Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
12/01/2014
Woke up and the legs felt surprisingly ok. The warm-down must have worked. But the knees felt a bit sore. In terms of a quiet day there was no rest bite. There were two routes to take at one point and of course we took the high one which lasted for ever. Up and up we climbed through a forest which wrapped around the mountain. Lawrence was constantly ahead so I was constantly on my own. Plodding on indefinitely for a next village which never seem to arrive. You constantly thought you were at top but on and on it went. The light was breaking through the trees and I was trying to see where the top was, but to no avail. My back was also really packing up. It'd been doding sing skiing a few back, and it didn't look like getting much better. Agony. I was in a real bad mood. The feet were killing me with my un worm in shoes too. I kept on walking and came across a message in the frost in the snow… 'lunch' with an arrow pointing forward. I eventually came to a bridge where Lawrence was waiting for me. We kept on walking and found a really nice quaint place for lunch in the village. We watched as made our meals, for me a massive bowl of porridge. I sprinkled in my mixed nuts and coconut and it was honestly a heavenly moment. I plastered up my toes and put on my thick socks… why hadn't I worn these before!!! The thin ones where pointless. Seen the chile girl once more but she was stopping the night here… for us it was only a late lunch!!!
And on we went! Couldn't decide what was worse, up or down. Up was a slog and down just hurt the knees. However what was clear was that flat was best. Nice and easy and enjoyable.
En route we also got talking to a Manc in his 60s who was going the going the other way. Turns out he'd done some big trek just below the height of the pass. Was really great to see an old geezer still having the tenacity to do it. If he could do it my old man could, he looked much older and more unfitter. He also gave us some diamox which helps with altitude sickness. Awesome little present. Lawrence later on claimed he would refuse to take it, as he wanted to do it 'pure' without 'doping'. I thought it was stupid, as if you were ill you are ill. He then persisted to mock me, saying he'll call up my mate Lance, if I ever needed to use it.
We kept on walking and eventual came to Koto, our stop off for the night. Our room was a nice little wooden cabin, but was freezing. This was where I came into my own, and I quickly whipped out my massive fleece and down jacket and stuck it on. I could tell Lawrence was really struggling and was really cold, and it was only 2460m high. We went into the main building and I ordered fried macaroni which was awesome. The fire was really hot and we dried all our stuff. Haha also asked the wifey to take a photo on me and Lawrence but she wasn't pressing the button down hard enough. I told her to press the button down, and she started to sit down on the floor. Haha lost in translation, funny moment. haha the geezer also claimed 'England is a good village'. Some sized village I thought!
- comments