Wilderness Medicine Conference at Everest Base Camp Dispatch
October 5, 2009 – Team Arrives in Lukla
It’s October 5th and our trip ‘good luck’ is continuing. All of our baggage arrived in Kathmandu on time. It’s 8:30am and we are calling you from Lukla. We are pinching ourselves looking around in the cool mountain air at the high Himalayan peaks surrounding us in the colourful bustle in Lukla. We are finally under way. It took our group two aircrafts to get us to Lukla. Half the team in each aircraft just minutes apart.
Today is a special day because it’s Bill’s 61st birthday! What a way to spend a birthday with a flight to Lukla and our first day of trekking.
So here we go! We will be reporting to you all along the way. The adventure begins, the learning begins, and we are happy to say that finally our trek has begun.
Our team began arriving at Kathmandu's Tribhuvan International Airport; Don and Jeff arrived from Vancouver via Hong Kong on October 1st. In the days that followed members showed up from various parts of the world. We were holding our breath that we would get the entire team here on time for our departure to Lukla. Lori came in on the late night Dragon Air flight from Dhaka on the 3rd and finally Bill arrived on Air India the morning of the 4th. We have had an statistically improbably good omen to start this trip. No lost or delayed bags! We are all here and we have our stuff!
The afternoons for Oct 2nd and 3rd. Those of us who had arrived in Kathmandu would meet in the pub at the Yak and Yeti for the afternoon rounds of "Everest Beer" and conversation
Most of the group found time to go on a city tour of some of Kathmandu's key sites, the 2500 year old "monkey temple" Syambu, which overlooks the city and Pashpathi - one of south Asia's most significant Hindu temples
Dr Basnyet and Luanne prior to his lecture
Our first lecture was delivered by a leading expert in the field. Dr. Budde Basnyet spoke to us about the common travelers concern about Diarrhea. Wongchu Sherpa looks on as Lori, Eric and Luanne intently calculate the proper formula for diluting the bleach our staff will use in rinsing our dishes on the trail. Eric and Luanne felt last spring's unusually high incidence of GI infections at Everest Base Camp might have been related to dishwashing.
Left: Dr. Luanne Freer
Right: Team member Johanna
After Dr. Basnyet spoke to us we read good news in today's Kathmandu Post
Bill stepped into the Lobby of Yak and Yeti on morning of 4th - our final team member has arrived! Happy Birthday Bill!
