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!