David Beaumont

So at the end of the last blog, we were at a crossroads as to whether to continue with our trek over the world's highest mountain pass and this certainly wasn’t aided by the first nights accommodation - a cold damp small shared room directly next to a stinky squat toilet. However, as became apparent over the duration of the trek, there were several people all there in a similar boat to yourself, all motivating you to continue, but not in a condescending way as everyone has their limits and breaking points. Everyone who had got to where they had already had done incredibly well but it was these people that would get you through the tough times and push you further - sometimes more than what you thought you were capable of. I also knew that I would need these people as my feeble attempts of ‘look at that mountain’ would not be enough to persuade Rose to stay on it!

That evening, we were joined by some German travellers who were doing the walk insanely quickly - more quickly than I thought the slow travel times in Nepal would allow the guy to finish and get to Kathmandu in time for his flight back home only three days later! Credit for the optimism though, and of course that guy had to be back at work only two hours after getting back to Germany though. The real stories that night were however about an old guy they had met called Bobby who sounds like one traveller that could and should have his own book in a ‘What would Bob Do?’ way.

One such example is Bob deciding one day that he wanted to go to Tibet, so he got all of his stuff and trekked alone for days until he crossed an unmanned border and trekked for a few more days to the nearest village, where they found he had no permits and were going to extradite him immediately, only they couldn’t because winter had hit and all the roads that day were closed off.... for four months! During this time, Bob lived with a Tibetan family but had no communication to the outside world and his family presumed him to be dead, until the weather cleared and he was able to call them from a Tibetan jail! Eventually they just chucked him out the country and back to where he started from!

Another event of that evening was Maria (see last blog) wanted to buy a sleeping bag as hers wasn’t suitable for the higher altitudes and lower temperatures, and after being away for an hour came back saying a Brazilian guy had leant his to her. At which point we were a bit like what the fuck as who in their right mind would lend their sleeping bag in these temperatures?! This guy had also been staying in the town for 14 nights (he’d presumed 10) where there wasn’t really a right lot to do so immediately there was an impression of someone quite unique, but over the next few days Leo became a great friend!

This began the next day, when we checked out our hostel and moved over to his (via several trips to the bakery and proper coffee shop). Most of that day was just spent relaxing and chatting. We met an Estonian guy I think called Zecom but we just called him Bacon as no one knew any better! Bacon had an oxygen reader thing which proved we were still all in reasonable shape although with a significantly raised pulse, and also told some stories of the Yak killing that him and Leo were invited to witness that morning - I’d given that one a pass!

In Manang town there was the option of going to one of the two cinemas?!!! but they looked beyond freezing so gave that a miss. I took a leisurely walk to a nearby lake to take some pictures, took hot showers, did laundry etc whilst Rose did some more resting, also waiting for the Doctors altitude talk at 3pm.

In many ways I think this talk was the true turning point for Rose, as it confirmed all the symptoms she had been trying to pass off as something else were all in fact relating to altitude, and the doctor was very good at describing that if this was managed properly and we took more time and caution then our holiday could be enjoyable afterall!

The night (or up to the usual bed time of around 8pm) was again just spent chatting and then spending half the night going for a piss.

The next morning was a shorter, much less steep walk to the next village called Yak Kharka. Rose had decided to continue on the walk that morning and (after we had both taken half a diamox) was in good health and spirits going up the hill - more so than myself. Despite the Ice Lake killing us at the time, it definitely helped with the altitude as we then progressed back up at a slower pace. A pace that was definitely hindered by the long trails of tour groups which had naturally got up and out hours before we had finished faffing but the difference this time is that we were overtaking them.

Young Marion had been struggling a little bit that morning with dizziness and feeling sick and signs that the doctor has mentioned the previous day to be wary of, but was in no mood for stopping. To aid her we gave half a diamox at breakfast which again seemed to aid things along a little bit, but after we reached Yak Kharka she said she couldn’t feel her feet even when hitting them and looked in a bit of a bad way. I think a few people had concerns but at the end of the day everyone is an adult and capable of making their own decisions so no one was going to be turning back at this point.

We had thought we had lost Leo as there was no sign of him at breakfast but he later rocked up by himself around 3pm which now joined our ever increasing group. At Yak Kharka, we were rejoined by the English guy from our jeep Tom (who despite being two days behind) had already overtaken us with his trekking partner ‘Old’ Marion who was in no way old (30) but Leo liked to call her the old French Broad as a joke and in reference to Young Marion! We also met a Latvian/Ukrainian couple (who live in London) - Alex and Kristine who had stayed in Yak Kharka the night before as Kristine was struggling with the altitude. That then completed our group of 9 people who we then stayed with until the end! Leo later said that he stayed in Manang for so long waiting to find the right group of people to continue with and we had definitely now got a good solid group of really nice people to help get us through the next couple of tough days.

The rest of that afternoon was spent playing cards and attempting to get the patchier than a patch quilt WiFi working so not a right lot to chat about so instead can focus on a couple more Nepal observations:

- The Nepalese love bloody burning everything. Part can be put against not being able to recycle at that height, with tourists to blame but get up in the morning and the persons just burning a load of heather for the hell of it, what’s that all about?!

- They hate sinks. Every place we stayed had at least a squat toilet and a shower that you wouldn’t generally ever want to use but a sink is harder to find than a decent bacon sandwich in the Himalayas. Most trips to a sink involved about three flights of stairs and a trip to the opposite end of the building which you were in no mood for when it’s so damn cold! Especially in the middle of the night where it’s hard enough getting out your sleeping bag (altitude also makes you pee a lot more) and then you have to traipse again to the arse end of nowhere to find the fucking sink. Just put one remotely close to the bathroom and save everyone’s misery!

Anyway... after sleeping in our ‘cottage’ which was freezing, the next day we set off to Thorong Pedi, the stop before the mountain pass. A few people were interested in walking to the high camp to sleep as would be less of a climb the following day but it was going to be a bit too much altitude gain for one day and wanted to learn our lesson from earlier in the week. Again, the aim was to get up and leave early before all the tour groups but that was a total fail.

Fortunately Tom, who we found out the day before had been in the Royal Marines for 15 years was a bit more disciplined than us had walked ahead in order to reserve accommodation (very limited in the upper reaches) for us.

That morning, Rose’s middle finger had turned purple from the cold and she couldn’t feel or move it and was very scared of losing it. Handwarmers, gloves and lots of rubbing to the rescue and eventually (after quite some time) her hands began to warm up and she was ok. Her recovery no doubt aided by Leo who was telling us about Mr Bean on holiday (film) greeting everyone with wafting middle fingers as he thought it was customary and if Rose lost her finger she wouldn’t be able to do this to anyone any more. This wafting of middle fingers of course became our customary greeting whenever we saw him again and even spread to other people on the mountain - an Israeli girl even stopping to ask for a picture!

Not too much else to chat about the walk other than again it was very difficult with no air and the last incline was a beast - especially as you had to wait about ten minutes to get past the hoarded of Chinese tourists all taking pictures at the village entrance.

In the afternoon, I learnt that icy squat toilets are extremely treacherous, the dorm we stayed in probably hadn’t been cleaned for about 20 years, I’d now become pretty good at the card game I’d learnt the day before and in our hostel we ‘were surrounded by the English’. Or at least according to one traveller who decided to declare it at the top of her voice when everything went quiet.

Everyone was feeling a little spaced out at that altitude, and with Kristine still struggling a bit, Alex had hired a horse the following morning to help carry the large bags up. Something we were on board with sharing, as despite it being extremely expensive in Nepalese terms, we put £20 each back in to a London perspective and thought it was one of the best possible decisions we could make if we were going to get over the pass successfully the other morning!

That evening we were also joined in our dorm by an older German guy called Frank, who as well as being interested in laughing at us for Brexit also shared another common feature of the trek a There seemed to be a lot of older single men doing the trek as a bit of an escape and a chance to get some headspace. Often sent off by their wives as a do this for you, or in Bacon’s case, please can you use your energy somewhere else!

The following morning, we had to get up at 4am to set off. We hadn’t really slept that night, mostly cause of the altitude but not assisted by the kitchen staff sprogging outside our room for extended durations. As it was now getting to minus 20 at night, slept fully clothed so didn’t have to change into cold clothes in the morning. Frank, the mental German slept in t shirt and shorts?! Rose was also the resident hostel bag rustler but she won't admit it :P

So yeh, we had breakfast, whacked our stuff on the horse and set off in pitch black with head torches at around 5am in the freezing weather up the final kilometre up to the mountain pass. On the way, peoples hair froze, groups were hitting the mountain with their trekking poles shouting expletives at it, Leo waved his fingers around like Mr Bean, and Rose was aided on by seeing a Robin, symbolic of her dad, and Leo singing Here Comes The Sun to lift everyone’s spirit when the sun finally came up to warm everyone up a bit.

Warm everyone, except Young Marion, who had mentally lost it that morning after leaving her water bottle at the Thorong Pedi camp and us telling her she couldn’t turn back and go get it. We bought her some extra water but that didn’t prove to be enough as we got further up he mountain and to the final tea house where she looked like she was suffering from hypothermia and was not in a good way.

Leo, got her up to that tea house and then we covered her in all the blankets that the place had and gave her hot tea and electrolytes but all of us had an impossible task persuading her to take a horse ride for the last leg of the trip. She was being very stubborn in that we should leave her (not happening) and that she would be alright (she clearly wasn’t). It also seemed that one of the main issues was the money, but even when we offered to pay she was having none of it.

Unfortunately this was starting to become quite a burden for everyone though as there is only a limited window you are able to get up and over the pass before the winds become dangerous and it can become (fatally) dangerous. It got to the point where it was a bit like either you get on the horse or you walk with us now or we are all going to die. Suddenly she snapped out of it and decided to walk - again having Alex and Leo to assist in motivating her, after another tough couple of hours we finally reached the top and whilst it was an incredible feeling, it was also one filled with relief that after everything we had made it!

We stayed at the top for some pictures, picked up our bags and waited for the remainder of our group to join us - Kristine being the last one arriving in horseback, riding in with elegance! I had toyed with the idea of how cool/metal it would be to ride on the back of a Yak over the pass though I think I may have been somewhat less elegant!

After finishing the pass, in some ways mentally you think yes I’ve done it but noooooo not really any time for that as we then had to descend another 10 kilometres downhill going from the top point of 5416 metres to 3700. This proved incredibly tough as the steep drops were very harsh on the knees and the ankles.

As we were about halfway down the hill, Rose was in absolute agony and could barely walk with each step causing excruciating pain. Again, so much for the relaxing holiday.... Unfortunately there wasn’t really any other option other than trying to push through it and continue but a lot of expletives and tears were shed on the way down and I felt really bad for putting her through this and also making this our holiday for the year.

As we continued on, progress was very slow, but again it was very lucky we had the company of other people on the trek as they helped get Rose through those sections that I would not have been able to do alone. Leo made a stone offering to the mountains, helped and spoke to pretty much every person he saw on the mountains, and Alex and Kristine walked with us patiently until after a few more hours we finally reached a small town where we could get some food and drink on board.

At this point we had been walking for around 10 hours and everyone was exhausted so we made an enquiry of getting a jeep the final three kilometres only to be greeted with a stupid price of 300 dollars - fuck you!

This didn’t really give us any other option but to continue on foot for the final section where the unbearable pain in Rose’s legs became furthermore unbearable and a LOT more expletives and tears were shed over the final couple of hours, until we finally reached the town of Muktinath and the end of our trek!

One of the hardest, toughest, epic walks you could do was now complete and we could reflect a little bit immensely proud of what we had achieved. That final downhill section for Rose especially was incredibly tough and i was so proud of her for getting through it against the odds. Maybe next time (although the ‘I’m never doing this again’ may suggest otherwise) we should probably pick something a little less challenging than the worlds highest mountain pass to do but either way WE DID IT!!!!!!!

As usual, after having a difficult day, everything becomes just that much more difficult and things weren’t about to get any easier as we searched for accommodation in the finishing town of Muktinath. It is normal on the trek that you don’t really pay much for accommodation under the agreement that you will eat dinner and breakfast at the place, however our group had all arrived at different times and checked in at different places and we wanted to eat and celebrate together. The rude obnoxious bint owner as Hotel Monalisa was having none of it though even when clearly tired and exhausted offering to pay more for the room (which was more unwelcoming than a pile of Yak shit) , she shouted at us and slammed doors and said she was a businesswoman - more like rude cunt.

We took our business and money elsewhere and her Google reviews are now down to 1.8 stars - good luck with your tourist business now you twat!

Eventually after searching round a bit we reached and agreement with a hotel with hot showers which didn’t enforce us to eat there and after a couple of hours reconvened as a group to celebrate with Pizza and Beer - never has a Tuborg tasted so good!

That was a long day for everyone and tested quite a few peoples breaking points. Mine wasn’t to come initial the following day though...

The next morning we decided to keep the group together and all get a long jeep ride back to Pokhara. Tom was to continue on with his trekking mission, though a bit sad to be leaving the rest of us as we dropped him at the next town, where we also managed to cancel our flight we had booked earlier - didn’t really fancy hanging around in a cold mountain town for another 4 days as was also starting to cough and feel a bit ill.

That illness intensified in the afternoon, and not being the greatest with motion sickness anyway - being thrown around in the back seat of a jeep for 10 hours became a bit too much. Everything was hurting and the pressure in my head and the incoming death cold of doom was just a bit too much that day and became a bit emotional on the latter half of the trip, though did have the rest of the group again fortunately there to push you through it and keep spirits up through the worst of times. Not sure what the Nepalese driver thought of our music choices especially 8 foreigners singing Bare Necessities at the top of their voices and doing the Mr Bean fingers at a few choice people and moments! Can’t really remember too much more of that trip other than Rose saying my temperature was all over the place, but eventually about 10 hours later made it back to Pokhara to complete this monumental section of our trip!Read more