March 25th – Kathmandu How Are You?
Hi this is TA and Marian calling in from the rooftop of the Nirvana Guest Hotel in Kathmandu, we had a long day of flights and now we are getting settled in and testing out the new SAT phone.

So howdy from Nepal, got to go find some more air time, but catch you soon!

Bye

TA

March 26th – Hurry Up and Wait
Hi this is TA calling in from the rooftop of the Nirvana Garden Hotel in Kathmandu. Unfortunately due to flights being canceled over the last few days to Lukla they diverted our airplane from Phaplu to fly to Lukla, which meant we had an interesting, exciting, engaging morning watching people at the domestic airport in Kathmandu, and unfortunately didn’t get to fly.

So we will try again tomorrow, to try to get out to Phaplu to begin walking. The delay means that we have a little more time around Karnel and we can get a little more settled into our Nepal life and listen to the cacophony of car horns, and construction as they are building a new guest house next to the Nirvana. We will make our way around the crazy chaos of motorcycles, cars, tourists and folks on the street.

I took Marian down to Durbar Square, so we are settling nicely into Nepal life, which can sometimes be hurry up and wait, hurry up and wait, but we will see what tomorrow brings. I’m thinking that if we can’t get out to Phaplu tomorrow we will probably just travel with the team, so we may come up with a trekking plan for the Kathmundu valley or whatever else Raj can come up with for us to do.

So alls well here, getting sorted in terms of the time zone and got our gear all sorted away. We came in so organized because we knew we would be heading out so that’s a wonderful thing. Just wanted you all to know that we are settling in, thinking about you and hoping you had a great day.

In my walking today I did 6872 steps around Kathmandu, hope you are stepping up to the summit challenge and logging all that great physical activity.

Thanks

Have a great day

TA

March 27th – The Freshness of It All
Hi this is TA calling in from the village of Junbesi at 2670 metres. We got out of Kathmandu today, after a few more hours of delay we flew to Phaplu or Pa-Plu as I am supposed to say it.

It was a pretty interesting, entertaining, bumpy ride with a big hairpin turn to the dirt landing strip. We met our guide come porter there; it was a relief to have him greet us. We saddled up and hit the trails pretty quickly because we had gotten in a little later then planed, and began our walk up to Junbesi.

Walked about three hours and gained a few hundred metres and saw some of the most wonderful country side. For the first time ever in Nepal we shared the walking trail with no other westerners as we walked. It was pretty quiet on this section of trail; it’s a new section for me so it was lovely to get to see some new sights and to be reminded of the freshness of it all. There were new cavs, new puppies, and new spring wheat all around us on the terraced agricultural land, as we went through a couple of villages and walked along the Junbesi cola, the river there and came up through this wonderful valley.

It was great to get on the trail, we are stretching our legs I got my 15 kgs on my back which is good for work hardening as we make our way. Marian is doing great. We had a wonderful visit to the Junbesi monastery, which was originally built in 1634. We managed to meet the “tea man” as he calls himself, he allowed us into the prayer hall and he introduced us to the Buddhist sanctuary there. I showed him my protection cord from the Karmapa, he took us upstairs and showed us a picture of the Karmapa. So we had a wonderful connection with him and he presented us with Katas of welcome to his monastery.

We had a wonderful day, its great to be walking the movement is helpful. My pedometer said about 15 000 steps today, I’m not sure if that right on or not but I know that my wonderful people at recreation Newfoundland and Labrador will take a peak at the chart they made and see if that makes sense, hope folks got out walking.

I want to say a special hello to the students in madam Edwards class at CC Loughlin school in Cornerbrook Newfoundland. Flat Stanley had a great flight on the Twin Otter, we had him out and he took some pictures. He’s thrilled to be on the trek and we are thinking of you as we walk along.

Another big thank you to RJG Construction who have actually provided me with a new SAT phone for this expedition on which I’m calling in these updates, I really appreciate their sponsorship and support of the expedition and help with communications technology.

Hope your having a great day

Thanks so much. Talk to you soon

TA

March 28th – Life is Good
Hi this is TA calling in from the village of Ringmo at 2730 metres. We have had a great day here in the Solu region of Nepal, we trekked about 17 km’s, gained about 760 metres elevation, but only actually ending up about 50 metres higher then yesterday. It’s kinda been a bit of up and down, gain some elevation, lose some elevation, gain elevation. I was actually thinking of my friends Eric Larsen and Anthony Jiman. I read the other day that on their North Pole quest they cross the 85th parallel 5 times already because of negative drift. So we where thinking of them today as we walked up one ridge, and down another, and up one ridge, and down the next, it’s a great climb high sleep low kind of day.

We are doing great, visited a wonderful monastery just north of Junbesi that houses about 500 monks, and then had lunch in a tea house, and started the trek here over to Ringmo. Along the way Flat Stanley got to cross his first suspension bridge, so that was an exciting time, got some great pictures to send back to his class of his first suspension bridge. We climbed up through some apple orchids, and many rhododendron blossoms, it’s an absolutely lovely time to be here in Napal. I’m standing here watching a vertical prayer flag trail in the wind, the full moon has just come out from behind a cloud, so life is good.

I walked about 35 000 steps or so. I think yesterday I may not have had the pedometer in a good spot, so 5 hours of walking. So we are just checking in, I wanted to say a big thanks to Earl Walker our communications manager who is transcribing and posting these audio blogs so that you all can follow along.

Also, another big thank you to AppleCore Interactive for all of their support.

Thanks so much for following along. Catch you tomorrow

TA