Trekking - The gory details

Sawasdee from Bangkok!

We arrived safely yesterday, although not quite according to plan. Our flight from Kathmandu was delayed meaning we would have missed our connection in Delhi, therefore Indian airlines put us on a direct flight to Bangkok later in the afternoon, via Thai airways (Nicola, this is why we didn't see you after check-in , hope you had a good flight!). Talk about contrast in temperatures, we've had more showers in one day than in the past four weeks combined. Its roasting hot here, but after the ice box of the Himalaya's, we are not complaining too vigorously.

We thought we would put some meat on the bones of our trekking so here goes.....

We started with a sightseeing day around Kathmandu. Whilst Kathmandu is very nice, it was over with in about 3 hours. We arrived on the bus late as per norm and met up with our fellow trekkers whilst eating our breakfast nabbed from the hotel buffet. We visited the large Buddhist boudhanath Stupa first and saw some Thangka painting, followed by the Hindu Ghats where they undertake cremation ceremonies in front of anyone who wants to watch. Very surreal, to actually see a body being burnt on a funeral pyre with the family saying prayers and throwing coins into the river. What was more bizarre was to then see kids fishing the coins back out with magnets and reclaiming the timbers from the pyre.

Day 2 - We boarded a small aeroplane today for Pokhara, Nepals' second city, to commence our trekking in the Annapurna's. After lunch and a short drive we walked up the side of a ridge for 2 hrs until we arrived at Camp Australia and the whole view of the range opened in front of us from Annapurna south, across Annapurna I, Gangapurna, Fishtail mountain to Annapurna 4 and Manasalu. Absolutely breathtaking views and perfect weather. Our first nights camping was OK and only punctuated by 1 visit to the toilet tent (the less said the better)

Day 3 - We walked across to the village of Landruk, this was very pleasant days walk and crossed a number of small suspension bridges that you wouldn't have got my mum across.

Day 4 - We went down about 200m and then up about 600m to the Gourka village of Gandrung. before lunch, with stone steps all the way. Thankfully, the rest of the day was at leisure (repairing blisters).

Day 5 - We walked down all the way to the village of Naya Pul and Petes' started suffering from "Trekkers Knee", Again, great scenery of Annapurna and Fishtail.

Day 6 - Quite a tough day trekking up to the village of Bhadure, but a great campsite at the end with with fantastic views of the whole range.

Day 7 - Another tough day, walking all the way up to Panchasse peak, the highest point so far. This was the day Urv did her acrobatics. After about 1/2 hour, she slipped on an icy rock in the middle of the path and fell backwards over the edge of the path completing a backwards roll into the vegetation. Thankfully our Sherpa, Ram, managed to grab her before she went any further downwards and we pulled her back onto the path. Fortunately, she was not hurt other than a bang to the ear, but it was a bit of a heartstopping moment for a while. After that pete stopped moaning about his knee!

Day 8 - this was the last day of walking as we descended about 1000m before getting the bus back to Pokhara. it took us a while being a bit more cautious and with petes bad knee but we got there in he end. Again the views were terrific including a beautiful heart shaped landslide. At Pokhara we had a boat trip to the buddhist shrine in the lake, which was a bit manky to be honest, but we had a nice old chap rowing the boat 60 odd years old and had been rowing the same route for about 30 of them. Later on we had our final meal with the cooks, porters and Sherpa's and said our farewells. After seeing the amount of work they got through and the amount they carried on their backs and around their heads everyday, I don't think either of us we will never complain about work again.

Day 9 - We transferred to the Chitwan jungle park by minibus, on Nepal's questionable roads. Without going into details, this included a toilet stop that Urvy and Barbara will never forget! at the jungle park we were immediately greeted by an Indian miner bird called Rupee, which landed on my shoulder and then pooped on Urvy's deck chair. Well its good luck I suppose. After that we set off into the jungle atop an elephant on safari. We had seen a few monkeys and summer deer in the forest before we say something black and furry mooching around in front of us. Assuming it was another deer we approached it before it reared up and turned out to be a well proportioned Sloth bear. It soon did one, after seeing us, but the elephant we found it again in the undergrowth and we got a few snaps. After that we also saw some tiny barking deer, wild boars and some crocodiles or possibly gharials.

Day 10 - began with an earlier morning natureless walk, where we saw some trees and that's about it. Later on we went on another elephant safari and saw plenty more deer including some spotted fallow deer and some impressive birds but sadly no lepoards, rhino's or tigers. We also had a leaky canoe ride where the main thing to see was us, for the locals anyway.

Day 11 - We transferred back to Kathmandu by bus, including a few hair raising overtaking manoeuvres before going out for our final meal with our Australian friends in the Rum Doodle restaurant.

Day 12 - we said our goodbyes to Barbara, Ted, Jessica and Angie before heading off to Bhaktapur with Laura for a spot of sightseeing. This was a really nice town and more impressive than the temples in the centre of Kathmandu.

Day 13 - An early start to get the airport for the flight to Luckla on the wonderfully named Yeti Airlines. the plane was small.....very small....and old. In fact if it had been any older, it would have had sails and a crows nest. We were sat on the front row, there was no door to separate the pilot. If I wanted to, I could have reached forward and taken off the handbrake off (if it had one). The flight gave new meaning to the word turbulence. We had heard some stories about the runway at Luckla, but nothing quiet prepares you for it. It is about 400m long, on a 20 degree inclined slope with a cliff edge at the bottom end. If you get chance, have a look on Youtube for it. The pilot obviously practiced his landings on a bouncy castle. After the rescue remedy had kicked in, we set off on a short walk to the campsite at Ghat, for a lie down.

Day 14 - We set off up the Everest valley on a very nice walk to the village of Monjo on the edge of the Sagamatha national park, in the shadow off the sacred mount Kailash.

Day 15 - A gruelling day, we walked from Monjo to the town of Namche Bazzar and climbed to a height of about 3200m above sea level. We were both absolutely knackered by the end of it. The views were stunning though with Ama Dablam behind our Guesthouse. We also spotted a couple of Imperyn Pheasants, which are the national bird of Nepal and a very fancy animal. We also crossed several high level suspension bridges over the Dudh khosi river which were straight out of Indiana Jones. The weather had been clear and sunny everyday up to this point. Warm in the sun but getting very cold very quickly in the shade and in the evenings. However it snowed for the first time this evening and turned the entire area into a real winter wonderland, which was very spectacular. Pete played scrabble with a 10 year old Nepali girl in the guest house and got beat. ho hum.

Day 16 - a supposed rest day to aclimbatise, we climbed about 400m through the snow to the top of the nearby ridge for our first views of Everest and its neighboring peaks of Lhotse, Nuptse and Ama Dablam. Again amazing views, made even better by the overnight snow, which was melting fast. We also passed the worlds highest airfield where the pilots were practising taking off and landing in the snow. We descended to spend another night in the guesthouse.

Day 17 - we set off further up the valley towards the village of Thangboche, passed the monument to Sherpa Tenzing Norgay (not very well liked in Nepal following his move to India). This was another long hard up hill day. The monastery at Thangboche was very impressive and we observed the monks during their prayers.

Day 18 - We set of towards our goal of the Ama Aablam base camp, although my knee was killing and we were both suffered from exhaustion due to the high altitude. So after a couple of hours we reached our camp at Dingboche and Urvy and I rested for the rest of the day, whilst the others went on to the base camp and back again. Our trek guide decided that we could attempt the base camp the next day with a couple of Sherpa's, whilst the others walked to another village and back further up the valley. We stopped at a guesthouse this night where the owner had climbed Everest 3 times, along with many other mountains. He looked about 15 and smoked like a trooper.

Day 19 - The two of us and our Sherpa's, set off toward the Ama Damlam base camp which is about 4600m above sea level. However, after walking for about 4 hours, we had to stop and turn back. We were within about 1hr of the base camp but we were both desperately struggling with the altitude and slowing down quite a bit. This turned out to be a prudent move, as no sooner had we set off back down, the clouds descended and we wouldn't have been able to see a thing. We estimate we made it to about 4300m above sea level, which is not bad for someone who doesn't like heights. again the weather over all these days was perfectly clear in the mornings with the clouds appearing about 3 - 4 o'clock, affording us clear views of Everest every day.

Day 20 - We set off back down the valley on the longer jounrey back to Luckla, leaving Everest and the other peaks behind. We basically went back down the same route we went up, only we stopped at some differnt campsites and guesthouses. Today we finished somewhere near the village of Khumjung.

Day 21 - We trekked the long way down back through Namche Bazzare, to spend the night at Monjo. Another very long day, and we said our goodbyes to Everest.

Day 22 - A short days trek to Ghat, where we had the afternoon free, so we se3tt off in sdearch of chocolate to share with the porters and cooks as it was their last night with us. This went down well and they sung us a little folk song at the end of the night.

Day 23 - We walked back to the airstrip at Luckla and stopped overnight in a guesthouse. We got a few funny looks from the locals today due to spontaneous outbursts of laughter - we were both listening to Jason Manford, live at the Apollo on our ipods whilst we walked.

Day 24 - follwoing a bit of a wait at Luckla airport, we boarded the converted spitfire back to Kathmandu. The flight departing was every bit as nailbiting at the one arriving, but the views over the Himalayas as we left them in the distance were stunning. That evening we all met up for a final meal with the trek leader at a Nepalese restaurant and sampled the local firewater, Raksi - (think rice wine fortified with unleaded petrol)

So that was basically that! a fantstic time that I would thoroughly recommend to anyone thinking of doing it, although I would probably get a bit fitter that the pair of us were! by the way, if anyone from Nepal offers you any Yak cheese, decline. The yak is the male!, what you want is Nak cheese from the female; although it tastes a bit like Edam thats been dipped in rapid hardener.