Trek - girl

Day 1 Fly to Lukla (2840m), walk to Phakding (2610m), suggest to guide we continue Monjo (2840m)

Day 2 Walk to Namche Bazar (3440m)

Day 3 Acclimatisation walk to Thame (3620m) - fail at Thamo (3493m) for reasons to be explained below

Day 4 Walk to Phortse (3680m)

Day 5 Walk to Pangboche (3930m)

Day 6 Day trip to Ama Dablam base camp (over 5000m)

Day 7 Walk to Namche Bazar (3440m)

Day 8 Walk to Lukla (2840m)

Day 9 Walk 500m to airport and fly to Kathmandu

 

They say Nepal can be split into three 'sections' according to altitude and I suspect one could split the Himalayas similarly with an altitude-noise ratio. At tea-house level one has to contend with all the noises you might associate with living in a ply-wood box: hawking up of phlegm, loud talking, white noise of radios, terrible recordings of Buddhist chanting, loud hosts ensuring everyone can hear their phone conversations, tourists chattering and even the odd, old, deaf, English woman terrorising the locals. On the regular sherpa paths one has the beauty of cow/yak/donkey bells, more white noise from radios, sherpa mobile phone conversations and trekkers' pantings. However, get above all of this to the higher levels of less trodden paths and all one can hear is a solitary bird, the wind howling round the mountain tops and one's own, exhausted, breathing. Magnificent.

 

I lay, alone, for perhaps 30 minutes on the top of a ridge over 5000m above sea level, while C went off exploring. I had my eyes closed and could feel the heat of the sun on my body. All I could hear was the wind and that one bird. I opened my eyes and was confronted with the majesty of an entire range of snow covered mountain peaks. Despite having had my eyes shut for just minutes, I was amazed anew at the beauty and at my luck to be able to experience this.

 

Before we could get to such splendour, there was a great deal of huffing and puffing as we walked along routes popular with sherpas, pack animals, skipping sherpa kids and trekkers. C was particularly keen that we escape the hoards and the herds and make for higher (and quieter) lands. Our guide, who was spectacularly useless, finally acquiesced (must have been those dollar signs we have for eyes!) and suggested a more challenging route (above) that got us to Ama Dablam base camp. Thank goodness for C's 'dog with a bone' attitude that meant we did this as it was certainly the highlight of the entire trekking period.

 

Namche Bazar, the real starting point for trekking (a two day trek from the airport in itself), was, I imagine, at some point, a traditional sherpa village. Today, however, it's a tourist hole with a better quality ply-wood hotel than found elsewhere. (To be fair, the ply-wood is a necessity since there are laws about chopping wood in the national parks and everything has to be shipped in on the backs of sherpas). Possibly out of boredom or pure stupidity, C and I decided, on our first night in NB, to drink an entire (small) bottle of rum between us. At sea level this would be fine but at almost 4000m, not bright (I can hear my mother's exclamation now)! I spent the night tossing and turning, unable to sleep thanks to both alcohol induced altitude sickness and a bad tummy. It felt as if a small person (K, perhaps) was sitting on my chest whilst pressing on my gut! C woke up with a shocking headache too. The next day I felt no better but was determined that our stupidity wasn't a reason to sit still. The acclimatisation walk to Thame was supposed to take six hours in total. We made it approximately half way, to Thamo and back, with me practically crawling up the bloody mountain trying alternately to breathe and to stop my guts exploding. Great. C was amazing - he carried my bag for me, walked at my speed and offered soothing and encouraging words the whole way around. Much better than the guide, who walked his usual 20  minutes behind us.

 

Leaving NB the first stop is Everest View Lodge where...one can see Everest properly for the first time. Good to have seen the world's highest mountain but it's certainly nowhere near as beautiful as others in the area. From here the scenery got more and more stunning as we climbed higher. Of course, as we climbed higher, it got colder too although only at night. We left trees behind and entered yak country - they taste good, their wool makes soft scarves and they can balance on steep sided mountains; who wouldn't want a yak?

 

Some of the walking did scare me a bit as we skirted mountains with sheer up on one side and sheer down on the other with paths around a metre wide. I thought of my HK and her fear and soldiered on! With the wind and heavy cloud adding to the mix, I was a little concerned but again, C was great, always checking that I was ok on the tricky bits and offering kind, if sometimes sarcastic, support.

 

Food, accommodation and bathrooms: hmmm. food was carb-tastic. Three heavy, not so tasty, meals a day guaranteed to make your gut wrench at some point! Thanks to the cipro-gods we were ok. Accommodation, ply-wood and chilly with a communal dining/living room. Bathrooms - if you're lucky, opposite the bedroom, if you're not, sort of out-house style squat. Not good at night.

 

All in all, a great trip, despite (not because of) our guide. We saw some incredible views, pushed ourselves fairly hard (at least, I did), and thoroughly enjoyed each other's company. I was most pleased when C said he was impressed with the way I was able to keep up with him.