Trekking in the Himalayan mountains

Nepal » Trekking in the Himalayan mountains

7 days of trekking...

...actually it was supposed to be 5 days with one day on the bus there, and one day back. But to get to the place where our route started it occured that we had to start climbing/walking at day one! Lonely planet says it is only 117 km from Kathmandu to Syabru, which is actually possible... but here in Nepal, people do not speak in kilometres but in hours... So no, it wasnt 117 km, it was 12 hours to get there! :) It occured that the road was so damaged due to the weather, that we had to get off the bus, and start our adventure by walking through the worst parts by foot. We were all excited going through our first waterfall...what we didnt know by then was that the waterfalls will fill up our shoes with water several times on the way to our destination - on 3850mh !!! After 2 hours trekking, we managed to get on another bus, which resulted in the worst busride in our lives so far... It is hard to describe what one feels and thinks in such moments... every move of the bus caused tension in every single muscle of our bodies.. We saw a totally damaged part infront of us with loads of water..and we decided to run of the bus.. All tourists plus some of the locals went off and observed what was going to happened with open mouths and fear in their eyes. We were too scared to think of taking pictures, but fortunately we took one on the way back! A bus (a local Nepali bus !!!!) did an off road part that we doubt even a 4x4 jeep would be able to pass. It was getting dark, so we had no choice but to get on the bus again... finally, we reached the end of the road... our so called "guide" (no comments) told us that we had another 20 minutes trekking... now VERY dark, and with no signs of life in front of us..Tired, exhausted, and wet up to our knees (after passing waterfalls in the darkness) we arrived to our first basecamp. The only thing we could think of was "how the hell are we going back to Kathmandu without getting on the f---- bus! With the tourists on the basecamp assuring us that we will now just walk for 5 days, and we shouldnt worry... we decided to get some sleep and start over the next day.

We agreed on that we will be safer in the mountains, avoiding cities in case of another earth quake, and any roads what so ever.. and we started our real trekking. It was at a medium level and all of us expected a little track sometimes up, sometimes down.. but nooo ; ) It was A BIT more hardcore than we thought. Walking/climbing in the rain for more than 9 hours...with no reliable information on how much we got to our next basecamp made our first trekking day really...reaaaally rough/hard/exhausting! But we had no choice - at the time we were ready to give up, we had at least as long to the basecamp as we had back, and it was getting late... you guys can imagine our reaction when we saw the little village "Lama Hotel"... : ) : )

Luckily, the next couple of days were lighter and we enjoyed it !! : ) We had a map, and knew the distance more or less. It was really hard, but we were tired in a positive way and satisfied every evening : ) It was surely a physical challenge, but that part was fun! On the top of our route, we got up at six and enjoyed the view of the HIMALAYAN MOUNTAINS !!!!!

We were climbing down for two days, and it seemed a bit easier, but our muscles are in PAIN! HAHA : ) There is nothing for free!

Then the way back...

The worst ride of our lives was a couple of days earlier... but this one.. damn... We started at 5.30 since the road was damaged to a higher extent then before... and it was our longest journey ever.. climbing, walking, even running to avoid big stones falling down, jumping through water, sitting on one bus, then running again, getting on the back of a truck with another hundred people, walking again, and finally getting on one bus that took us to Kathmandu. It was just crazy what was going on, on the buses... we have never seen, or even imagined, that so many people can fit in one bus. Its hard to describe - just CRAZY...Insane.

Anyhow, the transportation to and from the mountains is something that we will now try to forget, and we will not get back there in the first time... but all of us enjoyed the real trekking part and we are more than excited to do some more trekking in the future!! A great challange!

We survived, we arrived, and we continue with our plan !!

Next: Darleeling, India (getting on the bus tomorrow for "a couple of hours" (17h !!) )