WOW! What an incredible journey...

Well, I'm home!!! After a year of preparations, I've finally gone to Nepal and am safely back home. Admittedly I'm battered and bruised if not in the physical sense then at the very least in the mental sense. Whilst away I tried to keep a diary of events as they unfolded but time and tiredness prevented certain updates so I'll try to recount things here as accurately as possible.

Thursday 2nd April 2009:
I set off from Edinburgh airport mid afternoon and caught my BMI flight to LHR. I arrived at LHR within the hour and really early at about 4.20pm. I made my way to collect my bag and then onto terminal 3. Took me about 15 minutes to walk there. This was my first ever visit to London and so you can imagine me standing there in terminal 3 for a few hours trying to take everything in. I sent and received a few texts from various people and then proceeded to take part in my 4th favourite spectator sport - people watching. It's fab and there were certainly a huge variety of people to watch. The playboys waiting to check-in on business class Kuwait airlines, the huge families and boxes waiting to check-in on Ethiopian airlines amongst others. I hung around the Gulf Air desk and blagged a spot (not a seat though) where I could hang until our meeting time. Surprisingly two and a half hours seemed to pass in no time and I decided to move to the Gulf Air check-in area to see if anyone of my fellow trekkers had arrived. I got there and then I think Ruth was the first person to come along. Next followed Emma and Peter who said they too had been waiting about for a little while. then came Daljit, Carol, Andy and a wee while later Kate arrived. We got our tickets from the CC rep and proceeded to check our bags in. I remember thinking wow these are a good bunch of people - little did i know they would turn into a great bunch of friends!

We set off to the departure area and queued for ages through security and eventually we all made through. One last meal of the day was called for but all I could manage was some chips and a bottle of water. It was fair good. Was then time to go to the departure gate. Ooo i was getting nervous now. Never really flown such a long way away from home. I'm a bit of a home-girl but this was one journey to start many - hopefully.

We settled in on the flight and watched Yes Man which i thought was pretty good. Jim Carey wrapping sellotape around his face never fails to amuse me! The meal was fine too then we landed at Bahrain. It was raining!! Can you believe it? We headed to a cafe for a cup of tea (of sorts!) and then i suddenly realised I'd lost my new Oakley prescription sunglasses!!! Aaaaarrrggh. I ran all the way back through security and the guy told me to go to the Gulf Air desk (on the other side of security!). A grumpy guy was on the desk and i told him what had happened, my flight number and seat number. He made a call to someone called Ozzy and then said that yes they'd found the glasses on the seat and someone would bring them up soon. i sat down and began to wonder if the others would wait on me at the cafe or would they go to the next flight, how would they know where i was? I had an anxious 15 minute wait and then grumpy guy grunted at me and handed me the glasses - thank the lord! I thought and headed back to the cafe. The group were still there. It was then that I should have realised that losing the glasses might have been a sign of things to come...