Sorry for the post order being messed up for my blog posts. I will try to fix it in a few days when I have a computer available.
Also apologies for the lack of effort that I put into the last 4 blog posts of the trip. We walked nearly 100km over 3 days on rough terrain then drive for 18+ hours so I am a little tired... Forgive me.
Our day started at 6am with a 3 hour drive to Gold River in a jeep where we then had to walk across a huge suspension bridge to the other side of the river where we could catch yet another jeep for the 9 hour trip to Khatmandu.
The trip down to Gold River was not great as our vehicle was packed with 11 people where it was only really designed to fit 9. Tye second leg of the journey was a lot better as we only had 7 people much of the way (though we got the extra 4 for the last 4 hours of the journey). Our driver was a nice guy and we really hit it off. Aaron and I sat in the front seat which meant we had a lot more room than the day before.
Our vehicle travelled in convoy with 3 other vehicles which meant that when one of them broke down we had to all wait as it was repaired. This happened a lot on the rough roads.
After over 18 hours of driving (of which about 14 hours was on 4wd tracks) we finally made it to Khatmandu. We had an amazing shower (first in nearly a month) and then hit the town for a massive dinner. Great to know that we don't have to walk anywhere in the morning.
We woke up early and made the massive push to Nunthala. The walk was amazing and the scenery changed dramatically. Suddenly we were surrounded by huge mossy trees covered with wild orchids as alpine terrain turned into an almost rainforest. We walked for about 9 hours and made it to Nunthala just 20 minutes before darkness flooded the valley.
We made plans to head to Phaplu to catch a ride to Khatmandu, a full days walk closer than Jiri. The road to Phaplu is new and we were under the impression that it was quite good.
The walk through huge forests was again amazing. It really took us by surprise how quickly the terrain had changed since Lukla.
Another huge day got us to Phaplu and the nearby town of Salleri where we were fortunate to get the last jeep of the day for Okhaldhunga. It was a grueling 6 hour 4wd drive in which we had to endure the back seat of a small jeep that was not built at all for big foreigners like ourselves. By the end of the drive our knees which were pressed hard against the metal seats had taken a whooping.
Stayed the night in a stagnant dark horrible little excuse for a hotel right outside the jeep stand where we would catch another vehicle the next morning at 6am.
Waking up we were excited to see clear blue skies and situation by 8:45am we had packed, eaten breakfast and secured our spot in the check in queue at Lukla Airport. We were booked to fly out via Tara Airways 16th flight of the day (over 40 flights were scheduled) which was supposed to be at 10:30am.
After hours of waiting, being told "come back in 45min" and watching countless angry/bewildered foreigners we were finally presented with our boarding pass and told to go through the security check post.
We got through the check post, handed in our luggage for the plane and headed to the departure lounge. After about 45min it became clear that the weather was not looking good. An hour or so into our lounge stop a man came in and told us that "all planes had turned back to Khatmandu but that the flights were not cancelled yet".
We knew what that meant... The long walk to Jiri was probably our only chance to catch Aaron's flight back to Australia on the 5th.
When flights are cancelled in Lukla you go into a "waiting list" this list goes behind the flights that were already scheduled on any given day. As there had already been two days of cancelled flights this meant that we would roughly be on flight number 50 out of Lukla (which could take anywhere up to 2 weeks to get to). The walk was inevitable.
We got our baggage back, had some food, bought a map and then hit the road. We had decided to walk to Surke (just an hour or so from Lukla) as we were running short on daylight.
Surke was a beautiful town and had a great big river running right through the middle of it. Huge vegetable gardens surrounded the town and immediately we could tell that there was going to be a lot less foreigners around over the next few days.
So there were supposed to be 35 flights out of Lukla today but only 8 planes got out before they closed the airport on account of bad weather. We couldn't get a flight. Have one booked for tomorrow morning at 10:30am so we will see what happens.
Loads of moody people in Lukla tonight. Chill. Enjoy the mountains guys. Cant do much about bad weather.
Made the walk from Namchee to Lukla in a day (where we expected it to take 2). Weather soured towards the end of the day and looks like flights could be getting grounded. Not cool.
If we had known what the day was going to hold we probably would have planned things differently. We left Thare (4390m) at about 8am and made the long walk along the East side of the Dudh Koshi River Valley past dozens of yak stations and grazing villages. Steadily gaining altitude to about 4500m where we hit snow. Endless snow. It was beautiful, but it was deep so it took a lot of energy to get through.
We continued to climb to Dragnag (4700m) which we reached at about 2pm. Dragnag is located right where the Cho La pass comes down from the mountains (the pass we wanted to take after Everest Base Camp). The town is also right on the edge of the Ngozumba Glacier - which we were planning to cross. The Glacier is just over 1km wide so we figured it would only take an hour or so to cross (boy were we wrong).
After a quick cup of lemon tea at Dragnag we set off North along the lateral moraine of the glacier (the side). It took about an hour to get to a point where we could cut across the glacier and after climbing down into it we realized quickly that the traverse was sure to be rough.
Not only did we have to worry about falling rocks, underground rivers, ice, lakes and crevasses but there was also a 5ft dump of snow which literally covered everything.
We set across carefully following tracks and rock cairns but it wasn't long before we both took the first of many (many many many) falls into the deep snow. Each time it felt like large stores of our energy was being stolen away... It was hard to say the least.
We passed some amazing blue and steel grey lakes but the whole time we were kept on edge by the groaning and cracking of the glacier which did not let us get complacent at all. Rocks were constantly falling, we kept slipping into the snow and all the while the glacier moaned at us like a sleeping dragon.
We finally made it to the other side only to find that the moraine was more difficult to climb than anything we had faced yet. It was sharp and snowy and we were drained of all our energy. It took about 30 minutes to get up the 30m high moraine but when we reached the top we felt like we had achieved a great feat. In total it took just on 3 hours to get across.
A 30 minute walk found us at Gokyo and what a sight it was to behold. Surrounded by multiple 5000m and 6000m peaks Gokyo is located right on the edge of a beautiful blue lake named Dudh Pokhari. It really did look incredible to our tired eyes (and our energetic eyes the next morning) . Finding new energy we pretty much flew to the lodge nearest the lake and were amazed to hear that a double room would only cost us 100/- which is just on $1. Done.
We had a big meal and then headed to bed, exhausted after nearly 9 hours of trekking.
Had a pretty solid trek again today, left Machhermo around 8am and worked our way to the end of the Dudh Koshi River Valley which was a fairly consistent descent. We crossed well below the snowline, passing waterfalls and streams and almost got to the Dudh Koshi River itself before the the trail shot back up the mountain again on a big hike up to Mong. We worked our way slowly to Khumjung, the largest town in the Everest Region where we planned to stay the night.
My knee was really starting to get painful towards the end and Khumjung could not have come sooner.
Woke up feeling great after a good long sleep. We had a nice breakfast at our lodge (where the view of the lake was incredible), packed a day bag and headed up Gokyo Peak (5360m). Gokyo Peak (or Gokyo Ri) is a small mountain located just beside the town of Gokyo and is famous for its great views of Everest, Nuptse, Cho Oyu and several other key peaks in the Himalayas (not to mention great views of Gokyo and it's lake).
The walk up was longer and harder than the trek up Kala Pattar, took us around 2 and a half hours to reach the summit. The view was magnificent and we spent about 45 minutes up there just soaking it all in.
We quickly descended using a modified glissading method (standing and using our trekking poles like ski poles to stabilise and push ourselves down the snowy slope). It was a lot of fun and we reached the bottom in around 30 minutes.
Once down we had lunch and then made a decision to depart the beautiful town of Gokyo as it was quite empty and we had exhausted all the available activities (tracks to nearby lakes were still snowed shut). The Renjo La was still very dangerous so we decided to head back down the West side of the Dudh Koshi River Valley towards Namchee Bazaar.
We left Gokyo about 2pm and 3 hours later we were in Machhermo about 10km down the valley. It was a nice snowy walk (cold and a little dark) along the glacier and then when that ended along the Dudh Koshi. The last 2 or 3 km was in thick mud which made us pretty dirty but thankfully we were wearing our gaiters on account of the snow so at least we mostly stayed clean.
Machhermo is a nice little town mostly made up of hotels and tea houses for trekkers like us and is situated in a snowy valley on the edge of a small stream. We got a nice room for 200/- per night and made our way to the restaurant for our nightly game of Yanif (an Israeli card game). While there I had a pretty large argument with a Nepali guide who was trying to cheat a German couple that we had met. The guide was quite taken back when I started correcting him in Hindi and pretty soon our argument caught the attention of a bunch of other Nepali men who upon hearing what I was saying (and the conviction I was saying it with) decided that they should steer clear. No win for you today my Nepalese friend.
Put in another massive effort today and travelled all the way to Thare. Possibly the hardest stage of our trip since the walk into Namchee. The weather was beautiful but there was so much ascending and descending (hard on the knees) which caused it to be quite a difficult trek.
We left Pangboche at about 8am and got into Thare just before 3:30pm. A solid 7.5 hours of trekking. Again our lodge owner was surprised to hear that we had come so far. The path we choose to travel to Gokyo is not often used by foreigners and as a result Thare only has one tea-house (the only building in the town).
The walk was beautiful, we travelled at a very high altitude most of the way and passed around 6-8 beautiful waterfalls, some ice caves, shepherd stations and also passed up above the snowline again. Passed by the big town of Phorse but didn't stop to check it out. Some of the buildings along the way were incredibly beautiful, stone walls and stone slate roofs, they really looked like something out of a fairytale.
We stopped at 2:30pm for lunch at Thore before continuing on for 30 minutes to Thare, where we got a room for 250/- per night. These two towns were marked incorrectly on our map which led to some confusion. The lodge in Thare has no power and there is only 3 rooms (separated by 5mm plywood sheets). Pillows are hessian bags stuffed with plastic bags and then covered with a pillow case and when I went to open the window the whole frame came out in my hands. Looks to be a cold one tonight, but at least we are indoors.
