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  • Himālaya & The Silk Road
    1
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    Day 15

    Day 15: Ringmu to Jubing

    April 4 in Nepal ⋅ ⛅ 18 °C

    A funny one today. The hubbub of activity outside our door at the busy guesthouse made us hesitant to leave our beds, and only once our not so friendly Russian neighbours had cleared off, we emerged from our room for some breakfast. Eventually we set off for the day as late as 09:30, making the laborious ascent up to the top of the pass, 3071 m at Taksindu La. Here, after a pause for some sweeping views, we were shepherded for a while by a friendly black dog, who we dubbed 'Shishapangma' in homage to the 8027 m Tibetan mountain. Our friendly accomplice sadly didn't follow us for long though, and the 1500 m+ of elevation loss that followed became a feat of lengthy concentration and accurate foot placement. And yet somehow, as we'd descended onto perhaps the easiest terrain of the entire day: a dusty, descending road, I clearly lost my concentration and rolled my ankle, taking a tumble and scuffing my left knee. Patching up the blood in Nunthala and filling up on some bland (to Thomas's delight) spaghetti and apple pie in a fine teahouse, we soon got back to our descent. And boy did we descend, down to 1490 m, the lowest altitude we will experience for the remainder of the trek. With it now being Thomas' turn to question the motions of his stomach and pounding of his head, we then ascended back up again to Jubing, where we are once again the only guests. Over dinner, we discussed our dream meal each to distract from the heavily heaped greens on our noodles and took it in good spirits to pass out for another day.Read more

  • Himālaya & The Silk Road
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    Day 14

    Day 14: Junbesi to Ringmu

    April 3 in Nepal ⋅ ⛅ 16 °C

    Leaving our packs behind in Junbesi, we decided to take a short break out of our trek and instead took a morning stroll up to Thubten Choling, the largest Buddhist monastery in Nepal. A huge untroubled community of nuns and monks living harmoniously in a 3000 m village embellished with intricate colourful ornaments. I have to say, it's the first time I've ever visited any place of religious significance and realised that this could easily be a salvation for its members. We saw the prayer wheels inscribed with mantras rotating due to the cleverly engineered flow of water, while robe-wearing monks roamed between vibrant buildings amid tranquil chiming and all the children seemed to be learning to make pottery at school. After wandering questionably into a very holy looking building, we found a place to buy some prayer flags, beautifully hand painted postcards, and a notebook handmade with an ancient paper making technique. It was such a peaceful place, and honestly, I'm not religious myself, but if I was, Buddhism would be the one for me. (And we did also buy toilet paper there, so maybe that'll make my holes holy after all?)

    Returning to our lodge in Junbesi, we each devoured another of our favourite pizzas yet and some cadbury's we'd wangled at a shop, before making haste in the heat onward on the trail. A stuffy ascent sent us up to Phurtheng, where I decided to stop to enjoy the view over a cup of tea. Here, the host of the teahouse was a very sweet guy, a Sherpa who had lived there his whole life, and entertained our stop by explaining the extent of the traditional route and how the sections from Jiri had suffered hugely in business since most people now choose to fly into Lukla. One thing about him, just as is common with many Nepalis, was just how humble he was, placing his hands together almost in prayer and grinning with a huge smile in response to every 'namaste'. Ending the day with a further down then up through a valley via a hanging bridge, we have called it a day in Ringmu, where a busier teahouse continues to wane our wearies.    Read more

  • Himālaya & The Silk Road
    Day 13

    Day 13: Pikey Peak Base Camp to Junbesi

    April 2 in Nepal ⋅ ☀️ 15 °C

    Slept up against the outdoor wall of the shack at base camp, I spent the night huddled up with my water filter and electronics in my sleeping bag with me to save them from the bitter cold wind which spilled between the wall's wooden planks. And apart from synchronous 2 am awakenings to glug some icy water and stave off our severe dehydration, we appeared to be clear of any signs of altitude sickness.

    Cue 4:45 am and our plan kicks into action, mashing our things into our bags and throwing on our warmest layers to brave the strong icy crosswind of the dark dawn up to the peak. But we weren't alone, and in fact, we weren't nearly the first people to set off for the summit; the pastel colours of the sky revealing the lengthy line of trekkers making their pilgrimage to look out upon Nepal's 8000-metre monsters on the horizon. Among them: Everest, Lhotse, Annapurna, Dhaulagiri, Makalu, Manaslu, Cho Oyu, Kangchenjunga, all iconic names towering and jostling for space in one big line which seemed to expand from western Nepal one way to the Indian border in the east (though to be honest we struggled picking out exactly which mountain was which). We soaked in the view for a while even after almost every other trekker had moved on (and also after Thomas had made me take a photo of him with literally everything). Once we did decide to move on, Thomas couldn't help but run up the second summit at 4064 m, while I sat and admired looking down on a drifting plane from above.

    Following 500 m of descent, the adrenaline had long worn off, and we stopped for some breakfast to fend off our feelings of being gruesome: having not eaten, nor drank while sweating hard in clammy warm clothes with the sun now shining. Breaking up our brunch to have with some chat with welshman Rob and Portuguese Raul, we took off again to finish our long descent back down into the valley. Other than handing out some chocolate to Nepalese children during a lunch stop, the rest of the day became a simple trundle into the village of Junbesi, where we have struck gold with this gem of a teahouse, albeit containing a very naughty cat who kept trying to steal our dinners. But regardless, had my first hot shower since Kathmandu, and god it feels good to be clean!!    Read more

  • Himālaya & The Silk Road
    Day 12

    Day 12: Goli Gumba to Pikey Pk Base Camp

    April 1 in Nepal ⋅ ☀️ 17 °C

    Three whole kilometres of flat ground? Surely an April Fools' joke, we thought, but no. A gentle start from Goli Gumba eased us into the day's walking until we reached a dusty ascent, where some locals who were trying to kick a motorbike into gear (at 3000 m of all places) took an interest in us, and resulted in a bit of a bizarre selfie. What followed was a moderate climb through mossy, enchanting woods, which seemed to be dripping in colour: of red rhododendrons, blue blooms of flowers, rich in green shrubs, and bountiful in butterflies, especially given the altitude.

    The journey was honestly a peaceful and enjoyable one, and it felt like no time at all until we'd pulled into a little teahouse for some chow mein lunch at 3400 m, with the growing Himalayan range staring back at us. The Nepalese who we came across at that teahouse were exceptionally hardy people, and we saw the old lady who we figured must've been in her eighties and a lama at the adjoining monastery, hauling a giant basket of firewood up the steps all while balancing the load with nothing more than her head (!) I don't know about your nan, but my nan struggles to walk in a straight line while carrying a cup of tea in her living room even (bless her), god knows how she'd fare with a ton of bricks on Kilimanjaro (sorry nan.)

    Our final stretch of ascent was drawn out over the next few hours as we battled a shortness of breath due to the dwindling atmospheric oxygen, while passing little patches of ice on our way up to Pikey Peak base camp at an altitude of 3730 m. Here, we were surprised to see one thing, other trekkers?! Where the hell have they come from, and why are there suddenly so many? Realising that we won't be enjoying much solitude beyond this stage, I think we both have renewed cheer for how we'd chosen to do the previous sections, having enjoyed whole teahouses to ourselves literally every day. Still, with the chance to talk to some fluent English speakers, we met a South African couple who'd been travelling for over 2 years straight, survived death from a Laotian bus crash, and where the husband had been an understudy to Archbishop Desmond Tutu back when he worked. Pretty cool. And with that, we set down the shutters and prepared for a 4:30 am awakening to ambush Pikey Peak at dawn.

    P.S. First day without signal so you won't see this as I write it!    Read more

  • Himālaya & The Silk Road
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    Day 11

    Day 11: Namkheli to Goli Gumba

    March 31 in Nepal ⋅ ☀️ 16 °C

    Freshly fired up from our morning serving of Nepalese chapatti and honey, we set off for the beautifully clear day with a 1000+ m of ascent in mind before dark. In fact, with the altitude rising ~1200 m in a span of only 3.6 km, there was only one order for how today would go: uphill, uphill, then finally some more uphill.

    But where to incline was where our confusion lay at first; steep, mazey tracks unmarked on our maps criss-crossed the mountainside making it tricky to find a consistent route. Hey, uphill is uphill, we thought, all roads lead to Rome, and kept hauling ourselves up blindly. Luckily, we did find our intended path, and managed to slowly crawl up in elevation, taking occasional shady breaks to discuss nonsense like every member of Bournemouth's championship winning side back in the day.

    Visibility was stunning and once we'd ascended beyond 2450m, we could peer back down into the deep valley out of which we'd emerged, while, in the other direction, a magnificent cast of towering snow-capped characters emerged on the skyline. It was our first true view of the Himalayan massif (and wow they're beautifully big, and beautifully terrifying.)

    Cue some more upward slog and Thomas using the camera's mind boggling zoom abilities to inspect the wildlife's tonsils, and we find ourselves at 3,000 m in Goli Gumba. And good golly (Gumba) indeed, there's no shortage of vantage points nor monasteries up here. Meanwhile, our teahouse for the night is again (and unsurprisingly at this point) completely empty, although the language barrier did result in us accidentally ordering double the amount of food to what we intended (oops). We then marvel at the sunset before I write these rambles* and call it quits until tomorrow.

    *I'm also now preparing to run out into a storm to wangle some signal to upload this footprint, so you better be damn grateful to see this.    Read more

  • Himālaya & The Silk Road
    1
    Day 10

    Day 10: Deurali to Namkheli

    March 30 in Nepal ⋅ ☀️ 18 °C

    A shorter one today because I'm tired (but mostly feeling better minus a cold). After stepping out of the door from our teahouse in Deurali, we gazed out upon our very first view of snow capped peaks on the trek, with a clear view up to Pikey Peak and a handful of other mountains rising to 5,000m, which apparently given their abundance in Nepal, hadn't even been named. The descent from Deurali into Bhandar was a real highlight, passing through untouched local life, where the view into the vast valley was complemented by sightings of baby goats and namaste-nodding natives. Heading back up the other side from our low point of the day, the beating sun did its best to slow our ascent into Namkheli, during which some guy stopped to stare at us on passing, getting uncomfortably close to me while clutching a machete (no, really, we think he wanted cigarettes?) We've received some odd looks in Namkheli, I don't think they receive many western tourists here at all (if ever?), especially being slightly off the extended Everest Base Camp routes. Finally, with the sun setting, our day was capped off with our first experience of a full-on monsoon, blackening out the sparkling sky and scattered hillside lights with the violent crescendoing of thunder and eruption of a dense downpour.Read more

  • Himālaya & The Silk Road
    Day 9

    Day 9: Shivalaya to Deurali

    March 29 in Nepal ⋅ ☁️ 14 °C

    We were sad to say goodbye to cheerful Shivalaya, and even sadder to say goodbye to our teahouse host, Badar, who took the time to explain the religious and social changes Nepal has been going through over the past 20 years. Most interestingly, Badar explained how he himself was a Buddhist while his wife was a Hindu; something that would've been strictly forbidden under the caste system only two decades ago, as well as touching on other issues such as the impact of the internet on rural life, and the increasing shift to gender balance in Nepal.

    After tipping freely in thanks for his hospitality, we were back on the trail again, and suddenly faced with an unrelenting 1 km ascent up to the village of Deurali, at an altitude of 2705 m. Here's the problem though, my illness had set in even worse today, with periodic sneezing, a sore throat, feverous chills, stomach cramps, and a complete decimation of energy levels to name but a few symptoms. But why has it been so hard to avoid illness so far? We don't know frankly, is it the food, the water, the foreign strains of sickly bacteria you simply can't avoid? Up until now, we've been double purifying our water supply, first using an ultraviolet steripen to disinfect it, followed by a treatment of Chlorine Dioxide solution to be extra sure of its cleanliness. Every time I'd been taking a gulp of our processed water though, it had only been adding to my thirst and further irritating my inflamed throat. I don't know if my body just doesn't agree with Chlorine Dioxide (Thomas has been fine after all), or if I inhaled one gulp of chlorine gas too many in its preparation, but I decided to switch over from chemical treatment to using my water filter with the steripen, which has been much better since.

    Anyhow, the result of all this has been a painfully slow day without much significant progress. Still, Thomas (who enjoyed his healthiest day yet himself) punctuated the uphill heaves of footsteps by immersing himself in the Himalayan biology once again, even spotting a venomous Orange Collared Keelback snake under foot. Calling the day short at Deurali, it's been a quiet evening (again as the only guests here at all!) while I try to sniffle myself back to something resembling a healthy person.    Read more

  • Himālaya & The Silk Road
    Day 8

    Day 8: Jiri to Shivalaya

    March 28 in Nepal ⋅ ☁️ 14 °C

    Today, we finally kicked off our trek, taking the first steps hopefully towards the slopes of the world's tallest mountain. Not a long day as of itself, but at least personally, a difficult one, and not on account of the mild 9.5 km distance, 600m ascent or altitude, but out of feeling so weak for illness and lack of having eaten for two days.

    Still, we had plenty to appreciate, enjoying witnessing quiet rural life in the foothills of the Himalayas. As suspected, Thomas marvelled at the array of exotic birds, rhododendrons and every tidbit of biology he could feast his eyes upon, while the locals have been incredibly friendly, trading us a modest 'namaste' and pointing us in the right direction at every available opportunity. One thing we found particularly interesting was just how many tiny settlements are dotted all about: small farmsteads and tiny communities too insignificant to be classified as villages or even be granted their own names stretch almost continuously along the trail. It really does feel like if you slipped away to live a life as a humble Nepalese farmer, no-one might find you ever again. Perhaps also surprisingly, it's just SO quiet, with us seeing barely another western trekker the entire day, and so far we've been spoilt for choice for empty teahouses to choose between.

    Shivalaya, our day one destination, is named after Shiva, the Hindu god of destruction amongst other things, and perhaps by fate of name was devastated by the 7.8 magnitude earthquake that occurred here in 2015. It's clearly been rebuilt since, and is a colourful but sleepy stopover, where we've bought our entrance through to the Gaurishankar Conservation Area for tomorrow's section and cooled off by actually eating something (me) and trying to ring his Nan twenty times (Thomas).    Read more

  • Himālaya & The Silk Road
    Day 7

    Day 7: Jiri

    March 27 in Nepal ⋅ ☁️ 14 °C

    Okay, bit of a write-off day. After repeated bouts of throwing up and rejecting the contents of my stomach overnight (Dal Bhat I reckon) we decided to take the conservative approach and stay put for the day. Still, it's not been entirely unproductive, as I managed to join a call for UKAEA, and Thomas finished critiquing his paper to re-submit, as well as mingling with our hosts. We go again tomorrow 🫡Read more

  • Himālaya & The Silk Road
    Day 6

    Day 6: Kathmandu to Jiri

    March 26 in Nepal ⋅ ⛅ 15 °C

    There are several trailheads to commence the trek into Everest Base Camp. Many tourists on a timescale choose to fly from Kathmandu straight into Lukla, with a reputation as perhaps the most dangerous flight in the world, where the short runway is bookended either side by a sheer drop and a huge cliff. On the other hand, some travellers prefer to rent a jeep and enter via Phaplu, while the more time-rich trekkers can choose to walk the extra 90 km+ by riding a bus into the small town of Jiri, taking some extra time to soak in rural Nepalese life and acclimatise to the ascending altitudes. Having weighed up our options and deciding we'd be best suited to take our time, we opted for the latter route, and having done our homework, set off to Jadibuti via taxi at 7 am, where we crossed our fingers in hope of finding a ride towards Jiri.

    After rattling through the early streets of Kathmandu, our taxi driver pulled up on a busy road, wound down his front window and emphasised the word 'Jiri' to some locals who were causing the regular disruption. Within a matter of seconds, our haggling with the taxi driver had become well, obsolete, as we didn't even have time to break change before he'd opened his tailgate and allowed the locals to scurry off with my backpack. Alarmed at having had practically the entirety of my possessions walked off with, I rushed after the guy who took us to a bus where the driver claimed to be going to Jiri. Fair enough, we thought, there's no other way we'd know where the hell it's going, so we hopped on. At least by consolation, we weren't the only westerners on board; an American dude named Brock rocked up soon after, and it wasn't long before the bus was crawling along through the suburbs, recruiting locals on board seemingly at random. Passengers weren't the only thing this bus traded though, as we stopped at nearly every market en route for some new commodity, even picking up boxes and boxes of newly hatched chicks, which were crammed up into the overhead bag storage for the journey! Despite the persistent chirping which eventually became drowned out by the blaring traditional music, the journey was actually... alright?! We'd been braced for the ride from hell; we even read one article yesterday from someone who'd said something to the effect of 'it wasn't that bad' followed by 'only half of the passengers became travel sick' and 'we had to sit on top of the bus and dodge the power lines in the rain'. But in the end, despite an 8+ hour journey of incessant hairpin turns and crumbling cliffside roads, we didn't experience any of that and, dare I say, we actually kind of enjoyed the ride? Oh, and we did get smuggled off of our original bus and shoehorned into another that turned out to *actually* be going to Jiri at one point, but not much drama otherwise.

    Anyhow, once we'd arrived in the Jiri rain, a local man greeted us straight off the bus and into his lodging, Hotel Everest, where we've spent the evening playing card games with Minnesotan Brock and local man Probin, and feasting on Tibetan Bread, dumpling-style MoMos and Dal Bhat.    Read more

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