We have just spent 3 weeks
trekking in the Himalayas, doing the Everest Base Camp and Gokyo Lakes
trail. What can we say but WOW,
what a totally amazing experience!
The trip started with a “meet and
greet” where we were introduced to our group - - there were 7 of us altogether:
3 aussies (Carly and Craig from Albury, and Pete from Perth) and 2 Polish
people (Hannah and Mark).
Following this was a day tour around Kathmandu where we saw a few of the
famous sites including the monkey temple (there really were lots of monkeys!)
and Durbar Square.
Finally on the 13th of
April there was a very early morning start to get to the airport to catch our
plane to Lukla, the start of the trek at 2850m! The planes were delayed due to poor visibility at Lukla - -
they now require visibility of 5km after a plane crashed there last year!!! Anyway we finally took off about 3
hours late, and after about 40 minutes landed in Lukla, which was an experience
in itself! The incredibly short
runway literally hangs off the side of the mountain, and as we banked down
steeply to meet it I think everybody who could see it through the cockpit window
thought “we’re supposed to land there??”
After we landed safely all the passengers seemed to be buzzing, it was
similar to the thrill of being on a roller coaster!
Overall the trek was really well
paced, with several acclimatisation days allowing us to adjust to the
altitude. The first couple of days
were spent walking through some pretty forest (the flowers were starting to
bloom, including the rhododendrons which are the national flower) on the way to
Namche Bazar, a thriving metropolis sitting at about 3400m - - you can buy all
necessities here… trekking clothes, food, and even super speedy internet! The trail felt a bit like State Highway
One at times, with lots of other tourists, local porters and yaks carrying
essentials up the mountain. The
weather was still a little hazy but every now and then the clouds would clear
and we would get glimpses of snow capped mountains.
As the days continued we climbed
higher, and passed through the small town of Tenboche (3850m), where we got
some great views of Everest from our bedroom window and visited the monastery
there, and Dingboche which was at 4400m and a good place for another
acclimatisation day as we were all starting to feel the affects of the altitude
in various ways. By now we had
passed above the treeline and the vegetation consisted of short grass and the
occasional shrub. We were starting
to see some incredible geology, huge glacial moraines and alluvial fans,
textbook stuff on a scale that makes Fox and Franz Joseph glaciers seem like
babies.
Climbing higher still we stayed
at Lobuje (around 4910m) and then finally Gorak Shep (5150m), at one of the
highest guesthouses in the world.
Gorak Shep is used as a base for walking to Everest Base Camp (2 hours,
5363m) and the mountain of Kala Pathar (5545m, which has spectacular views of
Everest (8848m) and nearby Lhotse (8501m), Nuptse (7861m) and the Khumbu
Glacier). Unfortunately I got
really sick in Lobuje, quite a common thing up in the mountains, trekkers often
get gastro bugs from the food/water/other trekkers. So the rest of our group went on ahead to Gorak Shep with
our main guide Raj so that they could make it to base camp and back that
afternoon, while I lagged behind taking frequent rest stops with our other
guide Mylar, knowing that I could barely make it to Gorak Shep let alone base
camp! The 3 hour walk ended up
taking me 4 hours, which all things considered wasn’t too bad, but bloody hell
it was a pretty tough 4 hours trying to summon every ounce of energy to put one
foot in front of the other in the thinning air, with my body’s fuel reserves
running on less than empty!
Although on the way up I do remember seeing 2 people being escorted
down, one on horseback who looked really uncomfortable and the other who looked
like she had absolutely no idea where she was (telltale signs of altitude
sickness) and had to be helped along by her guide - - and I thought ‘well, at
least I’m doing better than them!!’
When I finally made it I just about cried, managed to force some tomato
soup down, and then proceeded to sleep for most of the afternoon while the
others headed to base camp! By the
evening I’d had enough and decided to kick the bug with some antibiotics (HUGE
thanks to the travel doctor we visited in Perth!). The others made it to base camp and back no worries that
afternoon, and said there was not much to see except a bunch of tents, as you
can’t actually see Everest from base camp.
Another interesting thing that
happened while we were in Gorak Shep was the worlds highest 20/20 cricket match! In the pipeline for 2 years, a bunch of
amateur cricketers from England (the Lords Taverners or something?) had gotten
sponsorship to play the worlds highest cricket game and raise money for
charity. So on our 2nd
day in Gorak Shep, while half the group climbed Kala Pathar, the rest of us sat
and watched the cricket! It was
Team Hilary vs Team Tenzing, and the perfect way for me to recuperate and wait
for the antibiotics to start working and try and find my appetite again so that
I would have some fuel to walk the next day (Team Hilary won). Abe said the views from Kala Pathar
were spectacular, and Everest seemed so close you could almost reach out and
touch it - - I was there in spirit!
Luckily he took lots of photos.
The following day we headed down
from Gorak Shep towards the Cho La Pass (5420m), and thankfully I was feeling
much better. We crossed over the
pass which was pretty interesting and once again had spectacular views and
geology (like huge bare rock faces with cross-cutting veins and
pegmatites). We had to clamber
over the glacier at the top and then head down a very steep slope on the other
side into the Gokyo region. The
glacial fed Gokyo lakes are a spectacular dark blue colour and well worth the
visit. We spent a few days in this
area, and climbed Gokyo Ri (5360m) for some more views of the mountains,
including 4 over 8000m (Everest, Lhotse, Makalu and Cho-oyu), and the Ngozumpa
glacier.
The next few days were spent
heading back down the Gokyo valley towards Namche Bazar and eventually Lukla to
catch our plane back to Kathmandu.
We stayed one night in the small town on Khumjung where we visited the
monastery and saw a yeti skull (apparently it is real!), and stopped by the
schoolyard to see the statue of Sir Edmund Hillary. On our night in Namche it was Raj’s birthday so we surprised
him with a cake and sung happy birthday.
We drank moonshine (which tastes similar to Japanese sake) in Phakding,
and after many beers in Lukla on the night before our flight we ended up
dancing to Nepalese music with our guides and the owners of the guesthouse - -
lots of fun!
One thing that amazed us was the
standard of food and accommodation up in the mountains… by Western standards it
would be seen as fairly basic, but considering that there are no roads in this
part of the world and everything has to be carried up by porters, the standard
of living offered to trekkers is pretty luxurious! We were able to get Western food the whole way up (pizza, pasta,
soups, etc), bottled water, beer and chocolate bars were readily available but
just became more expensive the higher up you go, and most places offered hot
showers (although we didn’t really bother most of the time, it was too cold to
think about taking clothes off!).
Also incredible was the amount of gear that any one porter would be
carrying… anywhere from 30-40kg up to 100kg! And here we were struggling with just our day packs, no
wonder they were laughing at us!
As harsh a life as it is, the Sherpa people seem pretty happy and lead
peaceful lives - - it was so nice to get away from the constant traffic buzz of
Kathmandu, and in fact everywhere else in SE Asia that we have been! And of course the incredible scenery
has to be seen to be believed. The
scale of it all is immense, and after the first few days you become a little
blasé and have to remind yourself to look up again. I would definitely come back here again.
