Nepal
Solukhumbu

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    • Day 24

      Trekking Tag 8: Everest Basecamp 🫶

      April 30 in Nepal ⋅ ☀️ -5 °C

      Heute ist es endlich soweit! Das Everest Bascamp liegt einen Tagesmarsch vor uns. Wir starteten den Tag wie jeden: „same same 07.00 breakfast 7.30 ready to go“. Nach ca. einer Stunde schaute ich auf meine Uhr und wir waren schon gut über 5000 m.ü.M. - nun haben wir also auch diese Marke geknackt. Wir liefen langsam durch Landschaften, die etwas an Star Wars erinnerten. Immer noch eher leicht bekleidet wegen der warmen Sonne und nach knapp 3 Stunden, weil es auf den engen und steinigen Wegen zu Stau kam, erreichten wir unser späteres Nachtlager in Gorkha Shep auf 5100 m.ü.M.
      Kurz ausruhen, Lunch und umpacken. Nur noch etwa 2 Stunden bis zum Basecamp! Wir starteten natürlich super motiviert, aber die Höhe machte uns das erste Mal wirklich etwas zu schaffen. Dann endlich hinter dem nächsten Hügel konnten wir es sehen, weiterkämpfen und knapp unter 2 Stunden waren wir an unsrem Ziel, dem Everest Bascamp! ENatürlich zuerst das WC ausprobieren 😉 Dann Fotos gemacht und einfach die Stimmung und die Umgebung aufgesogen. Schliesslich wurde heute ein Traum war!
      Leider mussten wir uns auch wieder verabschieden und den doch anstrengenden Weg wieder zurücklaufen. Todmüde, aber auch sehr glücklich wieder zurück in Gorkha zum Znacht und zur letzten Nacht auf dieser Höhe.
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    • Day 11

      Trekking til Pikey Peak og Junbesi

      March 17 in Nepal ⋅ ☁️ 7 °C

      Vi har nu haft fire vandredage i Himalaya 🥾

      Den første dag stod på en let vandretur på en 4-5 timer (fra Dhap til Jhabre). Hele vejen blev vi fulgt af en hund, som så lidt medtaget ud. Vi kaldte ham Gustav. Gustav tog simpelthen med hen og overnattede ved vores tehus i Jhabre. I tehuset faldt vi i snak med en flok jævnaldrende tyskere, samt en østrigsk kvinde, som alle skal ud på nogenlunde den samme rute ved 'Pikey peak'.

      Dagen derpå forsøgte Gustav at følge med os videre, men vi fik ham til at blive tilbage. Dagen stod på et længere og hårdere trek, hvor vi skulle gå i 7-8 timer med en masse højdemeter. Her skulle vi ende ved 'basecamp' til Pikey peak og overnatte i et tehus beliggende i ca. 3700 m.o.h. På vejen spiste vi frokost ved et lokalt lille køkken, og her mødte vi igen tyskerne... - og Gustav! Han var simpelthen fulgt med dem, så nu begyndte han at være langt hjemmefra 😅 Heldigvis kom en flok trekkere den modsatte vej, og Gustav gik nu med dem, så forhåbentligt kommer han godt hjem igen 🤞🏻 I basecampen var der masser liv og sniksnak om aftenen. Her boede vi bl.a. sammen med tyskerne fra tidligere, et par amerikanere og nogle mountainbikere. Alle skulle tidligt op, for at kunne nå op til solopgang på Pikey peak dagen derpå 🌻

      Som sagt så gjort; i går stod vi op, så vi var klar til at gå kl. 4.30, så vi kunne se solopgangen på toppen (4067 m.o.h). Der var helt stjerneklart, og vi kæmpede os op af bjerget iklædt varmt tøj og pandelygter. Kl. 5.40 var vi fremme på toppen, og hold nu op en udsigt! Her havde vi den smukkeste morgen med udsigt over til store bjergkæder; og nåhr ja, så kunne vi da også se Mount Everest 😎

      Herefter skulle vi egentlig bare gå ned ad i ca. To timer, og så var vi fremme ved et nyt tehus (i Jasmane Bhanjyang), hvor vi skulle have en rigtig slappe-dappe-dag. Vi fik læst, sovet lur, og badet (okay, vi fik en spand varm vand og sæbe), og så spiste vi en masse 'momo', som er en slags Tibetansk dumpling 🥟

      I dag er vi gået videre til bjergbyen Junbesi (5-6 timers trek). Da vi vågnede i morges, var det overskyet, og mens vi spiste morgenmad så vi et par enkelte snefnug falde. Sneen tog dog til, og de første timer gik vi i snevejr, og undervejs fik vi brug for kæder om skoene, så vi ikke skøjtede rundt Heldigvis var det kun i en kort strækning, at det var nødvendigt. Vi fik frokost i et tehus på vejen. Her var der tændt op i brændeovnen og vi kunne varme samt tørre os selv og vores grej, inden vores videre færd. Efter nogle timer i støvregn kom vi endelig frem til tehuset i Junbesi. Her mødte vi igen tyskerne og østrigeren, så det er smadder hyggeligt, at man efterhånden kender hinanden. Nu sidder vi i fællesrummet, nogle spiller kort, andre læser, og nogle tyske pensionister har købt øl fra hjemlandet. Det kan altså noget det her trekkingliv 🥾😁⛰️
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    • 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!
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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.
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    • 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!!
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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.
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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

    • Day 42

      2e jour 🤯 ↗️↘️↗️↘️

      March 27, 2023 in Nepal ⋅ ☁️ 7 °C

      Aujourd'hui c'est une journée sans un mètre de plat qui nous attend !
      Nous partons de notre lodge (2300m d'altitude) vers 6h45, et entamons une grande descente caillouteuse pour atteindre le point le plus bas de notre parcours, 1480m d'altitude.
      À cet endroit se trouve un superbe pont suspendu pour enjamber un rivière. C'est une grande classique dans les montagnes Népalaises. C'est super impressionnant de passer dessus, ce sont des ponts, d'une centaine de mètres souvent, qui bougent énormément pour encaisser les vibrations de nos pas.

      Après une pose shooting à cet endroit, nous avons attaqué la longue montée qui nous attendait pour rejoindre le prochain village pour la pause repas.
      Mais suite à un manque de vigilance, nous avons pris la mauvaise direction, et avons atterri au beau milieu de terrasses d'un autre village.
      C'est ici que nous avons rencontré un ancien guide, plus ou moins retraité, qui nous a offert le thé, puis il nous a carrément accompagné jusqu'au prochain village en passant par des chemins inconnus de nos cartes. Au total, c'est encore 650m de dénivelé positif d'effectués.
      Je trouve ça incroyable ces villages complètement perdus au milieu des montagnes. Ils vivent en autonomie totale avec leurs plantations, et surtout ils sont à plusieurs jours de marches de la moindre petite ville !

      Une fois notre classique dal bhat avalé, nous avons poursuivi notre route.
      Petite descente, puis grosse montée de 400m de dénivelé dans un mix d'escaliers, de cailloux, et de pentes très raides.

      Je me sentais bien et j'avais de supers sensations avec mes bâtons, donc j'ai décidé de la faire à fond juste pour le goût de l'effort physique 😍
      Une fois en haut, j'ai déposé mon sac à une lodge, et je suis redescendu chercher Leo qui était un peu plus à la peine. Nous sommes arrivés vers 15h.
      Ensuite, petite douche éclair (l'eau est absolument glaciale), petite sieste, et grosse séance d'étirements avant le repas
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    • Day 10

      Bridges and rocks

      October 2, 2023 in Nepal ⋅ ☁️ 10 °C

      After a nice cozy sleep, ALLE and I had rice pudding with honey for Brekky which was very filling.
      Today was challenging. A slightly shorter day but a very big and strenuous walk. There was lots of rain overnight which again left the track slippery but luckily the rain held off.
      The one part of the track we had all been dreading was today- up and over a big rock formation, lucky they had put in a chain to help. We also had lots of waterfall crossings today and needed lots of help from Sherpa Tendi as they were slippery and flowing fast.
      We arrived at our destination at Toktou where we had visited for lunch in 2020. It was so nice to stop by lunch and have some relax time.
      ALLE and I shared a bowl of soup which we ate by the fire.
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    • Day 16

      Day 16: Jubing to Puiya

      April 5 in Nepal ⋅ ☁️ 8 °C

      If yesterday was the downhill day, then today was definitely the uphill one, with 1,500+ m of steep ascents up through Kharikhola, Bupsa and Kari La.

      Before all that scrambling though, just leaving for the morning as usual became something of a struggle. And not for any of the normal reasons: as we'd left our window open while packing up our things, a monstrous winged beast kamikazed its way into our room like some buzzing Chinook locking onto its target. We both took one look at this thing and noped our way out of that situation, fleeing our room without hesitation, deserting our belongings and hiding behind the door from the wrong side. This insect, which we later discovered to be called a mammoth wasp (literal species name), was MASSIVE, with a chunky black torso and a buzz like an industrial lawn mower. Once we'd waited out the 'death hornet' as we'd called it, to leave back out through the window from which it came, we were able to make our way, but quickly came across another oddity in nature, witnessing streams of caterpillars following one another everywhere and all over the forest, apparently going off on little adventures to pupate into butterflies together.

      On the more human side of the climb however, our progress was slow in the heat, and we worked our way laboriously up to Bupsa for some lunch. Here, Thomas was particularly feeling some struggles on the ascent, but we took the time to unwind over some mango juice and spaghetti while a small Nepalese toddler took an eager interest in us. The way up from Bupsa to Kari La proved much friendlier despite the elevation gain, especially with the wider, more gentle paths which are used for jeeps up until Thamdanda. Between Kari La and Puiya, we witnessed whole herds of horses (or maybe mules given their donkey likenesses?) hauling supplies and gas bottles up the mountainside, and then the end of the road (/dirt track) where colossal landslides had taken place, trapping some vehicles and straight up destroying others. This evening, we've styled out our exhaustion by going head to head playing cards, where of course I won, (but Thomas might tell you differently.)
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