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We also, after that, went to Swayambunath, one of the Buddhist temples in Kathmandu where Tsering Dolkar's Lama arranged for us to have a puja. The Dolkars are a Tibetan family who are known to climbers in the Khumbu region for many years, and they are now the owners of the Hotel Tibet and they also have a Tibetan rug business which produces magnificent carpets for export.

They had arranged for a puja to be held for essentially the whole day at Swayambunath; we just attended the last part of it; there were some 40, perhaps even 50 monks involved, saying prayers and putting blessings on the expedition. When we had arrived, they were coming toward the end, the key part which is the removal of obstacles where one monk carries a tray of sampa figurines. Sampa is a type of mash made of barley and tea and is well known to Tibetans. And by casting them out the door, this is symbolic of removing obstacles in the way of the expedition.

Sure enough, the following day, where we had been having problems with the weather and no fixed-wing flights into the Khumbu, our charter of army helicopters came through and today we have been able to get 3,300 kilograms of gear flown up to Lukla in the Khumbu. We will try to get physically there ourselves tomorrow although that is still somewhat iffy since our first opportunity to do this is on fixed wing craft and we doubt that they will fly, but who knows, maybe the good works of the monks at Swayambunath will make that one happen to. Saving that, we will try and get helicopter rides out the day after tomorrow.

I should add, in the way these things work since the monks have to pray all day they can't do that on nothing, and the Dolkar Lamas are very attentive to having good pujas done. In a sense there is a ruthless efficiency and they make sure that extremely good food was delivered for three very, very good meals during the day, after all a hungry monk is not a happy monk.

Switching gears, Eric Simonson's group on the Mallory Irvine Research Expedition set off this morning and should be somewhere at the border, and they will no doubt report in, in their own dispatches.

We have a few more things to finish up here, but essentially our work, our preparation in Kathmandu is done, and it is really a waiting game now to get out of the city. I am calling you on a regular phone rather than a satellite phone since we have sent all our electronics up to Lukla, so I'll next check in there with a sat phone dispatch. Meanwhile, everything is going well for everyone. We will have a celebratory dinner this evening over at the Gari Kebob, which is a very pleasant Indian restaurant on Durbar, which is Kathmandu's main drag. And that will be a send off perhaps, into the Khumbu weather permitting.

On a small personal note, one of the things when you are running around Kathmandu doing things, it is a rather noisy, bustley, dusty, hot city and you are only too pleased to get off the streets and into some quiet air. This afternoon as I was hunting down a few pieces of electronics for the expedition, I made a random step through a doorway and went from a dusty, noisy street into a very quiet, amazingly quiet place which turned out to be a nursery. Somewhat unexpected in all the dryness, dirt and grime. And as you walk through there is just nothing but potted plants all around you, which surely must go somewhere. So it was a pleasant oasis of tranquility for a few minutes.

We will check in again with perhaps video dispatches and still images from Lukla and Namche Bazaar in the next few days. In the meantime, stay tuned and we will bring you more in due course, this is Charles Corfield, Kathmandu.

—Charles Corfield, Climber

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