Canuck Duck makes new friends on Mt Everest trip

Accent Inns Canuck Duck

Mt. Everest with yak, Tibet, photo by Oriol Gascon (from the web)

Greetings from Lukla.  Unfortunately I am not able to send you any photos but will try to tell you a few tales of my trip.   Because she wasn’t feeling well, we sadly had to leave Lupita in Namche Bazar as Chandra our guide took Karen and me to Dingboche.  It was an amazing trip.  Chandra is our new best friend – an amazing young man of 33 that weighs 120 lbs (with his backpack on) and can carry heavy loads and scamper up and down rocky cliffs without taking his hands out of his pockets.  He is a cross between a mother duck and a task master as he encouraged us to climb even farther every day.   He taught us that  jum jum means let’s go and bestarde bestarde means slowly.  He also taught us how to say “quickly” but I have forgotten as it wasn’t ever needed.  We taught him a new saying – “Sometimes you must stop  to smell the rhododendrons.”   I tried to hitch rides on Yaks and horses and porter baskets but it was not allowed.  Day after day we got up from our icy cold bed, drank our bed tea (which was always coffee) ate our porridge and set off again.  Time is also a funny thing in Nepal.  After walking for 4 hours we would look at our watches and discover that it had only been 1 hour.  What seemed like days would turn out to be only about 8 hours of walking.  It was all amazing and perfect in every way.   When we reached Dingboche, Chandra said that I was a very strong Duck and he was sure I could make it to Base Camp.  However, we wanted to get back to Lupita and so we turned back down the mountain.   Along the way Karen met a puppy that she named Chelsea after her dog at home.  I also met some Australian Bird watchers who were quite surprised to find a Canuck Duck high in the Himalayas.   We have had so many adventures and now we are ready to face the next adventure as it appears they have shut down the airport in Bangkok where we are schedulled to spend the night on our way to Hong Kong.  There may be a whole new set of adventures to tell you about.

Namaste