Day 30: Junbesi to Kinja

(Photo #1: from Lamjura pass looking back towards Junbesi. Photo #2: Looking forward towards Duerali Pass (the saddle in the middle right of the photo.))

We finally had to say goodbye to Junbesi, one of the nicest places on the trek, and start our climb up. Its a steady climb up of about 900m to get to the pass. The first part was fine as I watched my breathing carefully, but the final 200 metres or so was really tough. I just had no energy, and Sara had to help by taking my pack. By the time we got to the top I was toast, but for some reason was drawn to head into the tea house, where I plopped myself in front of the fire, and almost instantly started to feel better. A cup of coffee and a half hour of warmth from the fire later, I was ready to go again. Quite amazing really.

The next stage is an almost unbelievable 2,000 metre drop from Lamjura down to Kinja. A real test for the knees if there ever was one. With my feeling better, and Sara in the lead we headed down at quite a clip. We made Goyem in an hour, where we had lunch and I spent another hour sitting next to the energy giving fire (see photo). From there is was only 50 minutes to Sete - quite a difference from the eternity that it seemed to take to get from Sete to Goyem on the uphill path.



But then the wheels fell off. I guess the paracetamol wore off, or maybe I needed to find another fire, but all my energy disappeared. The last few hundred metres down were brutally slow. I all but collapsed when I got to the lodge, where I once again plopped myself down next to the fire. Thankfully the lodge owner had some more paracetamol, and soon I was feeling slightly more human again.

The lodge owner also had some more interesting news - there was a new bus service from Bhandar to Kathmandu, meaning that we would not have to cross the Deurali pass, nor walk all the way back to Jiri. In my condition this sounded like an excellent idea.

Before heading on to Bhandar, one last comment on the trails. Unfortunately from Jiri on it is hard to find a stretch where there is not some form of garbage on the trail or next to the trail. As I wrote in my journal on the first day, "unfortunately the garbage is as ubiquitous as the dead leaves and twigs on the trail, but perhaps as enduring as the rocks and dirt we walk on". The culture just has not caught up to the fact that this "new" stuff, does not biodegrade like the "old" stuff. I saw all ages of local people just throwing away garbage along the trail - I even had to stop our porter/guide at one point.

What is interesting is that there were two places where the presence of garbage was far less pronounced. First was on the path up to Thodung. No one uses this trail and as result it was spotless, something that immediately struck me. The second place was above Namche. It seems for whatever reason that this area is kept far cleaner than other parts of the trail (so if you are reading this and flew in and out of Lukla, you may be wondering what I am going on about). I just hope that somehow a message gets through that this stuff is not going away and maybe it is better to not drop it there in the first place.