Himalayan Trek Part 2

Day 4 - Namche Bazar to Dole 16.05

Today we hiked from Namche Bazar to Dole, elevating us to 4200m. We estimated that it would take us about 5 hours. The acclimatization walk from the day before definitely paid off, and we didn’t find it too difficult. Loren, who up to this point had been wondering how anyone in their right mind could enjoy trekking, started to actually enjoy it herself!

Our guide told us that today would be the last day that we would see forests, because they don’t grow at the higher altitudes that we would be climbing to. He also told us that we were very lucky, because the National flower of Nepal – the Rhododendron – is usually finished blooming by this time of year. Everywhere we walked there were Rhododendron trees in full bloom! There were so many different colours and shapes, it was like walking through a garden. We also took special notice of the forests, as this would be the last we’d see of trees for a while. There were mostly pine trees, so the air smelt wonderful and Christmassy.

Our trail took us along the side of some mountains, and the view over the valley was spectacular! One slip and you could end up over the edge and tumbling down the side of the mountain. The river flowing through the valley below seemed so far away, and the villages on the mountains on the other side of the valley looked so tiny.

Even more spectacular were the snow covered peaks that filled the horizon. The clouds were moving very fast, so we had moments of clear sky in front of the mountains. We saw the beautiful Lhotse mountain (8501m) and my personal favourite - Ama Dablam (6802m). Ama Dablam has the most incredible shape, and looks the scariest to climb. Sadly, Mt Everest was still out of view.

Ama Dablam

About half-way through the walk, we met a huge group of Canadians. They were heading to Annapurna – Mt Everest base camp. They were a group of friends who were all interested in trekking. A few of the fitter ones had decided to participate in the Annual Marathon from Annapurna Base Camp to Namche Bazar! They were hoping to complete it in about 6 hours.

An Unfortunate Episode

Unfortunately, one of them was a complete moron, and locked Loren in the toilet. The toilets basically consisted of a hole in the floor of a little hut, and a pile of leaves at the side to sprinkle into the hole when you are finished. The door of this particular hut had a lock on the inside and outside. Loren locked the inside, and some guy with a Canadian accent came up and fiddled with the lock and said ‘it won’t open’, duh! The idiot decided without even asking, that there was no one inside, and put a padlock on the door! Poor Loren was stuck inside the hot and smelly hut, calling for someone to open the door. She managed to loosen some of the screws on the lock, but couldn’t dismantle it, and the door was too solid to break. Artur was chatting with the Canadians, and didn’t notice that Loren was missing. Thankfully, the guide came down looking for her, then went to get the key. It was a hot and very irritated Loren that came out of the hut. She was ready to verbally abuse any and all of the male Canadians that crossed her path.

Before we left, we saw a huge train of yaks. Loren was thrilled with their beautiful long fur, and she reached out to touch one as it passed by. It tried to kick her, but thankfully it missed. After that, she was a little more scared of these creatures and their enormous horns.

We set off again, and made it all the way down a very steep mountain. At the bottom, we decided to have lunch at a little tea house, then continue our journey. The group of Canadians had the same idea, and insisted on talking to us further. Loren was still annoyed at the whole lot of them because of the incident that happened earlier, but they were very friendly and she started to like them.

The Night in Dole

We arrived at Dole by about 1pm, and decided to have a nap. It was freezing in our room, so after the nap, we moved to the main room of the tea house where they had a stove. We had heard that people can get sick in tea houses because of the sudden change in temperature from the cold outside, to the warm stove room. We were lucky though, because we arrived before the stove was turned on, and left after the stove had cooled down, so our bodies heated up and cooled down with the stove.

Our tea house was very busy this evening. The Canadians had come to the same tea house, and there was also a Japanese guy, an American guy and our old friend Elad the Israeli guy. We played cards with Narendra, our guide, and with Elad. Elad taught us the game ‘Shit head’, which he had been taught while travelling in India. It was a very simple game, and quite fun. We also played Remibridge (however you spell that). We had to change the rules though because we didn’t have enough cards for 4 players.

Daughter of the teahouse owner, fascinated by our wind-up torch.

The next morning we got talking with the American guy, who had a very German name, Klaus. He was trekking alone with just a guide and a porter, he had started trekking at 800m and he was planning to summit a 6700m mountain. He used to be a professional mountain biker and has been competing since 1991, but now he just does it for fun. As a result he is very fit, and even though this was his first ever climb, he was planning to go the top of a huge mountain!

Artur was very impressed by Klaus’ gadgets. He had a GPS that tracked his progress, his average speed, height of each climb, length of the whole journey etc. He also had a tiny laptop, which weighed only 0.5kg and was made to withstand high altitude. The laptop seemed like such a great idea for travelling, so Artur was very interested. Apparently you can only get it in America and maybe in France.

Starting mountain climbing from an early age

Day 5 - Dole to Machchermo 17.05

We started fairly late today, but the walk wasn’t a very long one. We were going from Dole (4200m) to Machchermo (4470m). It seemed like a waste to go such a short distance, but Elad told us that he’d been told to stay for two days in Machchermo, to acclimatize, before going any higher. We weren’t staying for two days, so a short trek to get there seemed fair.

The walk only took us 1 hour 40 minutes, which was good as it was cloudy, and there wasn’t much to see on the way. We saw some little wildflowers growing on the ground, but apart from a few scraggly bushes, there wasn’t much flora.

A field of wildflowers that still managed to grow at this altitude

We met Klaus again, and he and Artur chatted about their gadgets some more. Artur played with the GPS, and had a good look at the laptop. We saw the Japanese trekker again, and his guide and porter. Apart from that, our tea house was pretty empty. The Canadians must have gone somewhere else.

The tea house owner had some yaks, and fed them just outside the window. It was pretty cool to watch. One of the yaks stood right outside the kitchen door for most of the day, hoping for some more food. He had big blood-shot eyes and huge horns, so we stayed well away from him.

It started to get dark fairly early, which was frustrating because we were reading in the main room of the tea house. They wouldn’t turn the lights on because it wasn’t quite dark enough for them yet, so we had to read with our headlamps. Eventually they turned on the lights and lit the stove. So everyone was huddled around the stove, with no one talking. Eventually we pulled out our cards and played a few games of Shithead with Narendra. Artur became very frustrated with the game because Loren won every single time! He is still mystified at how she managed to do it, and is thinking she might be good in Las Vegas.

Day 6 - Machchermo to Gokyo 18.05

Today we hiked from Machchermo (4470m) to Gokyo (4800m). It was supposed to take 5 hours, but it only took us 3.5 hours. Narendra told us he thinks we are mountain people and that we were doing extremely well.

The houses that we passed on the way were all made of stones, and some sort of mortar to hold them together. Each property was surrounded by a small wall of stones. The walls were built on either side of the path we were walking on, and they looked a lot like the ones you’d find in an English village!

The sky was fairly clear today, so we had a good view of the enormous snow covered mountains. At one point we were looking at the river in the valley below, and thinking that it looked so tiny and distant. We started heading downhill very slowly and toward a distant waterfall. Eventually we found ourselves walking beside that very same river as it flowed down from the waterfall into the valley below. The water was almost a white colour and it was so beautiful as it flowed over the rocks in the riverbed.

We haven’t mentioned many of the animals we saw on the trek yet. We saw mountain goats, yaks, neks and horses. Neks are the females, yaks are the males, so it’s pretty funny when people try to sell yak cheese, because yaks don’t produce milk. We also saw the Nepali pheasant, which was very colourful, but the female was plain and brown.

Anyway, as we started to approach Gokyo, we saw lots of piles of stones. We were unsure of what they were for. They looked like they could be for ceremonies or maybe some were natural. We asked our guide, and he told us that the locals pile the stones like that just for fun. The sherpas and porters stop for breaks along the way, and sometimes they occupy their time this way.

Another really useful thing people do to stones, is to write the name of the town that you are approaching, how far you have to go, and an arrow in the right direction. We also saw a map drawn onto a stone, for the entire area we were trekking in. Very helpful for getting our bearings.

The rock with a map on it

It started to become very cold as we approached Gokyo, and we saw a few patches of snow nearby. The ground beneath our feet consisted of medium and small sized rocks, making each step important for balance. The landscape was covered with little towers of piled rocks, left behind by sherpas.

The most beautiful to see though were the three lakes. They were so clean and still, and such a beautiful clear blue colour. At the edge of the lakes you could see right through the water to all of the rocks at the bottom. All around us, incredible snow-capped mountains rose up on all sides, some were far off in the distance, but others were incredibly close. It felt like we were on another planet.

Gokyo Village

Finally we approached the little village of Gokyo. It was magical! The houses were clustered in front of a lake and on the opposite side of the water, a huge snow-covered mountain towered into the sky. On another side of the lake, we could see Gokyo Ri, the mountain that was our final destination. We would climb it the following day to reach 5360m.

We stayed at a tea house called Gokyo Resort, and they spoiled us with a spectacular view from our room. We were in the middle room on the top floor, and we could see the village below us, the clear blue lake and the huge mountain on the other side, all framed by our window.

Room with a view

The weather was quite cold at this altitude, so after a quick nap, we escaped to the stove in the dining room. Here we ran into our old pal Klaus, and the Japanese guy, who was a very loud eater by the way, not hard to miss. Klaus had climbed Gokyo Ri that morning, and showed Artur his pictures. Artur was a bit disappointed because it was very cloudy, and there was not much to see. Klaus had gone up the mountain at about 5 or 6 am, so we decided that we’d have to go earlier if we wanted to see Mt Everest.

After dinner, we decided to climb the mountain ridge behind our resort, so we could see the glacier on the other side. We were thrilled because the freezing weather meant we could finally try out our Puff Daddy jackets, and Loren’s new beanie.

At the base of the ridge, we found a big dog who seemed to be using a covered rubbish pit as a shelter. He seemed to like us, and followed us all the way to the top. The climb was steep, but not too hard. The only problem was that Loren had quite a bad headache, which hurt more when we were walking. She thinks it was from dehydration from digestion problems, not altitude sickness, and even if it was altitude sickness, the medication you can take for it causes further dehydration. So it was a no win situation.

Unfortunately by the time we reached the top, the sky was covered in fog, and we couldn’t see further than a metre or two in front of us. Then suddenly, it started to snow! Loren doesn’t see much snow in Australia, so she was very excited. Our dog found shelter from the wind behind a raised piece of rock, but apart from that he didn’t seem too bothered by the snow. We started to get cold though, so all three of us headed down the mountain ridge again. It was extremely steep for us, but the dog just ran straight down so easily. Loren was very jealous of the ease with which dogs can run up and down mountains.