was very flat and sunny, lots of sand, did not spot anything green. At 6.30am local time the temp was 22C and by the time we left Doha temp was at 28C, 8.15am so glad we did not stay there any longer.

On the flight to Kathmandu, we got our first view of the mountains in the distance peering up above the clouds. Tomorrow we will see them close up when we fly to Lukla. Really need to be getting some sleep.

My altimeter says we are at 1357metres. Lukla will be higher than that and we spend a short time before starting our walk.

This will probably be the last login for a while.

We also heard that as of yesterday the Maoists are part of the government and they hope we don't meet any and pay the ransom, but depends on whether the word has got around and we will be the first party into the Hinku since the news broke.