Date: 3rd April, 2014.
We were up by 06:30. After having a breakfast of porridge (with honey) and settling the bill for the two 'showers' (Dorje had already paid for the food and accommodation from the money we had given to him), we were set to go by 08:00. Sue & Ivan had already left after saying goodbye. Perhaps we will meet them again along the way. Their room was right next to the toilet and the running pipe of water had kept Ivan awake all night.
The track initially led us down a gradual descent to the plain of the Khari Khola river. After crossing the bridge across the river we double-backed on the other side of the valley. As we climbed up higher across the opposite slope, we could see the teahouse and the track we had followed down to the river.
At around 09:00, we had a brief stop and a cup of lemon tea at the village of Bupsa before continuing on an ascent for another couple of hours towards the pass of Kari La.
We couldn't see the pass yet. The track wounded round several shoulders of the massif we were on. Every time we felt we had rounded the last one, another one appeared in front of us. It was exhausting and seemed never ending. The path flattened occasionally, but I was under no illusion that there was another upward incline further along.
We encountered several trains of mules heading the other way. The mules tend to trot faster when they are going downhill which gave us very little warning of their imminent arrival, especially when they were rounding a bend a short distance above us. We would quickly get out of their way, standing clear on the higher side of the track to let them pass. If they are carrying a load, they could unintentionally brush it past you, pushing you over. You don't want to be on the wrong side of the track when that happens !!
We crossed the pass at around 11:00 and then headed down to the valley of the Piya Khola river. We stopped briefly at a local village and for the first time after 4 days we received an NCell GSM signal on our phones from the repeater mast at Lukla which we were now fairly close to.
Ever since we left Dakchu, we had no GSM or internet access through the mountains. Ncell is a fairly new, privately owned, mobile network service provider in Nepal and has yet to install repeater masts to cover the mountain areas. NTC, a older and and government owned telecoms company has service across the mountains, but it is apparently difficult for foreigners to get the SIM cards.
Dorje asked if we wanted to stop for lunch at the village, but we decided to use the momentum we had gathered and continue all the way to, Ponya (Paiya), our final destination for the day.
We arrived at Ponya around 12:30 and made our way to a reasonable looking teahouse. The lodge and dorm rooms were clean, but I was quite amazed to find that the room's window panes were plastic sheets instead of glass. Nevertheless it kept the cold out, with perhaps the occasional rustle as it caught the wind outside.
As the afternoon wore on, it started to rain. I couldn't air my clothes and boots outside so instead draped them over a chair and left them near the open entrance.
A boy of 12 years of age, playing outside the teahouse, was intrigued by my laptop while I was working on it. His curiosity got the better of him so he came inside to see what I was doing. I could see the fascination and eagerness in his eyes. Here was a boy full of enthusiasm and yearning to learn. I stopped my work and let him type on it. I made him type out his name and the entire English alphabet. He had difficulty in finding some of the letters on the keyboard, but with a little prompting he got the hang of it. We then moved on to typing a word for each of the letters of the alphabet. 'A for Apple, B for Bat' and so on. He knew most of the alphabet words. Naturally he knew 'Y for Yak'. He was also good at numbers and how to spell them. After an hour, which is probably the maximum attention span for a 12 yr old, he decided to go out and play with his friend instead.
I was most impressed with his attitude to learning. Even in this remote part of the world, the innate desire for the human mind to explore and learn continues to exist. It reinforced my belief that every child in the world is capable of being smart and learned. It is only his/her personal environment and circumstances that sometimes hinders them.
The day had been exhausting, but we were certainly feeling stronger and better after the rest yesterday. Kavita's foot seemed to have recovered. The blister plasters on our feet were helping and the tablet of antibiotic I was now taking every morning was giving my immune system that extra boost.
We had dinner at 20:00 and then retired to our dorm room shortly afterwards. Tomorrow we were heading out to Lukla, our half way point of the expedition. At the start of our trek, Kavita had reservations about the Jiri to Lukla section due to her knee problems. It is deemed as the harder and most physically strenuous part of the expedition. For me it had been a test of strength and endurance. Now we were about to complete it. We went to bed feeling confident that even at our age, our bodies were still physically sound and capable of getting us to EBC and back. I even dared to look beyond EBC at the numerous challenges and opportunities that were now unfolding.
Trekking Technicals:
Start Point: Kharikhola (2,006m), 07:57
End Point: Poyan (2,757m), 12:35
Distance: 10.6km (88.2km)
Total Moving Time: 3h 30m
Total Ascent: 1,099m (agg. 7,292m)
Total Descent: 346m (agg. 6,498m)
Min Elevation: 1,962m
Max Elevation: 2,901m
Trekking Tip:
Take it one step at a time. When climbing on an ascent to a peak or summit point, you often get discouraged seeing how far it is and how much further you have to climb. I tend to just keep my head down and focus on watching my feet, occasionally raising my head to admire the views. I focus all my energy on taking each step correctly and one at a time. It is then only a matter of time before I reach the summit.
No comments:
Post a Comment