South Australians stranded in Nepal finally reach Australian soil amid growing pandemic lockdown
A group of Everest explorers who became stranded in Kathmandu are now safe on home soil, having made the first ever direct flight from Nepal to Australia.
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After three aborted flights and fearing that they could be stranded in Nepal amid a worsening coronavirus crisis, a group of relieved South Australian trekkers is finally home.
Paul Ashenden, Brad Fleet and Anthony Keane were among more than 250 passengers who landed in Brisbane yesterday morning on a charter flight from Kathmandu.
A military-enforced lockdown, airport closures and flight cancellations had left them in limbo for the past two weeks.
There was little pause for celebration as military personnel and police escorted them on to a chartered bus to a Brisbane hotel, where they will now spend 14 days in isolation.
Ashenden – who is The Advertiser’s associate editor – said there was “genuine, overwhelming relief” to be back on home soil.
“The adventure was supposed to be trekking to Everest Base Camp, not getting back to Australia,” he said.
“We were very worried that if the virus kicked off in Nepal, and any of us had caught it, we were in a country which had a health system which was going to struggle to cope.”
He said there was a round of applause when the plane departed Nepal, and again when it landed in Brisbane.
It was the first ever direct flight between Nepal and Australia.
Ashenden, Fleet and Keane, who is News Corp’s national personal finance editor, had arrived in Nepal on March 2 for what was supposed to be a once-in-a-lifetime Himalayan adventure. They were meant to return on March 26.
Once the Federal Government advised all Australians to return home because of the worsening COVID-19 pandemic, they attempted to book earlier flights. But Kathmandu airport shut down amid the health emergency.
Ashenden, a father of three, said Australian ambassador to Nepal Pete Budd and his wife, Emma Stone, had been amazing in helping to broker the flight home.
“We can’t be thankful enough,” he said. “We now want to get home as fast as we can to see our wives and children. It’s going to be tough to be away from our loved ones for two more weeks but this virus has changed everything.
“There are many people who have become sick or have lost jobs who are doing it tough, if not tougher, than we will.”