Wrap up:

To wrap up a few thoughts on this year's trek, and on comparisons with last time:

(Note to start at the beginning of the blog - go HERE and keep hitting 'Newer Post" to follow the trek in order)

Walking in from Jiri and out to Bhandar was well worth it. Although few people do this (most fly out from Lukla), we enjoyed the feeling of being in great shape and having oxygen to breathe. We had no problem retracing our earlier steps (other than my health problems that is), and it was definitely enjoyable to be back on quiet trails again.

The changes from last time were immense. The quality of accommodation has improved many fold. We were able to have a double room every night, most lodges had facilities for showers if you were so inclined, and I think everyone had some form of electric light, although in some places it was very limited solar. The last time only Namche had electricity and I slept on the floor, or in dining rooms about 25% of the time, with most of the other nights being in dormitories. The food too was of a higher quality, though of course prices have gone up, especially at the higher altitudes.

We rented sleeping bags from Shona's (on Amrit Marg) and these kept us toasty warm the whole way. We also bought down jackets and these were excellent and are now proving their worth in a Canadian winter. I can't say enough about the ease of shopping at Shona's (fixed price and good quality).

Our favourite three lodges were:
- SunSite (Namche Bazaar)
- Sherpa Guide (Junbesi)
- Khumbila (Cheplung)

It was an interesting experience to have a porter/guide this time. I originally only decided to hire a porter/guide as a safety measure (I wanted someone there for Sara should any thing happen to me on the trek), but it was helpful to have someone along (and help this old guy carry some of the weight). You obviously don't need a guide for this trek, but for a little bit of money, you provide someone with some income, and he (or she - as there are a couple of female guides too) can help out in a number of situations. Just make sure you set the ground rules early as one of the biggest disputes can be over where you stay at night - the guide may have his favourite place (or where he gets a deal, or where he has developed a relationship), and you may want to stay somewhere else to be with people you met on the trail.

Kathmandu has changed a lot as well. No more Pie Alley, but still lots of good food. Definitely more crowded, and noisy and.....oh well. Our favourite places to eat were OR2K ( a vegetarian restaurant across from Pumpernickel bakery, and Just Pass Fast Food (On Amrit Marg, just down from the Utse hotel) where they have great Naan.

While in Kathmandu we splurged a bit and stayed at the Tibet Peace Guest House in Paknajol. This is about a 2 minute walk from Thamel, but much much quieter. There are actually 4 guesthouses up this small lane including Kathmandu Peace, and Yellow. We paid $12/night with bathroom, balcony and TV (like I said a bit of a splurge).

All in all a phenomenal time that will give Sara and I many, many memories for years to come. I would not have missed it for anything.

If you are looking for a place to stay in Kathmandu/Nepal, you can try these sites. They are run by a friend who helped us out with our porter/guide while we were there. He knows a lot about the whole trekking business: Hotels in Nepal or Kathmandu

Of course the blog posts are all in backwards chronological order, so the best place to start is to click on October posts and go from there. Or you can start here and just follow "Newer Posts".

Day 32: Bhandar to Kathmandu

Welcome to "big" Bhandar the potential new starting point for the Everest trek. It is already starting to look like Jiri. Just compare the pictures of the bus station (Photo #1) and the main street to the lower picture (Photo #4) of "little" Bhandar (about 1 km away) that is on the current trekking path. Its hard to believe these are so close to each other. Unfortunately at the moment if you want to take the Bhandar bus (coming or going) it is best to stay in the "big" Bhandar - as the bus leaves at 6 am and heaven only knows when the bus might arrive from Kathmandu (on the night we were there it rolled in around 9 pm).

Up early for the bus, but managed to get a delicious bowl of noodle soup for breakfast. As the bus station was directly across from the guesthouse, we did not have far to walk. The bus was about 15 minutes late leaving as we waited for a Buddhist nun and then just as we were about to leave someone else came running up to the bus. It turned out he had come to tell a family on the bus that he had just received a call saying that a brother had died - so the man and his family had to make the immediate decision to get off the bus.

So we were finally off on the "Super Express" - 750 Rs - bus to Kathmandu on only its 12 th day of service. All I can say is that this bus is not going to last long on these roads. Although there are great views the trip takes 4 1/2 hours to Jiri (via Those) for what as the crow flies is a 10 km distance. Bumpy, slow, windy,....this road has got it all.

Stopped at Jiri and surprisingly had the best, and cheapest, coffee of the trip at one of the bus station coffee shops. From there we learned the meaning of Super Express. No stops, just flat out - of course there was one stop to change a blown out tire, and then another stop in the next town to repair the blown out tire (a tire that should definitely gone on the scrap heap, as a piece had blown right off it). We made great time until just before Kathmandu, when evening rush hour hit. Two hours going nowhere. So the total time was 13 1/2 hours, and one saved day from not walking through to Jiri.

Kind of a crazy way to end a fantastic trek, but fun none the less.

(Photo #5: a look back along the route we followed from Bhandar. If you look closely you can follow the path of the road.)

Day 31: Kinja to Bhandar

So a change in plans based on the news about the new Bhandar bus route. With my feeling better (either the paracetamol is working or I am getting better), but not 100% we thought why not try the new Bhandar service. After all it saves a day, and a lot of walking ... so we thought. (Photo #1: Walking through Kinja)









Slow walk uphill, stopping to take lots of pictures. (Photo #2 - looking back towards Kinja) Really taking it easy and trying to thoroughly enjoy this last day on the trail. There is really some lovely scenery here, plus the added attraction, as far as Sara is concerned, of lots of oranges. We even managed to get one man to sell us some right off of his tree (now that is fresh - especially for someone from Canada, where lets just say there are not a lot of orange trees about) . (Photo #3 is Sara getting her 10 fresh oranges right from the tree)

We had lunch in what I call "little" Bhandar, the Bhandar that is right on the trekking trail. A nice pleasant place with lots of flowers and tidy looking guesthouses. But that is obviously not where the new bus runs from. To find that we had to head about 1 km over to "big" Bhandar - which given its position at the end of the road has developed just like Jiri. Lots of garbage and uncontrolled development etc. (See pics next post). We bought our bus tickets...and then found out that it takes 4-5 hours just to get to Jiri - oops we can walk there in not that much longer than that.

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.

Day 29: Recovery Day? - Junbesi

Now if there is one place on the trek that I would choose to spend an extra recovery day, it would be Junbesi - and so that is what we did today. Nothing to do but stay in bed, eat a bit and try and get rid of the fever. Ended up taking what antibiotics I had, plus some ibuprofen and paracetamol, and waited to see how I would react. Sara had her potatoes (she loves potatoes and butter) and took a few pics of the flowers at the guesthouse, while our porter/guide pitched in pounding some corn.

Day 28: Ringmu - Junbesi

50 today!

Well, not feeling well at all, and it can't all be down to turning 50. Had the sweats all night, so did not sleep well. Still we did get a lovely apple pancake for breakfast and then it was off to try and make Junbesi in my weakened condition. Luckily Sara was in fine form today, and she offered to take my pack, giving me her lighter one instead. She also spent the whole day looking after me.




This section of the trail is one of my favourite parts - pine and rhododendron forests, relatively flat trails with no rocks, great scenery, and comfortable weather (sunny and not too hot). Walked down from Ringmu, crossed the river then climbed back up to get our final view of Everest. Then the trail is pretty flat until just before Junbesi, where it drops down quite steeply. Along the way you also get a nice view of the climb to come up to the Lamjura pass again - the Lamjura pass is the low point of the range in the middle of the photo at the left.

Finally we got to Junbesi and our favourite Sherpa Guide Guest House. We found the owners not so busily drying apples and pounding corn (to make corn flour for sherpa stew). We asked about apple pie and the lady said she had not made any as the volume of trekkers was down now. We asked "what about if we bought a whole pie?" - and she said give her and hour or so and we would have one, and so we did - a great afternoon coffee time snack, plus some left over for dessert after dinner (a delicious tomato and egg spring roll) too!

Day 27: Jubing to Ringmu

Woke up feeling "not right". Still coughing, but this was worse. Still we started off down to the bridge over the river (at about 1450m) and then began the long climb up to the Takshindu pass (at about 3100m), so a nice 1650m, almost straight up. Of course in some ways that is a good thing - no ups followed by downs, just ups! (Photo #1: a look at the kitchen of the Nuntale guesthouse)

Stopped for an early lunch/extra breakfast in Nuntale, about half the way up. I was definitely not feeling well, and by now was running a fever. There were some nice views back towards Jubing with clouds for atmosphere, but I was concentrating more on putting one foot in front of the other. Somehow we made it up to the pass, but I was knackered, so I sent Sara and our porter/guide ahead to get a place to stay and to order some apple pie to eat. Meanwhile I hobbled down towards Ringmu at my own slow slow pace. Unfortunately the apple pie was not yet ready by the time I got there and we not so smartly sat outside (in the wind and cold) waiting for it to come. Though the pie was good, my fever was getting worse and I then crawled into bed and stayed there for an hour or so drinking hot lemons and trying to stop shivering. Most of the night was spent sweating or shivering. In hindsight it was the cold winds that were doing me in, what with my trekking in a t-shirt (wet from sweating), and not covering up when we stopped....serves me right I guess. (Photo #2: Breakfast in Nuntale with a Maoist flag in the background)