Cycling Across The Tibetan Plateau
Spring 2019

Where Lucille has been for the past 24 hours.

Sunday, April 21, 2019

April 21 - Trek to Monjo

The flight from Hong Kong tonight was cancelled and that means I am forced to make arrangements with the hotel here to make sure my bike gets delivered once it arrives.  I have no choice but to leave for my flight to Lukla.  It is a bit of a leap of faith but I am sure all will turn out well.  It’s a good thing I had a bit of time before the bike trip starts to deal with logistical issues like this.

Speaking of logistics, After a long night of travelling to Ramechamp I arrived in the early morning to find hundreds of people around the airport and cloudy conditions.  As the day warmed a little the sky cleared.  Most of the people waiting are locals looking for a standby flight, so with my fully paid ticket I did manage to get on the first morning flight into Lukla.  I was feeling a little tired, but I had a full day of hiking to get to Monjo.  I'm sure glad that I had a little nap yesterday afternoon.  I hired a nice porter to help carry my belongings while trekking.  This is something that I have struggled with, should I or shouldn't I hire a porter.  I could have carried all my belongings myself, but I do believe in providing an employment opportunity here, and it is not very expensive from our point of view.

I hiked to Monjo and met up with Yanzeen Doma Sherpa, Dawa's wife.  Dawa is already at Everest basecamp - preparing for his 12th summit as a climbing sherpa!  Dawa met up with me at camp 2 when I came down from the summit in 2010, walked with me the last bit into camp.  He's an amazing man and having the opportunity to hike with his wife is very special.  We will likely only hike a few days together, but it will be fun.  This is a photo of Yanzeen and Dawa that I took in 2010.


The trek to Monjo is fairly flat, and the path is lined with rhododendrons.  I made it to the Top Hill Lodge as planned before any threat of the typical afternoon rain!




Yanzeen on my left and the Top Hill lodge owner on my right in Monjo.

Time for bed.


Top hill lodge - Monjo
Distance - 16 km
Elevation 2804m

1 comment:

Unknown said...

I am happy that you found people that are as short as you are!