Day 1: Nepal, Kathmandu Earthquake 2015: South African Rescue Mission

Where do I begin.....

Paul Egnos and I

Sarieta Schultz, me and Erika Gibson (Team Adrenaline)

it is one thing seeing all the devastation, fear and chaos on a television screen and another to walk into it. To smell the fear and death. To witness pain and suffering.I was under no romantic illusions of what we would find or that the possibility of finding anyone alive under the rubble was almost zero. And so with this in mind so began our rescue mission to Kathmandu Nepal. Not quiet how I had envisioned that as a trekker and someone who is passionate about mountains, my first visit to Nepal. I would need to see this only as a rescue mission and one day go back as a trekker to experience Nepal in all its beauty. Today I was to experience the beast.

I had many climbing friends from both South Africa and Nepal that were stranded or trapped so for me this was also a mission for them, their families and the people of Nepal. Some good mates were trapped on Mt Everest and I was being kept up to date as the drama unfolded, which just added to the desire to want to go and make a difference in Nepal. Social media is an incredible tool and during the trip we were able to be in touch to extract important information of which villages were hardest hit and in need of medical attention or shelter. We were also able to contact and be updated on the South Africans stuck in Nepal. Interviews done introductions made. It had begun.

The sun set as we all left to go home and pack our personal belongings. Tomorrow would be a long day. I had so many mixed emotions and thoughts bouncing around head. My family were nervous that I was going. Excited that I was given this privileged opportunity to go an help fellow human beings in their darkest hours, but afraid for my safety, after all were were going into a geologically unstable situation with ongoing aftershocks and as it happened only 2 days after we left another 7.4m earthquake hit. Its epicentre where we had camped in the mountains. A very sobering experience.

My family helped me with all the chaotic packing, remembering this all happened in less than 24 hours before we were up in the air, So many things were thrown together. I had to take warm stuff as we were more than likely going into the mountains to the remoter regions to assist the injured and trapped and temperatures will drop the higher we go.

My son Mitch (23) & I My son Jordan (16) & I My daughter Stacey(27) & I

We arrived at the warehouse in Johannesburg very early in the morning to start packing the trucks with rescue and medical equipment and some supplies. My eldest son and I packed my little Jimny full and he dropped me off and was only too delighted that he could use my fun car for the next 10 days or so. Many of the rescuers I knew well and a few I had now met for the first time. Most of the rescuers had been on several missions before which is always great as shared experiences mean we can all learn from each other. We were a interesting and mixed bunch but soon were working side by side to get the final bits in order before we left for the airport.

At the Johannesburg Warehouse, lots of packing and wrapping to be done. Everything was carefully labeled and marked. Many check sheets on a mission of this magnitude.

Rescue Team 1 and several of the South African Media, Liverne Smit and I where the only two roses amongst the thorns in the Rescue Team!!.

The team from Johannesburg Back Wayne, me, Paul, Ken, Mark, Benny, Dewet

on our way in the GOTG buses

at the airport queuing for visa photos

Our flight was long one and we headed to Singapore first. This airport is truly beautiful with indoor gardens and huge orchids growing. Every size and colours are a feast for the eyes. Soon we were on our way to Kathmandu. for many of us we had not slept since we got the call that we had been deployed and were far too wired to sleep! The perils of adrenaline junkies!

Paul and I waiting with the team, we then had to hop onto the sky train to travel to and from the terminals

these reminded us of our very own Gautrain!

my first Singapore sunset through the airport sky train window, I was a bit of a chop and left the flash on. but before I could take another one we were out of sight.

the stunning gardens were we sat around to pass the time and recharge phones and enjoy the wifi hotspots. was very releaxing to hear the running water!

a tired Paul and I at the airport

the gardens are truly breathtaking

the koi were really beautiful

some of the boys chilling and getting back to nature!!

the photos below are from google to give you an idea of how beautiful this airport really is and how huge we did not really have the time to walk around and so we missed most of this!!

the beautiful butterfly gardens the airport from the air

the shopping and restaurants are stunning and we had a great breakfast and cappuccino

The flight was very turbulent as we flew over Malaysia and steedly we made our way to Kathmandu.
The views were breathtaking!

the blue skies and white and grey fluffy clouds were incredibly beautiful

We had to circle for 1 and half hours before we got the go ahead to land. As we came in closer to the ground we could see the devastation of the villages in the mountains and around Kathmandu itself. The moment had arrived we were here!

The line for the loo on our SilkAir flight...
circling for ages as we wait to hear if we
can land in Kathmandu

Just to give you an idea of the regions in Nepal. If we had not been able to land in Kathmandu we would have had to redirect to India then made our way on land and rail to Patan.

The Nepal Himalaya is an amazing place where you can immerse yourself in cultures that have changed very little by the modern world and be inspired by the most spectacular mountain scenery on this planet, even if unlike me you live for mountains, they will take your breath away. There are three main trekking regions, Everest (Solu-Khumbu), Annapurna and the Langtang areas attract some 160 000 trekkers each year. The regions now boasts well maintained trails that are safe. These major trekking routes have little luxury but the facilities provided have never been better. Locals will welcome you with genuine friendless that will melt even the hardest of hearts. 3/4 of Nepal's mountain terrain is considered off the beaten track and in these areas you will find the much smaller groups of trekkers unlike along the more popular regions as mentioned above.

(note the photos of the teahouses shown here in the Langtang Region were taken from google )

Recent years has brought a dramatic increase in both the numbers and the standard of facilities in the villages found along the main trails.

Namche in the Everest Region now boasts 24-hr electricity, a laundrette, multiple internet cafes, bakeries and all the trapping one finds in Thamel (the tourist district back in Kathmandu) but all at an incredible 3500m above sea level!. This has created the popular teahouse trekking in the Everest, Annapurna and Langtang areas. The large Tea Houses have comfortable communal dining rooms, private bedrooms some even en-suite, with mattresses and bedding. The extensive menus, specialities restaurants and bakeries make your trek a very comfortable one and commerial trekking companies from all over the world sell organised walking holidays using these very teahouses and local guide agencies. Many more basic tea houses have grown their facilities around the Kanchenjunga, Makalu, Rolwaling, Manaslu, Tamang Heritage Trail and Mustang regions. There are several beautiful national parks that offer unforgettable trekking

Lush rhododendron forests of the east (were we camped) to the dense woodlands of the west, the himals form a wilderness interspersed with remote communities that have remained relatively untouched. In these regions a small trekking group can make a real difference to the lives that often barely subsist. Even though the mountain are beyond compare and spectacular it is the people you meet along the trails who will linger forever in your memories. One cannot help but admire the indefatigable boldness and energy of the local people. Their independence, strength and resilience when times are bad was something we witnessed first hand over the days we spent assisting with the aftermath of the Earthquake. Their fun open-hearted generous nature towards strangers who may never return is nothing short of amazing. Nepal has many festivals which make up more than 365 festival days, which means there is always something exciting happening. Their faith is Hinduism, Buddhism and Bon. 85% of people in Nepal are of the Hindu faith which dates back to 1500BC. Buddhism is the second most common faith and is dominated by Tibetan monasteries. The Bon religion was historically confined to Tibet and the surround areas and is a combination of Buddhism with older animistic and shamanistic beliefs.

As we approached the Kathmandu runway and the mountains flew past me, the ground below bearing the destruction I could see and knowing that this was the height of the trekking and climbing season, as I have mentioned above, my heart sunk at the knowledge that thousands of people whose lives were snatched from them, in their last moments of unimaginable terror lay in twisted metal, brick, clay and mountain debre. We were about to enter the belly of the beast.

The hot air hit our faces as we walked out the plane, Many huge army helicopters and planes were being emptied of their cargos to awaiting aid workers. I had expected the temperatures to be somewhat cooler as we started to sweat somewhat!.

Other than some cracks on the walls and across a passage from the earthquake, the airport was still in good conditions.

We waited for all our rescue and personal luggage at the small arrivals section only to find that it had all been all left behind in Singapore. This was a disaster!! We had no personal protection gear and all our clothing and other personal belongings where not here, not even clean brooks!! Many other international teams were experiencing the same problems. We were one of the lucky few international teams allowed to leave the airport as many others had been grounded by the authorities. So much red tape and so much politics. This was unbelievable as this country needed all the help they could get right now!

We all took pics of our luggage slips and handed the original slips to the authorities in the hope we would see our lost luggage soon. Eish!! talk about stress. Well we had entered into a disaster zone so nothing would ever be expected to run according to plan. Just like the many adventures I have tackled, nothing goes according to plan if it did it would neither be a disaster nor an adventure, now would it?!

The chaos at Kathmandu Airport, many rescue teams were facing the same drama of missing luggage and rescue equipment

We were loaded into the back of bakkies and a truck with a huge cage on the back....and so our adventure into the unknown began!! The drive was a real adrenaline rush and we were quiet relived to have lived though the trip to our next point.

Markes trying his level best to get signal so we can let the team back in SA know of our rather large problem. Luggage in Singapore!!

We were then taken to a makeshift central aid office of sorts where no one really knew what was going on. We were here for sometime trying to sort out where we were supposed to be deployed to.

flying our flag proudly South African.

Eventually after a lot of confusion and negotiations we were once again on the back of trucks and bakkies and drove off to our base camp. the huge challenge was sourcing the correct information and the obvious language and cultural challenges. It was difficult to differentiate between the guys taking chances at trying to make a quick buck from us the foreigners or when it was genuine. Really sad because the actually people who had nothing were battling to get the help and relief aid to them. but this happens all over the world in such situations. The nature of the beast I guess.

hanging on for dear life!!

The streets were teaming with people and animals. the mode of transport is colourful buses, and lots of motorbikes. It was interesting to see that only the driver wore a helmet the rest of the family or riders on the back (yes they packed them on) did not wear helmets. There are no robots or stop streets yet the many trucks. busses, bicycles, motorbikes, dogs and cows did not crash into each other.

Patan officially, Lalitpur Sub-Metropolitan city, is one of the major cities of Nepal and located in the south-central prat of the Kathmandu Valley. Patan is also known as Manigal. It is best known for its beautiful and rich cultural heritage, which now sadly lay in ruins, and in particular its deep and old tradition of arts and crafts. It called the city of festival and feast, fine ancient art, the making of metallic and stone carving statues.

Patan is found on an elevated tract of land in the Kathmandu Valley on the south side of the Bagmati River which separates it from the city of Kathmandu on the northern and western sides. The Nakkhu Khola acts as the boundary on the southern side. It was developed on relatively thin layers of deposited clay and gravel in the central part of an ancient dried up lake known as the Nagdaha. The area is very dusty and everyone is seen wearing dust masks. It is amongst the largest cities like Kathmandu, Pokhara and Biratnagar and around 15.43 square kilometres in size and is divided into 22 difference municipal wards. .

Lalitpur is believed to have been founded way back in the 3rd century BC by the then Kirat dynasty and it was later expanded by the Licchavis during the 6th century. Once again during the medieval period the Mallas expanded it further. Many legends about the origins of its name abound however the most popular legend is that of the god Rato Machhindranath, who was brought to the valley from Kamaru Kamachhya, in Assam, India, by a group of three people each representing the three kingdoms centred in the Kathmandu Valley. One of the three people was called Lait a farmer who carried the god Ratio Machhindranath to the valley all the way from Assam, India. The purpose of bringing the god to the valley was to overcome the worst drought that they had experienced. They believed the god would bring rain to the valley and it was due to Lalit's efforts that the god Ratio Machhindranath came to settle in Lalitpur. Many say that the name of the town was named after him and "Lalit" and "pur" meaning township.

In May a chariot festival which honors the deity known as Bunga Dyah Jatra is held in Patan. It is the longest and most important religious celebrations held here. It is a month long festival and during this time an image of Rato Machhendanath is placed on a tall chariot and pulled through the city streets in stages.

Another legend is that Lalitpur was founded by King Veer Deva back in 299 AD, but there is unanimity among various scholars that Patan was already a well established and developed town in ancient times. Many historical records together with many other legends that indicate Patan is the oldest of all the cities in the Kathmandu Valley. Yet another name most commonly used is Yala. Legend has it that King Yalamber of Yellung Hang named this city after himself and ever since this ancient city was known as as Yala from as far back as 1768; and so the legends continue and over the next 10 days we would walk amongst the holy temples, sacred corridors of ancient times of a lost civilization, lost history, lost legends but the human spirit would prevail and heros would emerge from the rubble and aftermath of the earthquake. 7.8m 25th April 2015. Unbeknown to us the monster was only resting and gathering strength to strike again, unleashing another 7.4m earthquake on an already embattled city, destroying all the weak and vulnerable.

The electrical cables and wiring system of Nepal - the mind boggles!!

Kathmandu Tuk Tuk!! Love it!!

We arrived at our destination Little Angels School, Lalitpur (meaning city of beauty also known as Patan) to a crowd of people. As we were offloading locals told us that 6 children where trapped in a building and they were calling for help, but no one wanted to go into the building as they were too afraid it was going to collapse. We quickly started to assess what equipment did we actually have with us and what would our capabilities be. While another team was ferrying everything to the hall at the school.

Patan (Lalitpur) is the oldest of the three main city-states in the Kathmandu Valley but now just a suburb of the capital and close to Thamel the tourist section of the city. Around us is Patan's Durbar Square which probably has the best collection of late Malla architecture in the country, is rather less touristy than Kathmandu's Durbar Square. We would visit both to witness history destroyed. There is only one Museum apparently that you should visit in Nepal and its known as the Patan Museum in the palace compound of Keshav Narayan Chowk on Durbar Square. We never got to go inside and wondered if the pieces and history inside was still intact. This museum gives a great guide of both the Hindu and Buddhist faiths using statures, icons and sculptures all from the tenth century onwards. Kumbeshwar Square is another historical place and here the water in the pond is said to flow from the holy lake of Gosainkund in Langtang. The Kumbeshwar Technical School is found in the north-east corner of the square where they welcome visitors and an orphanage was set up to help the lowest castes in the area. Many Tibetan rugs and sweaters considered of a higher quality than those on sale in the tourist Thamel areas are normally on sale here. As we touched down in Nepal nothing could be further from this. Everything had changed and I wondered how much of these tourist attractions and scared temples and buildings were still standing, already a poor country lost their means of income....tourists.

The Little Angel's School is an interesting school compound/campus that starts at Grade R then continues to University level. We were told it is home to some 10 000 pupils. It was certainly huge and mostly suffered minimal damage during the earthquake and aftershocks. The water piping had been damaged so we would have no hot water during our stay, which was not a problem as temperatures sored during the day and after spending the day taking part in various physical activities a cold shower outside was just what the doctor had ordered. This is a private school system based in Hattiban, Lalitpur. The schools motto is "one goal, one mission. Our children, our nation." Its strictly an English medium and its ranked among the top 10 schools in Nepal. It was founded back in 1981 and the college in 1997. (these pics from google)

A decision was made to take a few of the members of the rescue team with the Life Locator and camera and see if we were able to assist in some way, Bearing in mind all our protective equipments was sitting in Singapore. This was a huge frustration for us all and played terrible mind games with everyone. The team was able to borrow helmets from the police and some of us had our gloves in our hand luggage to help each other out.

The team went and reported back that lots of misinformation had be given out. There were 6 people in the building when the earthquake struck and 5 had run out. 1 adult male had been caught on the stairs and could not get out in time. His 26 year old wife had been sitting for days for someone to bring his body out. The Life Locator located his body and the building was marked appropriately for the Nepalese army to come and remove the body.

While this was happening the rest of the team was checking out our base camp. We were to sleep on the floor inside a huge hall. This was more than what we had hoped for. We had prepared ourselves to camp outside on a field. We had running cold water but no hot water as mentioned the pipes had broken during the earthquake. We had Asian drop toilets that were very dirty and smelt really, really bad. I found this somewhat disturbing as this is a private school and the ablution blocks and showers where in a shocking state, a health hazard actually and I wandered how they could allow children to live like this. The earthquake had not made them this unhygienic.

We managed to get all the tables into one section to form a large dinning area, set up a kitchen area and arranged for mattresses and blankets from the school (they were on holiday when the earthquake hit). Bearing in mind all our sleeping bags and camping equipment had been left in Singapore. The next day we went out and bought extra blankets and pillows which we donated to the school when we left. The ladies toilet did not have a working light and in the dark was proving a challenge so the next day GOTG bought what was necessary to fix it and we now could at least see what we were doing!!

Another team headed off to buy food supplies for the night. We were very grateful for what little we had and this continued for 2 days before all our luggage arrived. Much to huge cheers of relief only 2 bags stayed in transit and continued to be sent back and forth between Kathmandu and Singapore long after we arrived back in South Africa until finally someone got is right to send to to South Africa.