Hey!
I am jotting this story into my notebook as we descend the mountains North East of Kathmandu, by bus. I want to write about our last few weeks a bit before I become swept up in the next few and forget the details. Half an hour ago we were rafting down the Bhote Koshi river through class 4 rapids. Imagine an overcast winter in Nepal and f*ck#ng freeeeeezing water and you will understand our intense motivation to paddle hard and fast thus not to capsize the raft, as we had done so on our first day on the river. Today, we lost one of our crew overboard as the raft hit a rock and landed against another at a 180 degree angle and 8 helpless Aussies dangled from its ropes in the cold air whilst our guide untrenched us, and a canoe set out downstream to collect our friend Maddy. So much fun! With the icy water slapping my skin, all that adrenaline pumping through my veins and having just recovered from Giardia I felt a new zest for life. We had lunch on the river bank and cuddled baby goats to keep warm.
We completed the Bhairav Kund treck to 4400m 3 days ago (6 days of camping and trecking). The treck was set near the tibetan border in a remote area. We only saw a few sherpas and villagers in our first few days and then after that no one outside of our group. On Day 1 we visited a school and I almost caused a riot because everyone wanted to see their picture in my video camera. Not too much school work was done done whilst we were there, I think we may have even interrupted an exam, but no one seemed to care. We crossed through villages and farm land where millet and mustard flowers grew. The first night we camped at a village and taught the local children how to play cricket, using a log for a bat and some twigs poked into the dirt as a wicket. That night Matt said he felt really sick. Within half an hour I was vomiting and he was rocking back and forth. We were both up all night, me being sick and him feeling sick, pretty awful. Fortunately in the morning we were greeted by a concerned team of guides and our fellow treckers, who just happened to consist of 3 med students a nurse and 2 doctors. We were given magical anti nausea pills and it was decided we would continue onwards... though I think I can say that, that day of walking 9 hours uphill after no sleep and still feeling pretty rotten, would have to have been one of the hardest days of my life. Every day after that one felt quite easy comparatively.
On day 2/3??? we visited a Tibetan nunnery and met many women who had fled Tibet and are living in exile. They were really keen to spend time with us and loved to have their photo taken. The 3rd night was ccccold. Our camp was surrounded by snow capped Nepalese and Tibetan mountains. I grabbed for my water bottle during the night only to find it was frozen. On Day 4 we reached the much anticipated Bhairav Kund sacred lake. It was amazing! The lake sat above the cloud band and the sun set behind the mountains. The boys spent most of their time cracking the ice with rocks and sticks. Unfortunately one of us was sent down hill in the night with altitude sickness but she recovered fine the next day.
On day 6 we reached stairs-civillization as we now knew it. We crossed though some hindi and sherpa villages where we witnessed the massacre of a buffalo and ate chilli grapefruit offered by the women. Computer is about to die again due to power cuts so i'll close off now. There ended our treck anyway and we took our first showers in 6 days at the Borderland Resort, mmmmmm.
We are unable to post many photos at this time. It took me 2 hours to get the ones up there so far and will have to wait until we get to England to do the rest as we are now in Pokhara and the power is out most of the day.
Oh, and Matt had a good birthday with beer and friends and chocolate cake and we are both healthy again and ready for our next treck in 4 days time.
xo
