Mera Peak - Nepal

The team:

The team was made up of Sumit ( our expedition leader), Robin (the cook), Lakpa and Lakpa, Pasang and Pasang, (4 Sherpa guides), up to 70 porters, and 10 “members”. The 10 members included Boydo (the hindu-like hash smoking holy man), Liam (can’t wait to get back to my Ducati), Candace (cough cough), Sharon (wonder woman), Allan (the big bear), Chris (whose brother has a squashed penis), Pat (the hibernating spam lover), Kerri ( the serious second timer), Nic and I.

The camping:

Each campsite had a toilet tent, a mess tent, and our own individual tents which the Sherpa guides would set up for us each night (even if you tried to help them they wouldn‘t let you.) Many sites were isolated in wilderness, but sometimes we stayed near teahouses.

The food:

The meals tended to be a 3 course affair catered for in the mess tent, to keep energy levels high for the trekking and the climb. Breakfast was any combination of muesli, porridge, rice pudding, cornflakes, pancakes, eggs and tea. Lunch and dinner always began with soup, then any combo of dahl baht, potato curry, noodles, spaghetti, Tibetan bread, dumplings, chips and pizza, with canned fruit for dessert. (After the Langtang trek where we ate noodles every day, even this limited variety was a relief!)

The hospital:

There wasn’t a day that went by when someone wasn’t sick from gastro, altitude or the dusty air. Candace hacked away from a lung infection, Boydo hacked away from something hindu, and Pat was at one point coughing up blood! Liam, Chris and I had bouts of gastro, ugh, and most of us got at least some signs of AMS - altitude mountain sickness. Above 3000m, the oxygen thins out, it gets harder to breath, and so harder to walk and climb. The resting heart rate rises. The effects of AMS vary, but it came at me with a vengeance. The higher I went the more I would walk like a drunk and talk like a drunk, then my head would start exploding and I'd have to sit down. I'd become nauseaus and lose my appetite. And the side effects of the remedy (a drug called diamox) are pretty unbearable too; pins and needles everywhere, even in the face!

The climb:

Mera Peak is stunning. From it you have an amazing panorama of Everest, Lhotse, Manaslu, Chooyu and others - but these are 4 of the above 8000 metre peaks. Its not a hard climb to do; indeed its really just a walk -with crampons, and for us (as there was a crevasse near the top), a 20 metre ice climb. After setting out alpine style at 4 am, we arrived at around 8 making excellent time in perfect weather. A magical summit day.

Dunche to the Du - Nepal

We hopped on the bus from Dunche to the Du at about 6.30 in the morning, and thinking we had fairly good seats with plenty of room and with some Bollywood music pumping on the stereo , I couldn’t help but get into some bum wiggle dancing. It looked to be an exciting journey! But much to my dismay, pretty soon after Dunche, the bus driver, not content with the money he was making from the passengers already on the bus, kept stopping to fit as many extras on as he could. So at every small town the bus bashing boy became the bus advertisement boy, and would ask if anyone was going to the Du, and if so would push them on.

We soon had more than a bus full and a roof full; not just of people, but of chickens and dogs and rice bags and kerosene….and when we thought it was impossible that he would stop again for there was no way more people could get on, another person would look sheepishly at us from the street, and then do just that, get on. The stench and the heat just kept getting worse,.

Just to make things even more uncomfortable, the man behind me started leaning forward and out my window to clear his throat and spit out! I was more than grossed out. Then the stereo became stuck on the same Bollywood tune I had thought was so good... And as we drove along, the ridges became steeper and steeper with a thousand metre drop on one side, and a road just wide enough for the bus. Our maniac bus driver didn't seem to notice as he would try to overtake anyone that would not keep up wtih him and his hast. I squeezed Nic's hand as we went along and thought, I love you, this is it, thanks for the good times...if you last send my love to my family but amazingly enough we arrived at the Du unscathed.

shadows of people on the roof of the bus

Lang Tang trekking - Nepal

Langtang proved to be quite a beautiful trekking route. Not as popular as the famous Solokhumbu and Annapurna regions, it is less crowded so perhaps more enjoyable. We packed lightly and set off; intending to be away for 2 weeks or so. We travelled from the Du to Sundarijal where we began the Helambu trail, heading north towards Gossainkund and Laurenbina pass, and then through to the Langtang Valley trek.

We stayed in simple tea houses where Nic became a champion of negotiating a free night's accommodation if we ate in the restaurant (as the menus were identical at each place it made no difference to us anyway)! Some Nepalese were lovely; some well not so... At one tea house in the Helambu, we were looked at with glances of suspicion? or was it disgust? I couldn‘t tell, but when our dinner came out looking as though the plate had been half attacked, we knew we weren‘t welcome guests! But then, later on the trek, we were invited for tea, given 2nds and 3rds, invited to try on the traditional dress and all sorts other nice gestures. We even adopted some Nepali children who came up Kyangin Ri with us - climbing a 400m high mountain at 6 years old is quite an achievement! - they are future sherpa guides for sure :)

The teahouse menu included Tibetan bread, chowmein, dahl baht, sherpa soup, and that was about the extent of it. So our evenings became virtually the same. In true Nic and Davina style we took just enough rupees to cover the cost of our trek… relying on our trusty lonely planet guide which happened to be 8 years old… with 8 year old prices quoted in it. So our limited budget meant an even more dreary diet of the cheapest possible meal, and plenty of lost weight!

Each day we’d walk from 4 to 8 hours. The trek was always easy enough to follow with no need for a guide until we reached the pass. Although everyone we met had a guide and a few porters! We did use the services of a Nepali “guide” who was introduced to us after we had a days rest when the weather was bad, and the fresh snow had hidden all the tracks. Whilst not exactly a qualified guide (we later found out that the fine for guiding unlicensed is hefty, and there is jail term if a tourist is injured, sick or dies!) he did just what we needed and got us over the pass… but he had no idea of altitude sickness, and got a little impatient with me when I started walking like a drunk. As we got higher and higher in altitude my brain started exploding inside my head, I had nausea and no appetite… which became so bad and intense later that Nic had to help me down in the middle of the night to a lower altitude.

When we were cruising back down the valley, Nic started patting a friendly looking horse which gave us a nasty shock when he turned around and nipped him on the finger. Although not much of a bite, we were days from civilisation and rabbies vaccines! So our leisurely walk turned into a mission to get back to the Du as fast as possible. We managed to get to Dunche that evening (a good 8 hour walk that day) in order to catch a bus back to the Du, but bus ride is another story!