The Emotional Journey to the Top

Because of my slow pace and the fact today’s journey was 6hrs of walking, my guide had said we would depart at 7am. I had no problem with that as I wanted to beat the heat.

I needn’t have been concerned. Around 2am, I heard it start raining and again at 4am, and when I got up at 6am, you could tell that we would not see the sun today.

I had two boiled eggs and a pancake for breakfast. There was a dog hovering around for food and when I offered him my eggshells, he was not impressed. My lab Luna, would have scoffed them.

We quickly got underway, but I was slowed within 20mtrs of walking. I thought yesterday was tough, but it had nothing on today. My guide carried my bag, which I am eternally grateful for because the way up became giant rocks and tree roots masquerading as steps. I was having to watch where I put my feet and constantly pulling myself up rocks that were double the size of a step.

I ignored the steps up to Chichimle, also known as the Centre Point Teahouse because I was just so happy to stop and rest with a hot cup of sweet Chai tea.

I’d been climbing straight up for 90mins. A man chatted to me a little, asking where I was from and told me we were now at 2600mtrs.

As we continued our uphill climb, I could feel myself slowing quite soon. Yesterday, Shishir had said the first hour was tough, but after that, not so bad.

Just as I was thinking how wrong he was and secretly wanting to do him harm for giving me a false sense of hope, he and Sula came up behind me. I let them pass knowing I would not see them again before the top, as well as the dog who had turned his nose up at breakfast and was tagging along with them.

By this point, I was doing more uphill rock scrambling than walking up steps and the effort of repeatedly lifting my legs 40-50cms to climb up a rock was taking its toll.

I did feel slightly better when I could hear my guide breathing a bit harder behind me. He was carrying my bag, but still, it felt good for a moment.

My guide’s English wasn’t great though. Every time I asked him a question about the area we were walking through, he would answer as if I had asked a totally different question, which usually related to how much further we still had to go. I stopped asking questions very quickly as I didn’t want to continue hearing these nuggets of information.

For a brief moment, I could smell the most amazing floral scent like jasmine or honeysuckle. I wanted to ask my guide what it was, but knew that was a pointless exercise.

Continually going up the steps were becoming harder and harder. If you have ever taken the time to watch a snail move, that was pretty much me.

It was also tough constantly having to watch where you put every single foot for fear of slipping on a tree root, sliding in the mud or working your way up each rock.

Which is why, when I came to an open clearing, it made me stop just to take everything in. Just as suddenly, Liam came to me and I knew I needed to leave his picture there. As I said my goodbye to Liam, I struggled to hold back the tears. It is such an honour to carry the photos of cherished family members, and sad at the same time for me to say goodbye to them when they have been with me on my journey.

I knew our lunch stop was close by, but it felt hundreds of kms away and I was at the point of crying because all I could think was there was another 5hrs to go and I had nothing left now.

The only thing that kept me going was having to watch where I put every single step and as I did that, I kept seeing the tags on my boots. I knew there was no chance I could stop, even if it took me double the time of everyone else and I cried the whole way.

When we pulled into our lunch stop, it was a hive of activity, with people continuing up and people on their way back down all stopping.

I watched the steam coming off the trekkers as they took off their layers and realised I was propably the same. We were now at an elevation of 2900 mtrs and it was a little harder to breathe and much cooler than previously.

We had dahl baht for lunch as we needed the calories for the last climb. The dog at breakfast was there at lunch and when I shared some rice with him, he turned his nose up at that too, but happily took biscuits from some other trekkers. Clearly with so many trekkers passing through all the time, he can pay to be fussy!

The best thing about that lunch stop though was learning that the next part was actually only 2hrs left to go, but it was steep and slippery, so we had to be extra cautious.

We finally stepped out of the jungle terrain to steep open hillside and mud for a trail, but the views were spectacular.

The trail became increasingly steep and difficult with the mud. One wrong slide and there was an increased chance of tumbling over the side.

And still we climbed. Despite the steepness and the difficulty trying to pull myself up steps and mud, I barely noticed when surrounded by the most incredible views.

There was one section where the path was so steep and nothing but slippery mud, that my guide pulled me up the side and we walked through the grass.

Just as we came down from the grass and rejoined the trail, I saw the last sign I was waiting for and cried. I had made it.

I still had further to climb up to my accommodation, but I didn’t care. I had climbed up just over 2000mtrs in elevation and was harder than any other hike I had done, including walking the Camino.

I was utterly exhausted, so you can imagine my horror to discover that I would be spending the night….camping! Especially with the weather turning bitterly cold and wet. All the rooms had been booked and this was the only option.

Somehow, I got enough patchy internet signal to message my dear friends Ange and Matty about my horrified state, both of whom know that camping is not my thing.

Matty, remind me to punch you for your reaction when I get home. Ange, thank you for totally understanding my horror and making me laugh!

As quickly as we arrived, heavy cloud completely blanketed the area around us, rain came down and it was freezing.

At one point, the rain stopped, and I went for a walk and could see some of the mountains. Amazingly, in less than 5mins, the cloud cover moved enough to see them clearly.

 

As I stood in awe at the view, I got to talking to a group of young Nepali guys, the same age as Riley. They tried to teach me some Nepalese words and to convince me to walk the 2hrs straight up to the next peak to see sunrise. Nothing could convince me of that, on both counts!

One shared half a snickers bar with me and in that moment, it was the most heavenly thing I had ever tasted. He laughed at the look of ecstasy on my face as I ate it.

They told me I needed to come back to Nepal and listed the numerous reasons why. It was one of my most entertaining conversations I’d had since being here.

I wandered down to the middle accommodation to see if I could see Sula and Shishir (I of course, was staying at the highest accommodation) but they weren’t there, and I couldn’t bring myself to walk down to the bottom level to then have to go back up again.

As I walked back to my tent, I knew I needed to leave a heart for Bree with her photo. This had been such an emotional day and she had kept me going. I am so blessed to have been given the gift of her life and the lessons she imparted, and to then be given another gift in my son Riley. Both have enriched my life in completely different ways.

The weather had turned even colder and I felt doubtful that there wouldn’t be snow like I had been told when they must have seen my horror at the whole camping thing. (Like that was the problem! 🤨 )

We huddled inside a room that had a wood fire, but only generated heat to the first row of people huddled around it. Outside that first row, you felt nothing.

I was in the outside row, but enjoyed listening to the music, even if it was in Nepalese as one person had brought a guitar and another was playing a traditional drum and they were all singing.

It was lovely to sit and take it in, but eventually, I knew I needed to try and sleep. I had nothing more than a thin rubber mat and three blankets folded over to try and soften the ground, without success.

But it was the sheer cold that took the camping experience to another level. I pulled two pairs of socks on over my pants and a fleece top over my long sleeve top and put my down jacket inside my silk liner for extra warmth underneath the two blankets.

My huge thanks to my soul sister Jill who lent me her scarf. I climbed into bed and wrapped that around my head, face and neck. It was perfect and I don’t know what I would have done without it.

I think sleep is going to be a bit of a pipe dream…