Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
In The Clouds!
Our aclimatization day was a bust as it pissed down none stop the whole day, so we got stuck in the lodge playing uno all day instead of enjoying the sights of Namche, but at least our poor feet got a day off.
Only a 6 hour trek left, so up again at 6:30 yes I said 6:30 (I know mum it's hard to believe) haaaaallelujah what a glorious day, about time to. It was the last day of never ending steep trails to reach our destination of Tengboche. We have grown a great respect for the mountain people of Nepal, how they get by in such condions, they make it look so easy carrying heavy loads up and down the mountains, without even a bead of sweat on their brows as they overtake you, whilst I'm melting like the wicked witch. Young, old, male and female carrying numerous rucksacks and bags for trekkers and food and supplies for villages, we even saw two children carrying huge baskets full to the brim of animal poo, imagine. Apparently they dry the poo out and then use it to fuel their fires etc. Oh and I can say there is a monumentous supply up them mountains, we had noticed that the higher we got, the bigger and hairier the animals got therefore the bigger the 'fuel' got, we definately got pretty good at dodging the endless pile of horse, yak and cow turd. Unfortunately at every viewpoint along the way, Mount Everest was still the only peak curtained by thick clouds, what a tease would we get to see it at all? At lunch time we stopped off and relaxed in the sunshine, I nipped to the loo and to my horror found a hole in the floorboards surrounded by piles of dry leaves, right ok no choice but to give it a go, when in Rome. I noticed the hole was directly above the stream that passed underneath the shack, I'm sure we had passed a woman washing her clothes there on our way in. We were already dreading the scary plane ride back so it didn't help when our guide recieved a phone call informing him that a plane had just crashed on it's way back to Kathmandu.
We were literally in the clouds at 3,800m meters high, you could definately feel the air was thinner up there as we struggled for deep breaths. We had somehow made it to Tengboche, but as difficult as it was, it was as equally rewarding, but where was Everest? Still hiding behind the clouds, we now only had one last chance to see it before we headed back down to Lukla, that meant getting up at 5am the next day to hope we would catch it before the clouds descended. Tengboche is a tiny village, litterally just a few houses and a monastery, at the monastery the monks have a ceremony at 4 O'clock and us none monk people are also allowed to sit in and observe as they chant, drink tea and play strange precussion type instruments and chant some more, it's very bizzare to say the least but interesting to see, even though I didn't have a clue what was going on. I was a little disappointed that the monks heads weren't clean shaven though, I always pictured them with baldy heads. The next morning our guide Ongchu knocked on our door at 5am to tell us that Everest had come out to play, so we pulled back the curtains and there it was in all it's glory, what an amazing view to wake up to. We went outside to take it all in, it wasn't towering over the surrounding mountains like I had imagined but just peaking up behind, but still, it was Mount Everest.
With our 6 days trekking behind us, now all that was left was to fly back to Kathmandu, we were nervous to say the least as we sat in the tiny plane waiting to take off, the engines started up and so did the my heart rate, then some white stuff fell out of the air into my lap, s*** what was that, i looked behind to see an old wrinkly mounatin woman with a small bag off rice, she was praying and throwing the rice up in the air. Seriously will we make it? The runway was unbelievably short and was angled down towards a sheer drop surrounded by mountains, as we peered over the pilots shoulder, we watched as we quickly ran out of runway and left the ground seconds before the edge. We had talked about coming back to Nepal one day to do base camp, but if it means getting on one of these planes again I might give it a miss.
- comments
Maggie Oh Katie you write a great blog me and Gord are laughing are heads off !! It all sounds hard work but must be so amazing ! Ry as you know has sent me a couple of messages with that horrid place you found yourselves in but its behind you now ! Enjoy Goa and them beaches LOL M xxx
anna-maria nelson sat here reading this with a smile on my face with laugh out loud moments thrown in for good measure. what a treat it is, the way you write brings it all to life, fantastic! have to put it all in a book when you get back! proud of you!xxxx
Jayne Nelson-Smith Loving the blog Katie. You tell it so well I'll NEVER need to go there! Seriously it sounds like a fantastic experience. Luv ya lots xx