Up about 7:30. I didn't sleep that great, Harold snores and I could hear Seamus snoring through the paper thin walls. We packed and went downstairs for breakfast.
We started trekking about 9:00. More incredible trekking, great waaterfalls, but a very hard day today. It was mostly uphill, especially the last 2 hours to Namche Bazar. Namche Bazar is near the top of a mountain, so we had to climb out of the valley up to Namche Bazar. Harold says this section is the hardest section on the whole trail up to base camp. If you can do this, you can make it to base camp.
Seamus was really sick today. He was vomitting all over the trail, especially on the hard part up to Namche Bazar. It was hilarious, because he was sooo dramatic about it, we were all laughing, because we couldn't help it, just the way he sounded. And the two-handed poleing technique was hilarious. He was so out of it, so exhausted, so sick, all he kept saying was he couldn't do it, he couldn't go any further, but we made him, then he's start hurling all over again. I realize it seems cruel to be laughing, but if you were there, you would have been splitting your sides too.
Cloudy all day, we couldn't see any peaks at all. This trek is amazing, though, way better than the rafting trek. I must come back and do more. Who wants to do Everest Base Camp next year????
We got to Namche about 4:00. Very cool place. It's a U-shaped town, curving around the top of a valley, near the top of a mountain. The town is a major tourist destination. Lots and lots of shopping, fake-branded trekking clothing and equipment, trinkets and souvenirs, German bakeries, pizza houses, lots and lots of tea houses (lodging), expensive internet (900 rupees/hour - about $20CDN/hour). Anna was loving it.
We stayed at Camp de Base, $20/night, expensive by my standards, but I'm only paying half, as Harold and I were sharing a room. Very nice rooms. The rooms are much like a motel room (minus the TV and phone), with ensuite bath, hot water shower, etc.) Anna dropped her stuff in the room, and said, "I'm shopping!" and off she went. Seamus said "I'm sleeping" and crashed in bed, anxious to start feeling better. Harold and I dropped our stuff off, we each had a nice, hot shower, then we went about town as well. I bought a pair of fake North Face, down-filled mitts. (Did I spell down right? It looks wrong.) We ran into Anna, and the three of us went to a bar and had a beer, and chatted with the guy who ran an internet shop in the same building. He sold Harold a copy of Microsoft Office 2000 for 200 rupees ($4 CDN). He told us about some of the things we could buy here in Namche, and the one thing that's unique to Nanche, that you can't buy anywhere else are yak bells. So, we decided that we would all buy yak bells. After beers, Harold used internet, and Anna and I bought three yak bells, one for me, one for her and one for Harold, for 900 rupees for the three of them.
Santos, the guy who runs the internet says there are three things you can't trust in life: women, work and weather.
Harold heard a rumor today: All climbers off of Everest - i.e. back to base camp. (Base camp is not on Everest...you can't even see Everest from base camp). Apparently it's too dangerous on the mountain.
We had supper back at the lodge.
We found out there's a bug going around. There were lots of trekkers and sherpa's and porters getting sick, Seamus happen to get it too.
I should define something here. We have a guide. A Sherpa guide, his name is Lakba (or Lakpa, not sure). Sherpa's are the original natives of the area, and are pretty much tour guides for trekkers and climbers. Lakba was the Sherpa guide for Harold and Sean Egan. Lakba, who has already summitted Everest once, was to accompany Sean Egan to the summit of Everest this year. You don't need a Sherpa guide when you trek, but one can be useful, depending on your group and experience. Tenzing Norgay was the Sherpa guide for Sir Edmund Hillary when he first summitted Everest on May 29, 1953. Being the natives of the area, they are very acclimatized to the region, and are the best climbers on the planet. Sherpa's typically deal with all the things a normal tour guide would do...getting transportation (i.e. plane tickets), taking you to the best (in your price range) accomodations, and generally dealing with the politics of the area for you.
The Discovery Channel did a special on Everest a while back (not sure when), and Lakpa was one of the Sherpa guides for them, and carried one of their camera's up the mountain.
We were told before we left on the trek that there is a tea house near Namche Bazar, called the Everest View Lodge, where you can see Everest. We thought it was a short walk to the tea house from Namche, but found out once we got there that the tea house is actually a 1-2 hour trek away. We decided that we would get up 5:30 tomorrow morning, and if the weather was nice (no clouds), we would trek to the tea house to see Everest.
After supper, Anna and Seamus to bed (Seamus had no appetite, he hasn't been eating hardly anything), Harold and I stayed up a bit longer, then to bed.
No comments:
Post a Comment