Hardcore trekking in the Himalayas

Beauuuutiful
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So I've finally come back from the trek- 16 solid days of trekking later! And it was amazing- the views were incredible all along. Once again, very lucky with the weather. This circuit has the reputation for being one of Nepal's nicest and I can see why- the scenery is constantly changing, from one hour to the next! We started off at 700 altitude metres and at the highest point were at 5400m so we passed from tropical heat and vegetation and land use through a million different variations to the snowy tops. Really breathtaking- literally! :) Each step of the way had different challenges- either the heat or the freezing cold or the gale force winds... never boring that's for sure! At one stage my water bottle was freezing over as I was wlking. Slush puppies all around! I was with Ben, my friend that I'd cycled around Iceland with and two of his Swedish buddies....and being the four big strong men that we are we decided that porters are for pansies and carried all of our own gear for the whole hike! And we were pretty much the only people on the mountain to do so just becuase it's so cheap to get porters! But to  be honest I was glad we didn't. They carry crazy amounts of stuff! On their bloody foreheads!!! It's unreal! And we saw quite a few of them trapped when they'd fallen. They simply couldn't pick themselves up under a 50kg load! Unreal. So me and my 70litre bag which weighed about 13kg soon became best buds...it would push me down the mountain on the downhills and I would drag it up the mountain for the uphills! :) I didn't quite realise how much of a difference it makes to have a bag aswell until I went without for one day. It means you have to think about every step to be sure that you can balance yourself with the extra weight and really lean into every step...big steps are a nightmare! I was sweating like a man by the end of some days!! and we were actually jetting up the mountain. Well the boys were anyways, I was doing my best to try and keep up. I feel my position as a backlight was vital to the survival of the group ;) But we did actually succeed in overtaking everyone that left from the same place as us every day...even if they left a few hours earlier! Maaaaaan, pretty tiring. But lots and lots of fun! And what doesn't kill you makes you stronger, eh?! ;) I did feel sorry for the guys though- my socks pretty much wilted everything within a five mile radius!! Although we were pretty spoiled along the way- there was no camping involved, always guesthouses. So that even meant occasional warm showers! And lots and lots of food. Even such things as pizza! Although we got some interesting interpretations of 'pizza'!! The highlight was a Scottish style mars roll- deep fried mars bar in batter. mmmmmmmm! And of course trekking like that means you HAVE to eat loads! And the fact that it was all in villages meant that we were able to paint the town red one night when Johan left us early to go back to work. Such a classic night. A pub in the middle of nowhere with the classic selection of music of such places: a mixture of Nirvana and guns and Roses and trashy pop such a Barbiegirl. So our outfits matched the venue- I've never felt so classy on a night out: wearing socks and flip flops and long johns!! Oh dear... It was us, the locals, three aussies and lots of whisky. By the end of the night the Aussies were actually swinging from the rafters on the roof! And I have never had three handshakes like theirs before...like having your hand crushed in a paper press! These guys are huuuuge! Seeing them on the trail the next day was pretty amusing! Not that I was in much better shape!! We did save it for after the pass though luckily...climbing that was a killer. We started off at 5am with our headtorches glowing in the dark and climbed up 1000 height metres up to a whopping 5400m. Absolute killer! BUt the feeling up there was unreal, really amazing. ( I had to sit down and have a little cry! :) ) But that of course wasn't enough we then had to climb down 2000m!!! And that was such a steep descent it was actually harder than going up! be careful what you wish for is all I can say! I was so glad the up was over bu then it was down for 3 hours. And within that not a single flat metre! It was just pure down the whole way. Add to that the fact that it was scree a lot of the times and you were rolling around on little stones and some patches were completley iced up, you can imagine it was quite nerve racking! I just about collapsed at the end of it. And from there most people take it easy, trek to the hot pools and go home. We did go to the hot pools ( luuuurvely! Epsecially if combined with a dip in the glacial river) but then added on three more days for shits and giggles- one of which consisted on a climb of 1600m in one go. Aaaaaaaargh! That was supposed to take us to a place called Poon HIll from where there is panoramic view over the HImalayas and the sunrise is supposed to be fantastic. But after that bloody climb I got ill once again and couldn't make it to the top of the hill! Unbelievable! I know what caused it aswell- a cinammon roll!!! I was so hungry and greedy after the trek that I ordered a cinammon roll as a starter. Mistake! They heated it up and I ate it so I never realised that it was actually completley rock solid and had probably been there for about a month. I didn't even know baked goods could get that hard! you could easily have used it as a weapon! So that was in my belly and my belly was definitely not happy. But what can you do...I missed the sunrise but still had to do a 7 hour trek that day. Not the most pleisurable day. But Raj, our guide bless him, took most of my stuff so at least I didn't have a lot to carry. All good. And then that was it...three weeks were suddenly over. Our purpose in life was over... no more trekking?! What to do with onesself??! The answer: sit by the lakeside and do absolutley nothing but eat for three days!!! Blissful! The one 'strenuous' thing we did was go to a barber and Petter got a shave. One of the funniest things I've seen in long time! This place was completley covered in garish posters of the gods, fairy lights and fake flowers and the guy used a big cut throat razor. Very skillfully aswell, I was impressed! And then the big scissors came out- huge kitchen scissors...that were used inside Petter's nose!!! I was in hysterics behind him and the poor guy had to try not to laugh to try and save his nose from being chopped off! And the barber was not happy at that- the session turned into a full on whole body massage. Slightly unexpected! Very funny to watch though.

Lil karma looking cute!
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And that was the end of that. Now back in Kathmandu and leaving back for India this evening. Back to the craziness for two weeks...

I didn't even know baked goods could get that hard! You could easily have used it as a weapon