Nepal and Mt Everest

One of the icon images of Nepal. Large Buddhist stupa in Khatmandu
I have been a bit carried away with the wildlife posts recently. I just love the bush and there are quite a few more bush posts to come. I love taking wildlife photos and I guess that one of my main ideas with this blog is to shear photos and travel experiences with you.

So now for something completely different - Nepal. I have been to Nepal twice - both times to attend a congress. The first trip was before the earthquake and the second was after the earthquake. I will do a post on the before and after at a later stage. The earthquake struck Nepal in April 2015, killing some 8964 people and injuring nearly 22000. An estimated 3.5 million people were left homeless. The quake was a 8.1 magnitude  quake and caused wide spread destruction. Many of the wonderful unique structures, including many UNESCO world heritage sites, in Nepal were destroyed.
Mountains from the airport

The first thing that comes to mind when you hear Nepal is the Himalayas and of course Mt Everest, the world's highest mountain, calls Nepal home. Yes, there are massive mountains in Nepal and these tend to dominate the landscapes. However, there are also lowlands and of course there are nature reserves - so, sorry for you - back to nature and wildlife - but this will be in a later post. I did visit Chitwan National park, which is widely regarded as one of the top game reserves in Asia. One of the main animals in this reserve is the Asian rhino.
Early morning view from the plane

Hiking (mountain tracking) is also one of the highlights of Nepal and many people who visit want to do the hike to Everest base camp. This is a very long track and most take at least 9 days. This is mainly due to the altitude. You cannot climb too far in a day, or you run the risk of getting altitude sickness. I did not do the track to Everest base camp, but I did do a track. I did the first two days of the track to Mt Annapurna base came. The highest peak in the Annapurna massive is over 8000 meters, with thirteen other peaks of over 7000 meters. This is also very high on the climbers hit parade.This trek is also another story and another post. This is just like going to the movies - half the time you spend looking at the trailers of upcoming films!
Mt Everest

Well - the main event today is a scenic flight over Mt Everest.  You would think that with Mt Everest, being the highest mountain in the world, that it would be pretty easy to see and would stick out high above the surrounding mountains. Well, this is not the case. The range in which Mt Everest is found has many very very high mountain peaks. A total of nine of the of the top 10 highest mountains in the world are found in the Himalayas. The only mountain not in the top 10 is K2 in Pakistan - the second highest mountain in the world.
Another view of Mt Everest

So, as part of the first congress, a scenic flight around Mt Everest was arranged. I think the cost of the trip was around US$ 100-00. The flights are all early morning flights, so it was a very early start and we headed off to Khatmandu airport. Most of the flights taking off or landing in the early morning from Khatmandu airport were scenic flights.  The plane was not a big plane. Everyone has a window seat.
Surrounding mountain peaks

The flight was about 2 hours long. The flight path first took us along a route where Mt Everest was first on the left hand side of the plane and then we turned around and had the views of Mt Everest on the right hand side of the plane. Each of us on the flight (about 20 people) had the opportunity to go forward to the cockpit to have a spectacular view of the mountain range.
Khatmandu valley

Mt Everest does not stick out as much are one would think! The surrounding mountain peaks are all pretty high. The mountain range is spectacular! Lots of very high mountains. Well worth the trip and something that I would highly recommend to anyone who is visiting the beautiful country of Nepal.
Nepal is a country with an interesting culture and food. Well worth a visit.

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