Day 15 Back to the ‘Du

We woke to gray, overcast skies… not a hopeful sign for our 7am flight out of Lukla.  I was convinced we would be staying in Lukla for at least another day, as countless flights had been cancelled over the past few days due to limited visibility.  But Temba insisted that we get ready to go.  “You never know,” he said.  I was doubtful.  We walked the few minutes to the airport where we met up with Temba’s father-in-law.  He helped us get checked in and assured us we would be flying out.  I still wasn’t convinced. 

It took a while for the sky to clear sufficiently, but finally, at 9:30 we boarded our Tara Air flight, along with 12 other passengers, two pilots and one flight attendant.  In a matter of moments we were hurtling down the shockingly short, steeply declining runway. 

A moment later, we were soaring over the gaping valley, which dropped thousands of feet off the edge of the runway, and were making our way over the mountain tops.  A bumpy forty minutes later, we touched down in Kathmandu. 

Amy and Mike’s driver, Shree, who had been waiting for us for four hours, was glad to see us and escorted us to our home-away-from-home in Kathmandu, the Satya Mahal.  The rest of the day was spent doing nothing… a welcome change of pace for these tired trekkers.