The next morning we hauled ourselves out of bed at 05h30 and proceeded to get dressed at the speed of light - the watch was regestering +2 deg C inside the room. We were given these shawl type things as a blessing from the Guest house owner, wishing us well on our trek. Our packs felt heavy as we walked to the start of the trail. Alot of stopping and starting ensued as we tried to get comfortable, gloves on, gloves off, top off, too hot, too cold, take photo's etc etc. It sure was beautiful out there. We followed some single track past temples and 'Gompa's' (Nepalise prayer posts) and after around an hour we found ourselves lost. Already. We enquired with a few locals in the village we got to as to the whereabouts of our destination 'Shivalaya'. They chickled and pointed to the top of a ridge so we took their word for it and trekked up up and up some more. We proceeded to get lost again - yes we did have a map, but no GPS, and we all know GPS is the future. After bumping into a Belgian guy and some japanese dude we met the night before we decided it was safest to follow them as they were on the same trek as us. Eventually we made it to our half way point of Shivalaya after 4 and a half hours! this was going to be a long day out. We had lunch with the Belgian who was the strangest character. He read our 'Galactic portal codes' to us and how the 'gods of the mountain' must have been upset with us and showed us the wrong path etc. that is surely why we got lost. We drank some tea together and ate some 'Momo' for lunch (dim sum) and continued to compare maps and discuss the further routing for the day which seemed to go up. Alot of up in fact. After lunch we proceeded up the path that followed up the 'hill', except this hill was 2 times the height of Table Mountain's Platteklip george! Yes, after 4 and a half hours we were faced with a 1400meter climb! Thats platteklip road to the top, and then again and then some.......
We climbed and climbed and went up and up forever. No flat, just up. We were nearly at the top when Cacey had an emotional break down. If only she knew we were right there - 100meteres to go. She plucked up the courage to continue and after 4 hours we emerged at the top and walked through the dense cloud into the little town of Deurali, perched at 2750meteres up. What a sight. charlie who we met the night before hoffered us some whiskey to warm us up and felt bad for us carrying all that kit all that way. We decided then and there to 'load shed'. This load shedding included the scrapping of a great deal of our medical kit, something our mothers would not approve..... We skipped the shower, went to find a porter and some food and gave him about 4kilo's of each of our bags contents. This left us with reasonable 10 and 14 kilo packs. Much better. We were to pay the 15year old porter R50/day + food. Bargain. What a win. This was a Bonnies-best-buy moment.
That night we sat round the Yak dung fire with the Charlie and the Belgian and discussed the following day's route and shared stories. Another story emerged from the Belgian that he had once upon a time been locked up in a Thai prison! Interesting fellow. By 18h00 we were bushed and were off to bed before our 6am wake up call the following morning. At breakfast our mate Charlie came running down asking if we had felt the earthquake?! 'Ummmm, nope!'
He was convinced he felt the earth shudder in the wee hours of the morning and after some word with the locals it was confirmed that we had slept through our first official earthquake. Must have been tired huh?
Every monring we woke up at sparrows and as we climbed higher and higher and slept at increased altitudes the temp got cold. Very cold. At the one point you can't believe, it was -5 deg C inside our room (nifty watch tells the temp) - getting up in the mornings proved difficult to say the least. Cacey found a way to get fully clothed inside her sleeping bag - too clever.
The nights were spent conversing with charlie and the Belgian and another french lady who couldn't speak English. Charlie would show us slide shows on his Apple of when he climbed Everest in 2003 and tell us of his experiences as to how he got to Nepal. This man had swum the length of the Thames River, then swam the English channel, then hopped on a Le Bicycle and rode across France, Belgium, Poland etc etc, a few others, Kurgestan, Kazakstan, Turkmenistan, got hit by a truck, got hit buy a car, flew home to the States to see his family then flew to China, rode across china to Tibet and was now in Nepal to climb Everest for the second time! Machine! 8 months he had been at it, the whole trip lasting 1 year.
The days trekking usually consisted of a 2 hour start armed with our gloves and jackets and then we would stop for some tea. Glorious tea! We would then go up for a couple hours, then down, then up and approach our agreed upon town for the night after anywhere between 6 and 8 hours out on the trail. We were going to be machines after this trek for sure!
After the first 4 days we had trekked for 28 hours! Solid.
We had estimated we had both lost at least a kilo a day - Oprah should take her mate Gale on this trek - that'd do the trick as nothing else seems to work.
On the 4th day we left the tea house and as we stepped out the door it proceeded to rain. After we climbed up (as usual) for about 15mins it started to snow. It was beautiful at first but then proceeded to turn into an all out blizzard. We continued to trek. cacey had been sick since day one so this didn't help matters at all. The day took us over the 'La Thorung Pass' at 3570meters (3 hours of up) and the temp had gone to approx -10 deg c by this stage. We pressed on through the foot deep snow.. At the top of the pass we were shocked to see a monk/lama fellow kitted out in his red drapes walking all jolly sporting his sandles and no gloves to be seen - WTF? Crazy man! Maybe that was the real YETI?
The next day we proceeded to trek for 7 hours through the ensuing blizzard and had become accustomed to the cold temeratures and 50 meter visability. Up and over another 3090meter pass and as we descended the snow turned into a muddy slush. We passed underneath the cloud base and were presented with the most beautiful views. Snow capped peaks surrounded us with green lush valleys below. All the little villages 1000 meters below looked so peaceful. Down to the village we go then. We were sure that we had been following Charlies footprints in the snow the entire way to our village. As we searched the town for the tea house Charlie was staying at, we found no sign of the man. We had a bucket shower (first shower since we started) and proceeded to sit in the 'sun room', sheltered from the snow and rain that was belting down outside. We were glad to have finished for the day. We hung our drenched kit up over the yak dung fire and thawed our fingers and toes by putting them INSIDE the fire. After a full 11 hours the Belgian and the Le French walked in, soaked to the bone. They had been taking their time froloking in the snow and rain. Blinded not by the blizzard but by love. They seeemed to hit it off and were now an unofficial trekking couple. We started to worry as Charlie had not emerged. We were not sure if he had continued to the next town or was stuck out there in the snow. Then, out of nowhere, the man walked by the sun room and we called for him. He sat by the fire and told us how the snow had covered the pathway and he had gone up a 4000 meter pass in the wrong diection! He then fell on some black ice, injuring his knee and if that wasn't enough he got chased by a dog who latched onto his ankle while he tried in vain to hit the dog on the pip with his trekking pole. Funny stuff. He said he had had a 'bad day' - no sh1t!
That eveing I had the crappiest pizza you have ever seen, along with a side of purple tomatoes. The Belgian read our fortunes to us, smoked his chirra pipe and he accurately told us what our personalities and backgrounds consisted of. Wise man (35yo) he was. It really was an accurate portrayal.
The final day 6 had arrived and we had to trek to a village called Lukla. This is the highest one can fly in the Himalaya and the place where 99% of the trekkers begin their trek. No, not us. But in hindsight we were alot fitter by the time we reached lukla and breezed past the other folk on the trail. Along the way to the village cacey slipped twice on the black ice. this stressed me out as right to the side of the narrow trail there was a 1500m, maybe 2000m sheer drop down to the river below.
Finally after 6 days and 42 hours out on the trail we had reached Lukla and our rest day. We checked into the Paradise Lodge situated right alongside the 460meter runway (For my sake - Jimmy) and nestled down by the fire and ate and had some much needed rest.
 |
| Trying to figure out where we went wrong |
We climbed and climbed and went up and up forever. No flat, just up. We were nearly at the top when Cacey had an emotional break down. If only she knew we were right there - 100meteres to go. She plucked up the courage to continue and after 4 hours we emerged at the top and walked through the dense cloud into the little town of Deurali, perched at 2750meteres up. What a sight. charlie who we met the night before hoffered us some whiskey to warm us up and felt bad for us carrying all that kit all that way. We decided then and there to 'load shed'. This load shedding included the scrapping of a great deal of our medical kit, something our mothers would not approve..... We skipped the shower, went to find a porter and some food and gave him about 4kilo's of each of our bags contents. This left us with reasonable 10 and 14 kilo packs. Much better. We were to pay the 15year old porter R50/day + food. Bargain. What a win. This was a Bonnies-best-buy moment.
That night we sat round the Yak dung fire with the Charlie and the Belgian and discussed the following day's route and shared stories. Another story emerged from the Belgian that he had once upon a time been locked up in a Thai prison! Interesting fellow. By 18h00 we were bushed and were off to bed before our 6am wake up call the following morning. At breakfast our mate Charlie came running down asking if we had felt the earthquake?! 'Ummmm, nope!'
He was convinced he felt the earth shudder in the wee hours of the morning and after some word with the locals it was confirmed that we had slept through our first official earthquake. Must have been tired huh?
Every monring we woke up at sparrows and as we climbed higher and higher and slept at increased altitudes the temp got cold. Very cold. At the one point you can't believe, it was -5 deg C inside our room (nifty watch tells the temp) - getting up in the mornings proved difficult to say the least. Cacey found a way to get fully clothed inside her sleeping bag - too clever.
The nights were spent conversing with charlie and the Belgian and another french lady who couldn't speak English. Charlie would show us slide shows on his Apple of when he climbed Everest in 2003 and tell us of his experiences as to how he got to Nepal. This man had swum the length of the Thames River, then swam the English channel, then hopped on a Le Bicycle and rode across France, Belgium, Poland etc etc, a few others, Kurgestan, Kazakstan, Turkmenistan, got hit by a truck, got hit buy a car, flew home to the States to see his family then flew to China, rode across china to Tibet and was now in Nepal to climb Everest for the second time! Machine! 8 months he had been at it, the whole trip lasting 1 year.
The days trekking usually consisted of a 2 hour start armed with our gloves and jackets and then we would stop for some tea. Glorious tea! We would then go up for a couple hours, then down, then up and approach our agreed upon town for the night after anywhere between 6 and 8 hours out on the trail. We were going to be machines after this trek for sure!
After the first 4 days we had trekked for 28 hours! Solid.
We had estimated we had both lost at least a kilo a day - Oprah should take her mate Gale on this trek - that'd do the trick as nothing else seems to work.
On the 4th day we left the tea house and as we stepped out the door it proceeded to rain. After we climbed up (as usual) for about 15mins it started to snow. It was beautiful at first but then proceeded to turn into an all out blizzard. We continued to trek. cacey had been sick since day one so this didn't help matters at all. The day took us over the 'La Thorung Pass' at 3570meters (3 hours of up) and the temp had gone to approx -10 deg c by this stage. We pressed on through the foot deep snow.. At the top of the pass we were shocked to see a monk/lama fellow kitted out in his red drapes walking all jolly sporting his sandles and no gloves to be seen - WTF? Crazy man! Maybe that was the real YETI?
 |
| Freezing! |
That eveing I had the crappiest pizza you have ever seen, along with a side of purple tomatoes. The Belgian read our fortunes to us, smoked his chirra pipe and he accurately told us what our personalities and backgrounds consisted of. Wise man (35yo) he was. It really was an accurate portrayal.
 |
| Snowwy |
The final day 6 had arrived and we had to trek to a village called Lukla. This is the highest one can fly in the Himalaya and the place where 99% of the trekkers begin their trek. No, not us. But in hindsight we were alot fitter by the time we reached lukla and breezed past the other folk on the trail. Along the way to the village cacey slipped twice on the black ice. this stressed me out as right to the side of the narrow trail there was a 1500m, maybe 2000m sheer drop down to the river below.
 |
| 109 meter suspension bridge - give way to the YAK trains! |
 |
| Sunset at SETE (day2). Gompa down to the left |
 |
| A typical tea house - kidding. But nice views after the blizzard |
 |
| Breathtaking views of the Himal |
