Bob and Curtis, two Antipodean mountaineers, had started us thinking. They had just spent forty days trekking and climbing in the Everest region and their enthusiasm was positively contagious. Soon all we could think about was the romance of names like “Namche Bazaar” and “Gorak Shep”; the magnificence of the region’s history combined with the attraction of Sherpa culture was tantalising. The fact that we simply didn’t have the time for the trek didn’t stop us from planning. The trek could be shortened from a month to a fortnight by flying into Lukla (2,800m), a $190 round trip, but this was more than we could afford having blown our discretionary budget booking a 3-day white water rafting trip on Kali Gandaki.

Fate played its hand with the tragic death of an Israeli girl on the same river we were due to descend. We were undeterred, but apparently we were the only ones and our rafting company was forced to cancel and refund our trip. Filled with the success of our previous trek and Bob and Curtis’s residual enthusiasm we took our newly refunded dollars and booked plane tickets from Kathmandu to Lukla. First thing the next morning we were on a bus to Kathmandu, excited as a con of gamers flying to Essen.

The plane journey to Lukla was everything we could have wished for. The 20-seat prop planes start making the 45-minute flight for Lukla at first light and keep going like crazy until, a few hours later, the weather closes in. Everything the region needs for the outside world either has to be flown in or be portered on men’s backs for 9 days. This includes everything from salt to kerosene, from beer to tourists - the tourists could walk themselves, but most don't bother. Some pretence is made that the planes are running according to a schedule but we soon learn that this is just a façade – the next plane will leave 5 minutes after it lands - as long as the weather holds.

Flying in prop plane is not like flying in a jet liner, it is more like going down a steep gravel-lined San Francisco hill on a dodgy skateboard. You feel every gust of wind and are only reassured as to your safety by the blasé attitude of the pilots. Within 15 minutes of take off we reached the foothills of the Himalayas and from then on our noses were glued to the windows, our eyes tracing rivers as they cut their way through the landscape. Updrafts and minor turbulence reminded us that pressing your nose against a window in a prop plane is probably not the best idea unless your nose has already been flatted from a boxing career.

Soon the snow-topped giants were being dwarfed by monstrous entities that the word mountain does no justice to. Out of the pilot’s cockpit we could see a strangely artificial line on the side of a mountain. As we grew closer and lost altitude, it became apparent that this line was going to be our landing strip. Not only was it between two towering mountains and perched on the edge of a cliff, but the whole landing strip was on a slope that would have some cyclists off and pushing their bike. The tilt and counter tilt of our small plane during the approach was reminiscent of docking a spacecraft in “Elite”. The landing was truly exhilarating and the purpose of the runway’s slope became apparent, as without it the plane would not be capable of stopping before colliding with the mountain.

The military here were out in full force as the airport had already come under serious attack by the Maoist rebels, and machine gun nests lined the runway. As a tourist it is difficult to be intimated by all the guns; the soldiers are always smiling and friendly and despite the military presence and curfews it is easy to forget that country is in a state of emergency. Even travelling through a Maoist stronghold, although unadvisable, is reported to be safe.

We walked alone from the airport, distancing ourselves from the organized groups meeting their Sherpa guides. We were carrying full backpacks with equipment for 15 days and although they at first seemed little trouble they soon weighed on our shoulders. Having gained confidence from our Annapurna trek and sure of our ability to follow a trail on a map, we had elected to not take a guide; a porter was a different question. We intended to carry our bags for two days to Namche Bazaar, where we would hire better (and heavier) sleeping bags along with other cold weather gear. At that point we doubted our ability to endure both altitude and loads.