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Published: February 1st 2012
Once upon a time, there was a little boy called George.
George was born in Powys, Wales in the latter part of the 18th century and, from an early age, showed a keen interest in geography. As a young man he was commissioned into the Royal Artillery and sent abroad to India to work on the Great Trigonometrical Survey of the sub-continent.
He was responsible for mapping the Himarlias and became the first man to identify that one of these mountains was probably the highest in the world. As this was later proved to be true, the mountain was named after him in his honour (despite his personal objections) and this is the name we all know it as these days - Mount George.
Some Facts:
The south approach (from Nepal) is the "easiest" and to date approximately 1300 people have climbed the mountain using this route. The north approach (from Tibet) is much harder and only about 20 people have reached the top via this route.
Mount George is known locally to the Tibetans as Chomolungma (Mother Goddess of the Universe), and as Sagarmatha (Goddess of the Sky) to the Nepalese.
George's surname (Everest)
is actually pronounced "Eve-rest".
The picture of the mountain used by Everest Double Glazing is actually not Mount Everest. Someone, somewhere got it wrong.
Ted Moult, the man famous as the face of Everest Double Glazing ("You only fit double glazing once, so fit the best, fit Everest") commited suicide by shooting himself in 1986 after a bout of depression.
Himarlian Flight
We had to get up at 5:30am this morning to catch the Himarlian flight to Mount George. I packed carefully, camera, binoculars, passports(?), motion sickness tablets. I wondered whether I should take my Swiss army knife as I was aware that they do have the occassional aeroplane accident in the Himarlias and you never know when you might have to survive on nothing more than human flesh. As you know, ripping the raw flesh off the bone with your bare hands can be a bit messy.
Anyway, the flight was delayed an hour or so, due to mist, during which time I eyed the other 14 passengers hungrily, trying to figure out who would be the tastiest. A couple of old Chinese people - tasty, but a little tough. A group of French
tourists - garlicky, nice with some crusty bread. A couple of Americans - too much lard. Unfortunately, I soon came to the realisation that from a sustenance perspective, the two little suckling piglets from England probably offered the best option. Damn.
An hour an a half late (stomach rumbling) we boarded the UR101 Air Buddha flight to the Himarlias. An old bus took us out to a double prop plane on the runway, 16 seater, one seat on each side in 8 rows, and soon we were in the sky with all thought of eating people left on the ground.
The flight took around an hour all in all and was without doubt one of the best experiences of our lives (to date). Nepal has eight of the ten highest peaks in the world and we saw them all. Of course, Mount George was the star of the show, but the whole range was just spectacular. Also of special interest was another mountain of holy significance - Gauri-Shankar. Apparently, no-one is allowed to climb this.
One by one we were invited into the cockpit to get a pilot's eye view of the Himarlias - breathtaking.
It
was all over far too soon and before we knew it we were back on the runway taxi-ing to he airport terminal. Remembering we hadn't had our breakfast yet, I started revisiting the macarbre barbecue in my mind but happily the restaurant was still open when we got back to the hotel and I tucked into another traditional Nepalese breakfast (this time with panceerks, creem and humey).
Rest of the day at leisure. Quick snooze, update the blog, and we have a massage booked for this afternoon. My turn for the pretty one.
Ah - this is the life.
Wish you were here.
(Cue Urgent BBC News Music) Stool Report - Update I think its fair to say that, with the change of culture, there has been a noticablle change in stool consistency. Nothing bad mind you, we're still being careful, though I have eaten some meat and we did drink some lemonade last night that had ice in it.
If we lived in a world where everything was in reverse, so for example, the act of eating food was embarrassing and something you did in private behind locked doors, whereas going to
the toilet was actually a social occasion where you go to special "Restroomeraunts" and gather round special tables to share the experience (as per Philip K Dick's - Counter Clock World ), then this might be our menu choices:
Moi: KFC Party Bucket of "Chicken" Nuggets
Joe: Goujons of Roughage served with Crispy Seaweed* on a Nest of Rice Paper.
* - ( Note: Crispy Seaweed is mentioned here purely for verbal decoration and, happily, has no real world equivalent).
In summary then, nothing really to report, so far so good.
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Juliet Norcott
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Beercan
Am agog...not just with breathtaking beauty of Georges's peak..what happened to the two little piggies...gulp?