An absolutely horrible breakfast. Porridge and corn flakes were all but inedible. The water/milk mix was awful.
(The first pic is looking back down the valley from above Dole towards Phortse)
As we started off Sara was definitely not as good as yesterday. It took quite a bit of encouragement and a lot of breaks to get to Machermo (4,470m) - where there is a rescue post at the back of the village. A doctor was standing outside so I had a chat with her and quickly decided to pay the US$50 to have her look at Sara. It was probably the best $50 I could ever spend as she had one look down Sara's throat and said - tonsillitis. So she gave us some of her limited supply of antibiotics (they were having trouble being resupplied and it had been a very busy season), and then we chatted about the problems they had with folks heading up too quickly and inevitably having some kind of problem with altitude. There was also apparently a big problem with people coming trekking with "preexisting conditions" that they had not told their insurance company about and then when they needed a rescue helicopter...well..it wasn't covered. We finished our stay in Machermo with lunch at a lodge where we listened to one guy calling Kathmandu to get a rescue helicopter for his friend (and having to give his credit card info before they would come) at a cost of US$5600. (
Photo is of Sara with her medicine at Machermo)
The doctor had suggested that we might be better to take it easy and stay at Pangla but after talking to a couple of people heading down we decided to go for Gokyo (4,790m). It turned out to be a great decision as Gokyo was essentially empty. Where the lodge had been full the night before (all 8 rooms), this day there was only one other couple staying there. Absolutely lovely compared to what I had feared.
(Photo is overlooking lake 3 at Gokyo)
There are now quite a number of lodges in Gokyo, many of them quite nice. This was a big change from when I was last there. In fact if you look in the picture you will see the stone hut that we had stayed in last time, now no longer used as a lodge, but as a kitchen. I vividly remember sleeping with 7 other people on an elevated wood "bed" next to the "kitchen". It was brutally cold and in the middle of the night I had to go to the toilet, but my boots were on the floor and it was too cold to get up so I just lay there. Eventually someone else got up, and then so did everyone else (everyone had had to go, but no one had wanted to make the move). As there was no actual toilet, the next day you could see how far everyone had gone by observing how far the frozen puddles were from the lodge.
An absolutely horrible breakfast. Porridge and corn flakes were all but inedible. The water/milk mix was awful. (The first pic is looking back down the valley from above Dole towards Phortse)
As we started off Sara was definitely not as good as yesterday. It took quite a bit of encouragement and a lot of breaks to get to Machermo (4,470m) - where there is a rescue post at the back of the village. A doctor was standing outside so I had a chat with her and quickly decided to pay the US$50 to have her look at Sara. It was probably the best $50 I could ever spend as she had one look down Sara's throat and said - tonsillitis. So she gave us some of her limited supply of antibiotics (they were having trouble being resupplied and it had been a very busy season), and then we chatted about the problems they had with folks heading up too quickly and inevitably having some kind of problem with altitude. There was also apparently a big problem with people coming trekking with "preexisting conditions" that they had not told their insurance company about and then when they needed a rescue helicopter...well..it wasn't covered. We finished our stay in Machermo with lunch at a lodge where we listened to one guy calling Kathmandu to get a rescue helicopter for his friend (and having to give his credit card info before they would come) at a cost of US$5600. (Photo is of Sara with her medicine at Machermo)
The doctor had suggested that we might be better to take it easy and stay at Pangla but after talking to a couple of people heading down we decided to go for Gokyo (4,790m). It turned out to be a great decision as Gokyo was essentially empty. Where the lodge had been full the night before (all 8 rooms), this day there was only one other couple staying there. Absolutely lovely compared to what I had feared. (Photo is overlooking lake 3 at Gokyo)
There are now quite a number of lodges in Gokyo, many of them quite nice. This was a big change from when I was last there. In fact if you look in the picture you will see the stone hut that we had stayed in last time, now no longer used as a lodge, but as a kitchen. I vividly remember sleeping with 7 other people on an elevated wood "bed" next to the "kitchen". It was brutally cold and in the middle of the night I had to go to the toilet, but my boots were on the floor and it was too cold to get up so I just lay there. Eventually someone else got up, and then so did everyone else (everyone had had to go, but no one had wanted to make the move). As there was no actual toilet, the next day you could see how far everyone had gone by observing how far the frozen puddles were from the lodge.
No comments:
Post a Comment