Update 6 Friday, April 05, 2002 

After a warm farewell on Schiphol Airport  Wilco en Hans flew to Kathmandu where they arrived Sunday March 31 around 11.25 local time. They immediately started on the red tape required, getting visas, getting custom clearance of the cargo sent by DHL.  They sound very motivated in their messages. For acclimatisation they already took on a “mountaim” of 2750 m just outside Kathmandu. They also settled the financials with Asian Trekking.

This organization has received the cargo consisting of 17 barrels and prepared them for transport.  Hans and Wilco were to leave today but are still waiting for the lifting of road blocks put up by Maoists outside Kathmandu. They expect to continue their travel to basecamp tomorrow morning at 6.00, through Kodari and Zangmu on the Tibet border. In the past few days they spent a lot of time on testing the Iridium tele- and data communication equipment and filming Kathmandu and its people.  

Then there was an unexpected meeting with a fellow climber, Alan Hinkes, well-known by both. When Wilco, seriously injured, was evacuated by heli in 1995 from K2 basecamp, Alan just arrived there [see Annapurna 2002 for more on Alan 2002 dispatches]. Later he would reach, together with Hans, the summit of K2, both without using additional oxygen. 

Hans en Wilco are very pleased with the keen interest and support from the Netherlands. As soon as we hear more news we will keep you informed ! Keep up following and supporting the lads! 

Marc Cornelissen
Basiskamp Nederland

Here follows the dispatch sent by Hans en Wilco to us.

Wednesday  April 3 Kathmandu 

Got up at 7.00 this morning. Got a fax at reception from Heleen with the latest from the Netherlands. This was very nice, having such direct contact with back home. We went on straight to the Bodnath temple by cab. This a very large stupa (in Nepalese).

We wanted to sniff out again the Buddhist atmosphere there. Literally, as there was a lot of offerings burning. Also we  wanted to film here and just relax. It was pouring though and we ended up with a Nepali for some tea. He told us that the weather was not  its normal self, it looked more like the monsoon. He blamed it on the disappearing ozon layer above Antarctica, which I found surprising for a Nepali. So we did sniff Buddhism again and even recognized some monks I saw earlier in 1994 and 1998. What a life full of discipline they must live !

We were about to go home when a poor Nepali approached us and asked for some money. We asked what he needed it for. He showed us his arm wound and told that he could not afford a doctor. Eventually we took him to see a doctor and paid for his consult, medicine, bandaging. But this not being enough apparently, the good man also asked us for a bus ticket to return to his wife and children. This we declined. In the afternoon we again tracked our cargo and found out that tomorrow morning this would be given cleared. Well we just had to wait and see. We did some more shopping and afterwards we would try to send a message home with 2 photo’s using our laptop and Iridium phone. 

But we did not entirely succeed in changing the necessary software settings. We will continue this tomorrow. We will do some training outside Kathmandu tomorrow morning. Slogging up a 2750 m high hill for some acclimatisation. Tomorrow afternoon we will be briefed and the day after we will leave at 6.00 in the morning by bus plus  a truck with our cargo for Kodari/Zangmu at the Tibet border. 

Hans en Wilco