Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
The day before the trek started we had to make our way to the town of Pokhara, which is 7 hours from Kathmandu by 'tourist bus', we happened to be on the 'oldest' tourist bus in town...Simon wanted to sit at the front pf the bus but I had to remind him that should we be in an accident we would be the first to go and he quickly sat back into his seat!
Usually you can see a glimpse of the mountains half way through the trip but the clouds were so bad that we didn't get to see anything, even on the morning that we started the trek.
The first trek day was 28 degrees, and Simon assured me he could carry both of our belongings (cameras,water bottles etc), howvever with Trekkers Belly, Heat stroke and no cap (it was in his bag), he slowly started to falter. Who wouldhave thought Sheena would be the leader!! After re-charging at Lunch (see photo) he felt a bit better and we made it to our overnight tea house accomodation by 3pm after a few stops along the way. Neither of us felt over-whelmed after the first day, little did we know what was to come on the 2nd day!
After a not so good nights sleep we had an early start at 7.30am to start a 7 hour / 11km steep uphill climb, and as our guide kept repeating - 'it startes with 3866' steps. I don't remember a thing about it, but I was typically childish and kept asking ' are we there yet, how much further?!?. We stopped at a horrible teahouse for lunch, hence not much food was eaten and the smell of the toilet nearly made me throw up so we didn't have much of a rest. By 2pm we had to made it to the village of Ghorpani 2874m - much quicker than Ram thought we would make it in. However it seemed we were the only trekkers in the teahouse so it made it quite lonely. By this time into the trek my legs were beginning to really hurt as the stone steps were far too high for my reach. I did enquire about trekking poles and was told I didn't really need them but by day 2 it was evident they would be of use so Ram found a coupld of bamboo poles for us both.
After an early dinner of potatoe rosti+egg, chips, momos (Tibetan style dumplings) and an attempt at apple pie (it was disgisting) - we were inbed by 7pm. It was so cold that I slept in my clothes, in a sleeping bag and used one of their heavy blakets..and guess what - still cold!!!
Next morning we were up at 4.45am and were out of the guest house by 5.30pm with flashlights as it was pitch black. We knew the climb up to Poon Hill for Sunrise was not going to be pleasant, but it was downright painful. It was one of the toughest things either of us had ever done, but we got there an hour later!
The view was unbelievable, and we had a perfectly clear morning, but unfortunatley the Japanese camera crews had beatn us to it so we had to manouvere ourselves through them to get our snaps.
We didn't realise how cold it was going to be and at one point the blood stopped circulating in my fingers (that will teach me to wear cheap 1 GBP gloves). After an hour at the top we made ou way back down to the guest house to have breakfast before starting the descent back down to the bottom.
We stopped overnight at a teahouse and at this point after 5000 ish steps downhill we were almost crippled. This time it was my turn to be sick, but after an early night and no food I was back to normal, apart from the fact that my legs did not work! Have any of you seen the Special K advert where the girls can bend in their skinny jeans - that was me! Every step was taken with an expletive !!! At the same time Simon's sickness came back - we made a right pair! He made a pit stop to every teahouse toilet on the route back to the finish point.
Our guide and porter were lovley and we said good bye to them as we hoped to settle in for a relaxing 3 days in Pokhara. Unfortunatly Si was still sick for the first day or so but after that we managed to make the most of Holi in Pokhara (see pics)
It was generally crazy from 7am to 7pm - with everyone smearing your face with the brightly coloured powders. There were buses full of kids, and people on motorbikes driving up and down the road all day. At one point it started to get a bit too much so we went back to the hotel to get showered, but the day had been an experience.
- comments