Canuck Duck comes home from Everest

May 7th, 2010

Lupita & Canuck in Business Class

I am writing this from Canada where I have returned safe and sound – well maybe not quite sound.  I picked up a stomach bug at the end of the trip and so the last few days weren’t that much fun.  However, the doctor in Hong Kong gave me the right drugs and I am now back to 100% (or as close as a duck can come to 100%).

It was an amazing trip and I’d like to share a few photos of some of the highlights.  I am truly amazed that my fat little duck legs got me all the way up to 4600 meters.  Our guide Chandra really helped.  He believed we could do it and so we also believed it!  Of course, we couldn’t have done it without Jagat who carried our heavier gear.

So, here are the highlight photos:

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Canuck Duck Everest photos

1. The trip over was so nice flying in Business Class.  It made for quite a contrast when we arrived in Kathmandu
2. Life in Kathmandu seemed like luxury in a short while
3. I even considered a job at the Hotel Shankar.  However, my heart belongs at the Accent Inn
4. The whole team – Jagat, Karen, Chandra, Lupita and Khumbu
5. I kept looking for an easier way – on a horse
6. on a yak
7. on a porter.
8. I really like my guide and friend Isu Chandra Rai
9. The earlier tea house had quite nice rooms.  As we got higher, the rooms got smaller and the beds got harder.  Of course we were so tired, it didn’t really matter.  However, a little heat and light would have been nice.
10. This is a typical tea house from the outside.  It also served as a store and a restaurant and sometimes there was even a cyber café – in the middle of the Himalayas!
11. Karen & Chandra and I climbed above Namche one morning on our way to see the Sir Edmund Hillary School
12. Unfortunately we had to leave Lupita in Namche for a few days and this was the new team.  Khumbu stayed with Lupita.
13. There wasn’t much running water in the tea houses and so Karen and I had a little bath in the river.
14. Shortly after we were up high looking down at the river
15. This is Karen at the top of her world (the hills behind Dingboche – 4600 meters).  We hung prayer flags for friends who had not made it that far – only about 2 or 3 days from Base Camp but this is where we turned back.
16. Some Australian Bird Watchers were pretty shocked to find a non-migratory Canuck Canard in the Himalayan Mountains
17. These suspension bridges were everywhere.  Sometimes we got half way across and had to turn back because a Yak train entered at the other side and you don’t want to meet one of those on the bridge!
18. The final meal with our whole team.  We got to sample the Everest Beer.  It tasted pretty good at the end of a very long walk!