Easy, My A**!

It was trek day! I was excited to finally do a trek in Nepal and from what I had read, Khumai Dada was a relatively easy trek that could be done in three days, which was perfect for my limited time.

My guide was due to arrive at 8am, but had still not arrived by 8:30am. I think I walked 1,000 steps pacing around as I waited, wondering if he was going to show. Krishna checked though, and he was definitely coming.

He finally arrived at 8:45am, but then we had to wait for a taxi to take us to our starting destination of Ghachock.

By the time the taxi pulled over and I realised our trek was starting, it was 10am.

To my horror, the trail started straight up! And it continued straight up. I watched in envy at jeeps going up the road.

Due to the late start, the sun was beating down on me and with the constant walking up, I was dripping in sweat.

My guide grabbed my bag and carried it for 30mins to our lunch stop, which had only been an 1hr and 15mins, but had felt like 3hrs.

I could see the town where we had started had  dropped away below us. We had started our trek at an elevation level of 1232mtrs and the lunch destination was Sayipakha Homestay which had an elevation of about 1500mtrs.

Lunch was a delicious meal of dahl baht, pickle, chickpeas and a pappadum and while I was hungry, I simply couldn’t finish the plate. The lady who took my plate away laughed and said “no sweets for you.” I laughed out of pure surprise that this was something said here too.

After an hour, we were on our way again and this is when it got really tough. Previously, we had been climbing up, but it had been in a zig-zag manner. Now, we were climbing straight up stairs in the full sun.

And they never ended.

After an hour of climbing stairs in the hot sun, I was exhausted, so I was relieved to come across a teashop to be able to have a hot tea with sugar and take a small break. I was now at an elevation level of 1900mtrs.

We were back on our way and my guide started carrying my bag again because we were still climbing the stairs and my energy level was diminishing fast.

At one point I was concentrating on where to place my foot on a step and heard the tinkle of a bell. I looked up in time to see two donkeys coming down the trail and just had enough time to move to the side as they have a well worn path they follow and do not deviate, even if there is a person in the way.

The more we climbed, the landscape changed and we started going through jungle terrain.

I came to an amazing cliff wall that opened up to the mountains below. It was here I needed to stop because Simon came into my head. It was a beautiful area and very peaceful. My guide helped me tie Simon’s photo to the tree and I said goodbye to Simon and thanked him for being with me.

My guide said we had 20mins to go and I was all but done. I wasn’t sure I could lift my feet anymore, which is why when a couple coming down the hill were singing, I harboured thoughts of pushing them over the side. They were probably lucky they were on the wall side and not the drop side…

When I looked up and saw the tell-tale sign for our stop for the night, I burst out laughing, to the point my confused guide wondered what was wrong.

I instantly thought of my dear Camino friend BC. How many times had we been coming to our final destination for the day on the Camino, tired from another day of walking, to discover hundreds of steps up to our accommodation, torturing us at the end.

Despite walking hundreds of steps up, I still had more to go to reach the accommodation. What is it with this type of torture?

I cannot detail the utter relief I felt at finally reaching this stop. It had been four hours since we started and had been uphill the whole time in the hot sun.

My guide organised a hot cup of sweet Chai tea and at that point, I didn’t care whether the water had been boiled or not, it tasted divine.

As I sat at one of the outdoor benches, I saw Sula and Jill’s friend Shishir who were also doing the trek. I had looked for them when I first arrived and when I couldn’t see them, I thought they had continued on to the top, so was delighted to see them.

We played card games until it started to rain and continued to play indoors until it got too dark to see the cards.

My guide brought me dinner of hot, spicy noodles, which I couldn’t finish, but had felt delightfully warming in my stomach. It had turned quite cold and when I walked outside to head to bed, I realised why.

The sky was incredibly clear and at that elevation, the temperature had dropped significantly. I had climbed 1000mtrs up and was now at 2200mtrs elevation, so was feeling excited that I might see the mountains in full tomorrow.

For now though, I was happy to burrow into my silk liner with two thick blankets over me and sleep. It had been an exhausting day and anything but easy.