Homeward Bound

The end of our trip was our designated 'fun time'. It turned out to be not so fun for some of us but when you come to Nepal, you have to get close and personal with some mountains.

In suspense

So we began our epic four day trek bright eyed and bushy tailed with a three and a half hour walk to Syabru from Syabrubesi, a climb of 750m. We had a horse named 'bādala' which means 'cloud in Nepali and his handler, Angdawar, a believer who lives in Syabru. The horse carried several packs and the super keen ones carried theirs up the mountain. Kimjeng and Kimghech packed all their stuff into one bag (we all downsized to essential items) into one pack so it went onto the horse straight away.

We all managed the climb well and made it into Syabru by lunchtime.

Follow the leader

We stayed at 'Peace Lodge' which is run by Gyalsang and his wife Nimbuti. Gyalsang and his family were the first believers in Syabru and their testimony is an amazing story of God's goodness and mercy. 

'For you? Good price'

 Unfortunately our early optimism about the trekking was smashed as Colin was up sick that entire night. By morning he was stuck in bed and not able to continue with the climb up into the mountains. A Nepali colleague Suresh stayed with Colin and made sure he was well cared for. Colin was gutted about not being able to go, however knew that his body just wasn't up to it.

The rest of us prepared ourselves for the hardest trek of the four days; a climb of 1400m. Kimghech was feeling unwell by this stage and struggled to get through breakfast. 

We planned to reach Phoprang by lunch and then climb the rest of the way to Cholongpati. 

It was a four hour trek to Phoprang and we were all pretty dead by that time. Kimghech was fairly dead by this point and spent lunchtime sleeping on a bench trying to avoid the thought of food. The others refueled on egg chowmein and fried rice. 

Our faithful horse

The next 3 hours to Cholongpati was some of the hardest hours for all of us. A combination of the altitude, general tiredness, the level of physical exertion required to get up the mountain and illness made the climb incredibly difficult. Even Tim said that the day was his second best physical achievement, after the marathon. We praise God for His faithfulness to us and sustained us as we struggled. The scenery however was some of the most beautiful we've seen in Nepal, it was a shame that Colin missed it as it was Hobbit-esque and he would have loved it.

Enchanted forest

By the time we reached Cholongpati we were at the end of our physical and mental tethers. We were at 3585m and our bodies were struggling to adjust to the altitude. 

We walked all that way...

We were happy to just sit by the fire and try to cope with the cold and the altitude all night. We did take a few moments though to take in the view.

The Langtang mountains all covered in snow

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At least we made it before sunset

 

 

 

The plan for the next day was to climb up to Gosainkunda. Kunda means lake in Nepali so we wanted to climb to Gosain Lake. Tim, Kimghech and a few other team members wanted to go up. Kimjeng got sick and was suffering from altitude sickness and was unable to make it. She was quite breathless and had a minor tummy bug from the lodge food. 

We all set off and straight away Kimghech felt the effects of not eating the day before. It was a fairly steep climb over loose rocks. Kimghech only made it up to Lauribinda before deciding that trying to go to Gosinkunda was unwise and not worth the effort.

Tim was then the only one of us who made it to the top. According to him, the frozen lake was the best part of the trip.

Gosainkunda - 4380m

Tim was able to walk on the lake and he came back with stories and videos of how the lake made a booming and cracking noise as they walked on it. They also decided that chucking ice along the top of it was a good idea.

Ice ice baby

The rest of us hung out together at the lodge and sat by the fire all day recuperating in preparation for the hike downhill the next day to Dunche. Dunche was where Colin had been waiting for us. He had slowly walked down the hill from Syabru to Syabrubesi then a bus to Dunche as he was too ill and weak to try the climb to Cholongpati.

The descent down to Dunche was very steep and we dropped over 1600m in a day. There were a couple of lodges on the way where we stopped for tea and lunch.

Tea with a view

Again some of the views and scenery on the walk were amazing - we all tried to soak in our last chance to experience the Nepali countryside.

Not your average staircase

 

 

When we finally made it into Dunche we reunited with Colin who had a fairly boring two days. We all rejoiced in having food choices that weren't just dhal bat, fried rice, eggs and chowmein. 

The next day was a six hour trip into Kathmandu. We had all forgotten how treacherous the roads were and Tim ended up sitting on the cliff side of the vehicle. He took a photo from inside the moving car documenting how close we came to the edge.

Say your prayers

We all made it safely in however and were entertained by all the trucks that advertised the private lives of their drivers on them.

'Don't love' 'Love is painful' 'Mother is God'
Don't you just want to give him a hug?

Our last day in Kathmandu consisted of going to Gongabu church in the morning then running around getting last minute souvenirs and eating all the stuff that we'd missed including salad and chocolate cake. Oh the little things.

We're flying out tomorrow and some of us have a mountain of packing to do. Not a nice thought.

Praise God that we are all safe and well and have made it through Trekabout 2013-2014!