20 September - 25 September
If you go to Nepal you need to
trek (South Africans read ‘hike’). Well,
that is how it seems, if you listen to any conversation, by anyone, at any
time, anywhere. So, when in Rome – trek.
I had got into contact with a
fellow solo traveller over Facebook, who was also interested in doing a trek
and we met up the second day I arrived in Pokhara. After chatting for a little while, we both
seemed to feel that we could bare each other for a few days, and had the same
ideas about the type and length of trek we wanted to do. Great, we agreed to be trekking buddies and sought to find a trek.
Luckily (but not unexpectedly),
the person at the hotel we were staying at was able to assist with organising
the whole trek. From route, through to guide and transport. After a few discussions and negotiating, we
had the trek planned. We were going to climb up the Mardi Himal trail, which was a
6-day round trip, that should lead us to the Mardi Himal mountain peak.
We met our guide on the morning
that we left for the trek.
Lallie was a
soft-spoken, timid, 49-year old local Nepali who had been trekking for over 20
years.
We jumped into the taxi and
headed off.
The taxi stopped a short way
out of town, for us to get our first views of the Annapaurna range in the
distance.
Crazy to think we would be up
and really close to these mountains in a few days.
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Our first view of the mountains.
We supposed to climb that in 6 days?
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The smooth asphalt however
quickly gave way to rocky, graded sand roads and we knew we were getting
further out of the city, and all quite relieved that we made it to the starting
point without flipping the car or busting a tyre.
We started at a village called
Pedi and our first destination was a steep uphill ascent of more than 500m to
Dhampus (that is steep if you are unsure what that translates to 😊).
The sun was beating down and the
introduction to our first day was not that gradual, but the sights of the vast
paddy fields and small villages made us take little notice.
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Our first break, after climbing up a lot of stairs
to Dhampus |
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| The paddy fields of Dhampus |
Our initial goal for the first
day was a village called Pothana, and we entered the jungle as we climbed
towards it. The remainder of the walk
was not too troublesome, and it seemed like we had conquered the major
challenge for the day. I though had a
far larger, more unexpected challenge that was building up – how to deal with
my new princess hiking companion.
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| Getting into the jungle on the Mardi Himal trek |
I am sure you all remember
Princess, my fashion influencer / 21-year old / 3-brush carrying travel buddy
from Spiti valley. Well, while my hiking
partner had (thankfully) not brought a roller bag onto the trek, but nonetheless, just as
blatant red flags were beginning to appear.
Lady Princess was complaining
that there was a lot of uphill (on a climb up to a mountain peak), but also
every time she stepped in mud, she tried to wipe it off, because her shoes were
getting dirty (Oh God, 6 days).
We though soldiered on, and got
to Pothana by midday. We were all
feeling quite fresh, on account of it being Day 1. And on account of there be
nothing else to do, we walked some more, to the next camp, and reached Deurali
village by early afternoon and felt we had done enough to call it a day.
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Deurali: our first (well second) village,
where we were to spend the first night |
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The traditional dal dhaat,
a hearty curry and rice dish.
Well deserved and filling after a day's trekking |
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The mountain peaks were starting to get
a little closer.
From Deurali village |
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Sunset from our guesthouse,
at the end of Day 1.
Deurali village |
For those hardened trekkers who
carry their own gear, and food, and sleep in tents, Nepal is nothing of the
sort. Disappointingly, and to cater to
the ever-increasing amount of people who think they can just rock up and climb
a mountain, these trails have become exceptionally comfortable by all accounts. There are villages every few hours, offering
places to stay, including electricity outlets; restaurants, offering pizza and beer; and most things in between. If you
are willing to pay, even wi-fi and a warm shower are available. Seemingly, everyone wants to get away from
everything and into nature, but just not too much.
Oh, if you don’t feel like it,
you can buy a human to carry your pack too.
The trails are therefore busy. The stops are crowded with people. All of this means that some of the fun of going out and hiking is
really spoilt. Though, and in between the large amount of
construction going on, and the raising of new tea stands and guesthouses, there
is still a vast expanse of mountainside and some amazing views and nature.
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| The misty jungle |
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Apparently, there are some nice mountain views here,
somewhere |
We were unlucky enough though to
be catching the late end of the late monsoon, and most of our days were therefore surrounded by cloud, drizzle and fog.
As we climbed higher over the
next two days, Princess’ lungs were starting to struggle and our pace slowed
considerably. We picked up another
trekker, who we met at a lunch stop, and Princess knew from Kathmandu, but who
suffered from the altitude just as much.
To her credit, she soldiered on, and managed her trek through a
combination of a cocktail of pills (vitamins, anti inflammatories, pain
killers) and some rum at each overnight stop.
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The trekking crew.
Took about 5 minutes until they caught up,
to take the photo |
The wet weather also brought
leaches to the surface at the jungle, and we had to be careful not to touch any
plants (which Lady Princess did a lot) or be stationary for too long (which Lady
Princess was for a lot of time), as these crafty blood suckers would attach to
you and suck your blood. They were not
poisonous, or painful, just a pain in the ass (😊) and could only be removed by dissolving
them with salt. We put salt on our boots
and socks as a precaution, which seemed to help everyone except Lady Princess –
whose constant complaining and frieking out about these little buggers nearly
got me to asking her for some of her pill-cocktail to deafen out the noise.
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| Salty shoes, classic leach prevention technique |
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They were pretty avoidable,
as long as you did not touch anything, ever |
We reached out final camp on the
third day and were not excited to be waking up at 4:30am to climb up the peak
at sunrise, especially since we had seen almost nothing but rain and cloud for the
past few days. We were though blessed
with clear skies when we got up in the morning (me about 20 minutes ahead of
the others, because I was not missing sunrise because these slowpokes could not
breathe – shame).
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| Sunrise at 4000m |
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Getting to the summit on the stroke of sunrise
(trekking crew somewhere in tow) |
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| Calls for a little celebration |
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When the clouds dissappear (slightly),
there are some truly amazing view |
As we were climbing down, with
the clouds covering the peaks once again, and the rain setting, the slow pace
of group got worse on the descent, and slippery path. After 4 days together, nerves started to fray
and after 6 I think we had worn out our friendship. We hugged, and parted, and promised to stay
in touch, but no sooner as we got off the bus back in Pokhara, I knew that was
not going to happen. All in all, a nice
trek though 😊
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| Last views of Mardi Himal as we head down |
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Clouds came back and yaks had had enough.
Back to grazing |
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Last dinner on the trail.
Ending off at I started off,
with a hearty dal bhaat |
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| Back in Pokhara, and in one piece |
