Homesick for Himalaya

For several weeks now, I’ve been dreaming mountains and wanting to return to the Himalaya. Every evening before going to bed, I find myself re-reading the Nepal guidebooks and notes I wrote during my spring trek to Kala Pattar, Everest Base Camp, and Gokyo, in the Everest region.

Although I kept a blog-journal during the trek (see the April-May entries), the posts were only a sentence or two long, and failed to capture the totality of experience. I often read other people’s journals of this trek, and it’s likely that there are people out there who might be interested to re-trace their trek to the foot of Mount Everest through my accounts.

I am therefore publishing, for the first time, the full notes from my trek.

Every day, I’ll upload entries for a single day on the trek. I hope trekkers and adventurers enjoy reading my journey.

11 April 2007
Rangding, 2,600 metres, 1415 hrs.
I’m in Rangding [see photo], just across the bridge from Phakding, chilling out in an idyllic campsite-cum-lodge. Very luxurious, rooms even have ensuite facilities!

It took me 2 and a half hours to arrive at Phakding from Lukla, the airstrip, and about 20 minutes more to descend and cross the river. If I remember correctly, it took Muha and me more than 5 hours to get to Phakding from Lukla in December 2005, but we did stop somewhere for a cup of tea back then.

So I’m happy with how I’ve done on the first day of the trek. I even found myself singing on the way here, I was so pleased to be back in the Himalaya. But I have to say I still found some of the steep steps downhill quite taxing; they really slowed me down. Also, after 2 hours I did begin to get tired, but never enough to want to stop. When I got here, my legs were a bit stiff. I think the first day on an uneven mountain trail is bound to cause discomfort.

It’s cloudy and somewhat cold, especially inside my room, but the view from the window is fantastic.

It was nice to get off the aircraft in Lukla this morning, and lovely to see Nawang and his mum again (they were in Himalayan Dreams), and to give them a DVD of our film.

The flight didn’t yield mountain views, but just before we landed, I did have a glimpse of the jagged snow peaks through a break in the clouds.

1730hours.

Had a nap and then went for a walk over to Phakding, where I had Tibetan bread with jam and ginger tea. I shared the bread with a shaggy dog. Legs seemed better but I detected a slight pain when I bent my right knee over larger rocks and steps. Nevertheless I did much better in the stroll over the steep bits than I did on the way here.

In 2005, I sat on a stone slab at the end of the bridge, looked up at clouds rolling down the steep hillside and thought about something which at that time had caused me a great deal of unhappiness. But as darkness enveloped the hills, I was able to see a new perspective on the matter.

So this time around, I sat on the same spot again, thankful to the Himalaya for helping me learn to deal so well with what was bothering me.

I haven’t been unhappy about anything for a long time.