More features

Now you can't come to live and work in Nepal for a year and not get drawn to the world's highest mountains.

Even from the haze of Kathmandu the snow capped Himalayas are a dramatic sight. So when Nepal's politicians huddled off into smoke filled rooms to discuss the implications of the Moaists election victory, the Beech's headed for them there hills.

To get anywhere near to Everest, or Sagarmatha as it's known in these parts, it takes an internal flight which is always a white knuckle ride.

Keith, Adam and Martha

Following in Sir Edmund Hilary's footsteps, we took off from Kathmandu heading for Lukla.

The plane had seen better days and the hills between Kathmandu and the Solumkhumbu district are pretty high, so high in fact that I'm sure we pruned the tops of the trees en route.

Totally breath-taking

The thrills of the flight though were nothing compared to the excitement of landing on an airstrip - built on a fierce uphill slope with a brick wall at the end of the runway!

Crossing a bridge

Four hot chocolates later and a few tall stories about just how close we came to that wall, the trek was underway.

As the sun began to shine the views of the snowcapped mountains became clearer and clearer and it was those views rather than the altitude that took our breath away.

Trekking - the 4* way!

For us it was more of a steady trek than a forced march, so plenty of time to hand out a few sweets to the children who came out to wave us on our way. We had to admire the feats of strength from the Sherpas who were left to carry huge loads of bags and ruck sacks for the four star trekkers and we got to see our first yaks.

Keith at the Yeti Mountain House

By this time we were around 3,000 metres up in the Himalayas, still below the snow-line but high enough up for the buffalos that are common place in the rest of Nepal, to be replaced by their hairier and hornier cousins, the yaks.

Being a former sixer in the cub scouts in Penn in Wolverhampton I was well prepared to head to the front and to direct this family trip, but the paths, though steep, were well laid out, so not even I could get us lost.

Trekking etiquette

Three or four hours in and we were becoming well versed in trekking etiquette.

Get ready for a roller coaster ride!

When it comes to crossing the fragile looking rope bridges a Western trekker must always give way to a fully loaded up yak; you should walk around a Buddhist stupa in a clockwise direction, the sound of bells jangling means a galloping pony is about to speed past you as if it is on the cross country course at Badminton and as with their towels on a hotel sunbed, a German trekker always likes to be first.

Bed for the night was at the aptly named Yeti Mountain Hotel near to Phakding which is a collection of stone houses clinging to the mountainside. Despite it's remoteness we had all the creature comforts including, to our surprise, electric blankets in our beds to stave off the quickly dropping temperatures.

Yak, beer & tall tales

Before turning in for the night it was a feast of rice, vegetables and fried yak meat which was tasty but I think I'm still chewing it now. That was all washed down with an Everest beer or two and a few trekking tales with those Germans who we'd finally caught up with.

Keith, Martha, Adam and Christine

In days 2 and 3 we became more and more hardened and confident. though we hid our swagger well whenever we got talking to the serious climbers on their way to, or from base camp.

Although we never managed to get that far, for us we did it - we trekked in the Himalayas and when we come back to England in a couple of months time we'll never look at the Wrekin in quite the same way again.

PS: The only Yeti we saw was on the hotel sign board and no we didn't get our photos taken with that Olympic torch on its way to the summit.

Keith.