Equipment Shenanigans

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The equipment is still on its way to Kathmandu. With such a large consignment of freight, it will take several aircraft loads before it all finally arrives here in Nepal. We know that another 200 pieces arrived at the airport yesterday, but that still leaves us about 600 to go!

Getting the equipment into the country is not that straightforward either. Unlike your own personal belongings which you carry on a plane and collect at the baggage carousel, this equipment has to be temporarily imported into the country. To ensure that we are not ?rogue? traders, we have to pay a temporary import duty to Nepalese Customs.

The import duty is a deposit which we will get back once all the equipment has left the country at the end of the expedition. Each expedition is allocated one Expedition Permit and from this one import duty rate is raised. The cost of this permit is calculated as a percentage of the value of the equipment.

Then we have to pay a non-refundable deposit on all the consumable items that will not leave Nepal, such as food. However, there are a host of other consumable items that we have to declare to Customs, such as batteries, medical supplies, tape and glues etc.

Compiling this list of consumable and non-consumable items has taken a whole day to complete and was submitted to Customs yesterday. All we have to do now is wait for the equipment, pay the duty, and then bring all 20 tons of it to the Summit Hotel for us to sort out and get ready for air-lifting to each of the laboratories.

We also have 500kg of equipment that was left here from the Cho Oyu II expedition last September, so we?ve sorted it all out and checked that the small DRASH 1XB shelter that will be used at the Western Cwm has not suffered during its 5 month stay in storage.

I?m in constant contact with the UK office via our satellite phone. For basic voice calls we are using a Thuraya hand set, which transmits a signal to a single satellite that sits above the Equator. This satellite is positioned high above the earth and has what is referred to as a geostationary position. This means that it will always remain above the same point over the earth and will rotate with the earth at the same speed. The satellites that you sometimes see whizzing across the night sky are in a low-earth orbit and rotate around the world at very high speeds, sometimes orbiting the earth every hour or so. The Iridium satellite phone system relies on these types of satellites, of which there are 66 rotating around the earth, all on different trajectories.

We chose Thuraya as we are relatively static on this expedition, only travelling between points that are relatively close. It also means that as long as I can see the same piece of sky when I use the phone, I will be able to get a signal. Iridium?s can have blank spots, as one satellite disappears out of view, before the next one comes along.

Kit Spencer has been a huge asset to us here and we have been sourcing such equipment as the tables and chairs we will need for each of the labs.

Lee and Rhys, along with Matt from Jagged Globe, took the opportunity yesterday to do a spot of sight-seeing and took a taxi into Kathmandu city. Having come all this way to Nepal to undertake this expedition, it would be criminal not to take some time out and see the sights. One of the Sherpas took them into town and showed them the various tourist attractions and the best places to have a bite to eat.

Last night it was time for all of us to hit the town and we headed for ?Tom and Jerry?s? bar. A few rounds of pool and a bottle or two of the local ?Everest? beer went down well.

The night did drag on a bit longer than expected and we staggered back to the hotel, somewhat worse for wear! Today has been fairly low-key with office work to get done and await for the arrival of our last Logistics Team member, Dr. Paul Richards ? our ?Power? Manager.

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Blog by Mac Mackenney