Desperate Australians are flying to Nepal to search for their loved ones, still missing in the disaster.
Bhavin Patel films out the window of a helicopter while a navigation voice counts down the distance to its programmed destination: the last known coordinates of his wife, Reshma Patel.
No-one has heard from the 46-year-old Australian mother in the 11 days since a wall of water carved a path of destruction through Nepal and Tibet.
Her last known location was near the "Friendship Bridge" at the border — a crucial link between countries which has now been destroyed.
But Mr Patel is still hopeful his wife can be found alive.
He said hiring the helicopter was "not only for himself" but "for everyone [whose] family is lost over there".
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For many Australian families, a relatively small area of mountainous terrain near the Nepal-Tibet border has become critical in the search for survivors, or at least answers.
Most of those still unaccounted for went missing near the Gyirong border crossing north of Nepal's capital Kathmandu, or in nearby areas the disaster has left almost entirely cut off.
While six missing Australians were found safe this week, the search for the 36 whose whereabouts remain unknown has grown increasingly desperate.
Kilometres of roads have been destroyed and dozens of bridges swept away, leaving helicopters as the main lifeline into some of the worst-affected communities.
Roads have been absorbed by riverbeds. Homes have been reduced to shells. Vehicles sit half-buried in mud.
And the destruction doesn't end at one village or one landslide. It runs for kilometres through the valley.
The search for survivors has taken to the skies, with helicopters and drones being brought in to canvass these crucial areas.
But some Australians say the official search efforts aren't going far enough and, despite the dire situation, believe their loved ones could still be out there.
A desperate search
Mr Patel landed in Kathmandu at 10pm last Friday night, with bloodshot eyes, anxious to gather any information he could about his wife and the search efforts in the disaster area.
The catastrophic flash flooding had torn through the region just two days before. The death toll has since climbed to more than 1,300, with another 5,500 still missing.
Most of the missing Australians, including Mrs Patel, were on spiritual pilgrimages to Mount Kailash, a mountain in south-western Tibet that Hindus consider sacred.
The Isha Foundation said their group of 80 people, including 11 Australians, was returning from the mountain and crossing back from Tibet into Nepal when the disaster struck.
Another tour operator, the US-based Himalayan Glacier Adventures, said 15 Australians travelling with its group went missing south of the border. Ten of them were expected to be somewhere along the road between the border crossing and the mountain village Syabrubesi, while the other five were believed to be back at their hotel in a nearby village.
Six Australians were travelling with a third company — Kailash Journeys — which said they last had contact with the group in Timure, a town about a 25-minute walk from the Gyirong immigration checkpoint.
Mrs Patel had travelled from her home in New South Wales to Nepal to go on the pilgrimage with the Isha Foundation.
The day after arriving in Kathmandu, Mr Patel visited hospitals in Nepal's capital and scoured lists that were being pinned up naming the injured retrieved from the disaster zone.
He met with the Isha Foundation and the Australian Government representatives, but he was left feeling "so helpless".
"I just tried from everywhere, but I'm not getting any help from there," he told the ABC last Sunday, while visiting a temple with his brother to pray.
On Thursday, Mr Patel hired a helicopter.
He had Reshma's phone records showing where her mobile last connected and used that to guide the journey.
But he said he was left "disappoint[ed]" and "frustrated" after flying over the area.
"No-one be there, not any rescues going over there," he said.
'We're in too much pain'
Other Australian family members, such as Aarti Raval and Chitrak Sharma, have been searching for signs of their loved ones remotely.
Mrs Raval's husband Bhavin Kumar, and Mr Sharma's parents Krishna and Umesh, are among the missing.
They have been poring over maps, last-known vehicle locations and data from mobile phone towers, trying to piece together where exactly their loved ones may have been when the flood hit.
Bhavin Kumar was on the Kailash Journeys tour, and Krishna and Umesh were on the Himalayan Glaciers tour, at the time of the flood.
Mrs Raval and Mr Sharma are looking for clues in that crucial mountainous area between the border and Syabrubesi, a Nepali village many hikers and pilgrims pass through on their journeys.
But more than a week after the disaster, getting to that region remains difficult.
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Local officials in Syabrubesi told the ABC hundreds of Nepalis and foreigners are feared to have been swept away.
Helicopters are bringing in food and medicine, and carrying out the dead and human remains recovered from the debris.
Those remains are being taken to the town of Trishuli, where authorities are carrying out the painstaking process of identification, including DNA collection, before families can be told whether their loved ones have been found.
And the danger isn't over. One resident of Syabrubesi, Riksing Lama, told the ABC that each night his family leave their home and sleep at a school on higher ground, for fear of another flood.
"Of course I am scared," he said.
"We're in too much pain."
Rescue challenges in both China and Nepal
Even the helicopters have limits in the search operations in Nepal.
Weather can close in quickly in these mountains, and in some of the worst-hit areas there are few safe places left to land.
Australia has sent a 15-person team of disaster specialists to Nepal, who will use drones to provide mapping and thermal imaging to "support search and rescue operations in areas that are difficult or too dangerous for ground crews to access."
Foreign Minister Penny Wong said the deployment was part of "Australia's ongoing offers of assistance to Nepal".
The Pasang Lhamu Highway, where some of the Australians may have travelled before the floods hit, has been severely damaged — but Mrs Ravel and Mr Sharma have repeatedly urged authorities not to give up searching it, believing their loved ones may have escaped the floodwaters by reaching higher ground.
On the Tibetan side of the border, where Chinese authorities have listed six Australians as missing, there are other challenges.
The Chinese government, which governs Tibet, has been accused of censoring information about the disaster and underreporting casualties.
Earlier in the week Chinese state media reported that the route to the area had been largely cleared, allowing machinery to enter the area for in-depth search and rescue operations.
But Mr Patel said he did not see any sign of these efforts on his helicopter journey.
He wants the Australian disaster specialists to search in Tibet, as well as Nepal.
"They should [fly the drones] on the China side as well," he said.
China so far hasn't requested or accepted any international assistance with its search operations.
China's Foreign Ministry told the ABC the country was "making every effort to search for and rescue missing persons from both China and abroad".
It said it had deployed more than 2,300 rescue workers, 400 search-and-rescue vehicles, 8,000 pieces of search-and-rescue equipment and 800 drone flights.
"China is also maintaining close communication with foreign embassies in China and will continue to identify missing foreign nationals and handle follow-up matters," it said.
In an earlier statement, the Australian government said its officials in Beijing and Canberra were "engaging with Chinese authorities".
"We have consistently sought further and updated information on what the Chinese authorities know of any Australians involved in this tragedy and will continue to do so," it said.
Mr Patel has been told his wife is one of the six Australians listed as missing in Tibet.
The helicopter Mr Patel took to the region could not land there, so he is now investigating other options to reach the area, so he and his brother can search for his wife themselves.
Mr Patel is desperate to bring his wife home to their two children, who are waiting in Australia.
And despite planning to go it alone, he is still begging Chinese and Nepali teams to do more.
"There is still a chance we can save more life, and people are still waiting for you," he said.
