“24 hour hot shower” does not mean 24 hour hot shower in Nepal. Signs with those words are just meant to get trekkers to stop there, I have concluded! After a glacial wash at 6am, I warmed up with a huge hot breakfast and set off for a day that had everything from explosions to torn ligaments (not mine!), waterfalls, beehives and donkey convoys over the 10 hours that we climbed deeper into the Himalayas.
A new road is being built up towards the isolated villages, and this involves chunks of the mountain being blasted off. Just to put that into context, the road that I travelled up yesterday on the bus is considered “finished”! Trekkers, sherpas and transport donkeys cannot be anywhere nearby when the explosion is set off as they would be showered in rock fragments. So when we were suddenly met with soldiers blowing whistles at us, moving on anyone trying to take a break within a 3km segment of the trail, Dorchi explained what was going on. It just so happens he used to work with blasting in the mountains! And it was a big BANG when it went off – a whole series in fact.
I learnt that sherpas can carry up to 100kg on their backs, which sounded completely incredible until we came across a pack of three who were each lugging 75kg stacks of chipboard up the trail. And they made it look easy! I did feel sorry for them when they got subjected to the soldier whistle blowing though… Imagine not being able to stop for 3km with that sort of weight! Even Syange, my porter, was sweating quite a bit with the 25kg in his basket! I decided to try to lift it at the next break stop, and Dorchi insisted on photographing me as I looked like a lunatic with veins on my neck about to pop as I hauled the basket onto my back with the strap across my forehead… I managed 8 seconds!
Syange must have unbelievable neck muscles. Dorchi then told me he can still carry up to 70kg at his late-50’s age, to which I immediately retorted that meant I could sit in a basket taking photos while he carried my 65kg up the mountain! Then he told me that, in fact, he did have to carry an overweight German lady on his back for 15min last year as she could not get up over a mountain pass due to exhaustion… Considering how short he is, the mental image he conjured up made me splutter with laughter! However, it is no surprise as in his younger days, Dorchi worked with Tenzing Norgay, who was the first Sherpa to climb Everest with Edmund Hillary. Did I mention I feel in safe hands?!
A torn ligament/tendon was the unfortunate situation for a French trekker in his 50s who was being transported down the mountain on a horse close to Tal. We came across him shortly after Dorchi was explaining that it is much safer to travel with a guide and porter from a proper agency (like him) because then medical assistance can be organised easily and quickly with helicopter evacuation. People travelling without guides can run into big problems if something should happen up here, days away from hospitals. I had been grilling him on how all that works because of my recent fixation with accidents on holiday, to the point where I have TWO travel insurances, each for different situations!
So, first we met the French chap’s porters, then the French man himself on a horse with two more porters assisting him, then his distraught wife, then four other members of their group. I had a chat with the wife who told me (thank you Medical French evening classes!) that her husband heard something pop in his lower leg four days earlier and then he couldn’t walk anymore. No bruising but pain initially, which then disappeared, but the leg cannot support his weight at all. He is otherwise very sporty so it’s very upsetting for him. And her. They are flying home to France in two weeks, and were going to wait till then for treatment after getting a scan done in a town two days’ travel away from where we met them. I suggested that three weeks after a complete tear might be quite a long time to wait, and maybe consider getting a surgical intervention in Nepal or flying home early… Earlier treatment might mean less rehab time? She mentioned a bulk on his leg which sounded like a bunched up muscle, which might mean a tendon as opposed to a ligament tear. I suggested she try to massage that to bring it back up closer to its full length so it did not get chronically retracted. She liked the idea of that as at least it was something she could do, other than worry! She nearly called back his horse and him so I could examine him myself!
It gave me food for thought about returning to medical school in January – which I am still feeling into after the leave of absence they granted me after Ozge’s passing. It was a pleasure and honour to offer what knowledge and reassurance I could to this lady, but it also reminded me of Ozge in India, and wishing with every bone in me that I could have known and done more for her. And then I also worry that I told the French lady stuff that was not accurate or relevant, and maybe caused undue concern. Paradoxically, would I somehow need to learn to “care less” if I were to finish my studies as a doctor? Genuine caring and perfectionism are heavy burdens!
My own knees are in an acceptable condition considering how much up and down walking and climbing the day involved. Not carrying a full rucksack definitely helps – my day bag just has essentials in it, like blister treatment and a phone charger! I only got one blister today, which I put a plaster on before it became an issue. After my Camino walk, I am utterly unphased by it. That’s the upside of having had half a dozen of blisters at once and then seeing them heal uneventfully.
Dorchi has a slowly-slowly trekking style (“bistari bistari” in Nepalese), which involves taking breaks often, walking at a speed that doesn’t get one out of breath, and generally taking time to enjoy the scenery and wildlife one encounters on the way. Not to be competitive, but that approach actually saw us overtake every single other walking party we came across, as some were rushing, then getting exhausted and unable to walk for a long time. I did notice the psychological impact of knowing about altitude sickness was in fact more difficult than my breathing, which has so far been completely fine, now at 2000m of altitude or so. Less worrying about health (mine & others’) would clearly be good for me! And it also teaches me that if I take it slowly, bit by bit, I can climb what looks to be an impossibly high mountain – highly applicable to other areas of life…
Tonight I will be sleeping in Karte next to a gushing river with melted Himalayan snow, and it is quite soothing in its intensity. The three wire suspension bridges and the waterfall I also had to traverse today had a similar effect, and my companions found my description of the waterfall as a “24 hour hot shower” highly amusing.
On the subject of creature comforts, it did not rain today and I actually had a semi-warm solar-powered shower on arrival at the lodge! I have been doing very well with finding Marcus-edible food these last 24 hours too, with all sorts of pasta and potato and even pizza dishes in the mountains… And apple pie for dessert! They also sell bottles of Sprite which have risen by 70% in price since this morning’s altitude – and will apparently get even more expensive the further we go up, eg. the longer it has to be transported on a donkey to reach the shop. I am mainly drinking boiled water from my refillable flask and backpack water bladder via a long tube (very trekker-like!), as it cuts down on the amount of rubbish that has to be carried down from the mountains again. Eco-friendliness, and more, is due in these majestic mountains!
My final thought of the day, before I disappear into my lovely non-pink four-season Norwegian sleeping bag on a lodge mattress, is about the differences between trekking alone and with others. On the Camino, I had a lot of time for thought, letting things settle and unfold. In the Himalayas, with my extremely competent sherpa team, I am more outward-focussed, interacting with them (we laugh a lot!) and worrying about silly things like if they find it annoying that I stop so often to take photos. I know I am paying them and I am “the boss”, but it still plays on my mind. All that outward stuff does mean that my mood has been quite high all day though, as I did not have to face any deep dark places like on the Camino. Maybe it’s no bad thing, in this extremely challenging physical environment, not to be left to my own devices, worrying about accidents and seeing the familiar scenes from Ozge’s accident again and again in my mind.
One challenge at a time, slowly slowly, till the mountain is climbed. I look around at the sheer snow-covered heights in the distance, the steep rock faces that flank the trail, the pebbles that glitter like stardust with their shiny specks, the Buddhist flags flying peacefully above the simple shack homes, the turquoise-blue of the gushing river with white water currents at every turn, and the ribbon-clad donkeys that somehow know where to place the four hooves they cannot see on sharp rock inclines that are tricky for me with the two feet I don’t take my eyes off… and it puts all the rest into grandiose perspective.
