21 day trek through the Himalayas part 2 - Shivalaya to Namche Bazaar -

Shivalaya to Namche Bazaar 1/4/2015 to 7/4/2015

Shivalaya to Kinja 10.5 hours

Kinja to Lamjura 8 hours

Lamjura to Junbesi 5 hours

Junbesi to Nunthala approx 9 hours

Nunthala to Bupsa approx 9 hours

Bupsa to Chheplung 9 hr 50 m

Chheplung to Namche bazaar 7-8 hours

I had definitely had my reservations about trekking for 21 days. We had initially thought to fly into Lukla and do the trek from there. brett had mentioned the idea of doing a 6 day walk in from Shivalaya at one stage but we had dismissed it when he said ‘we could do the walk for 6 days in but then you might realise how hard it is and not want to walk the rest of the way’! It was only when people explained how stunning the scenery was throughout this part of the trek and that it was far less populated that we decided to walk in instead of fly. We are both so happy we did. This first 6 days were some of the most amazing parts of the whole 3 weeks. We saw maybe another 5 to 10 tourists during the whole week and we got to experience some of the way of life for the villages nestled among the himilayas instead of only visit villages set up for tourism. We spent time sitting in the kitchens of tea houses while the families made us dinner, we got to play with the kids in the villages and tea houses and we got the chance to chat to locals who had all the time in the world to help us.

Shelter from the rain

Hahaha! Funniest little kid. Her sisters did her makeup

While these first 6 days were amongst the most amazing they were also some of the most difficult parts of the entire 3 weeks. The first day we crossed our first pass (Deurali pass) 2600 m in altitude.

Prayer flags on the pass

We enjoyed some yak cheese at the top, a soon to be favourite snack for the next few weeks and then ventured 4 hours down hill. We would soon come to realise the down hill is as tough as going uphill. It rained, it was muddy, slippery and cold and by the time we arrived in Kinja we all craved a hot shower. The best we could get was a hot bucket of water…. It was better than nothing. My feet were sore and covered in blisters and I had few tears from the pain and realisation that the only way out was to walk.

The second day was no easier. We had been told it was a few hours up hill but turned out to be 8 hours straight uphill. The track never flattened out, it continued to wind up the mountain for hours on end. We learnt never to ask locals how far to the next town because their definition of ‘not far’ ‘small uphill’ and ‘flat’ is definitely not the same as ours. We were told on multiple occasions that where we wanted to go was 2 hours away, so we built up all our energy for a short 2 hours more only to be told 2 hours later that it was another 2 hours. When it started snowing and raining, I ended up in tears and we all decided at 5 in the afternoon it was time to stop and check in to the only tea house on the mountain. We ascended 1800 m in altitude that day. We huddled around the fire in the kitchen while the tea house owner made us momos for dinner.

Accommodation in Lamjura

We never had another day like the second day. The rest of the trek to Namche was very up and down, the altitude we gained in total was higher than Everest. We battled donkeys on the trail, learning quickly to stand on the mountain side when the donkeys moved past after almost being knocked off the edge by one or two. For 3 days straight we walked through a mixture of mud and donkey poo, the worst smelling stretch of the hike!

The very muddy track

Every afternoon it rained and we managed to make it to tea houses almost everytime just before the rain started. We would sit in tea houses most of the time only the 5 of us and crack up laughing at the most mundane things, the exhaustion and possibly altitude turned us all a little crazy. We drank multiple cups of hot lemon, ate to many momos and snickers bars and were always in bed by 730 or 8 so we could leave on strict German time at 530 or 6 in the morning depending how far we had to go the next day.