Sydney tour operator recounts narrow escape for Australian pilgrims
A Sydney-based tour operator credits a stroke of luck for saving his group of pilgrims from flash flooding in Tibet. After being unable to book their original flight, the group rerouted their itinerary and was safely away from the disaster zone when the floods occurred.
Why it matters
Highlights the unpredictable nature of travel in high-risk regions and the role of logistical changes in disaster avoidance.
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Share A A A Like many Australians, Samir Patel is watching the cataclysm unfolding on the Nepalese-Tibetan border with a sense of dread, desperately hoping the 41 countrymen and women of his missing after Wednesday’s flash flooding are found alive.
But he also feels a deep sense of relief and gratitude, because he knows that number could have been higher.
A group of 26 pilgrims to Mount Kailash in Tibet, including seven Australians, was spared being in the flash flooding zone because the flight to take them there was overbooked. Patel runs Hindu pilgrimages to Tibet’s Mount Kailash several times a year, and the third and final group was due to begin their 11-day tour from Lhasa, east of the Himalayas, to the border town of Gyirong on August 20.
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