Our final days in Nepal were spent taking our lives into our own hands at the rustic Borderlands Resort, located 30 km south of the Tibet border, where we spent four days river rafting the Bhote Kosi and canyoning the nearby waterfalls.
Canyoning (otherwise known as abseiling/rappelling down waterfalls) was something I did once in Switzerland with my sister. As far as I could remember, it was a fairly innocuous pastime, or so it seemed at age 17.
Having survived our two days of rafting (exhilarating!), the thrillseeker in each of us was warmed to the challenge of Days 3 and 4 canyoning. The morning ascent up the "hill" (as it is known in Nepal when not technically a Himalaya) should have indicated the feat that lay ahead. We were winded by the time we reached the top and as we stared down the mouth of the fall we quickly realized it was not child's play, or Swiss play for that matter. At first it didn't help that our canyon companions, Babs and James, were a couple from Sweden/New Zealand that own a river adventure company and apparently do this sort of thing for every holiday. Intimidating...
After a two-minute overview by our guide, it was time to jump in. Thankfully, we were outfitted with wet suits and helmets which provided some warmth and protection from the chilly water. At this point we were also thankful that both our two Nepali guides and James and Babs were experts to show us the way. In short, the way was nothing but steep descents of water-pounding-in-your-face, slippery rocks and unsure footing waiting to twist an ankle or two.
After three hours on our "practice" day, we both emerged unscathed, but for one small thing -- a leech bite on my left calf, this found after pulling off the wetsuit. Hmmm...all I know of leech bites is from the movie "Stand by Me" and I wasn't about to start pulling leeches from places where the sun don't shine. This was enough to call out "sick" the next day...
Waking up on the fence between sickness and health, I reluctantly joined an enthusiastic Jake (who was improving his abseiling skills by the second) to the top of the day's fall, of course higher than the day prior. My mind was telling me we should have counted our healthy chickens having made it through trekking, rafting and one day of canyoning already. If one of us were to get hurt, now would probably be the time. And then there was the issue of the leeches...
First chute of the day and already a leech sighting on the leg of my wetsuit. As this was the first actual sighting, we carefully studied it. Black and small, not yet engorged with blood, with six identifiable legs and whisker-like antennae. NCAA, as my friend Liz would say- not cute at all.
We had 9 falls to abseil culminating in a 40 meter (130 feet) fall that, had we known about it in advance, we most definitely would have played hooky to hang back at the resort. From the top of the fall we couldn't see the bottom. I assumed the abseiling position and began the descent, slowly and surely down. At first the even footing of the rock face was nice, albeit slippery. I focused by looking straight ahead and up until the waterfall started pounding me in my face and the rock became more slick. In that moment about 1/3 of the way down, I realized the predicament: Water is rushing, feet are slipping, there's no option but to continue descending and upon closer inspection of the rock face, I see a throng of leeches cascading downwards following the water flow as though they are on their morning commute to work. Mind games!!! I would rather be anywhere but here.
My thought was to get down as fast as humanly possible which meant allowing the rope to slack and trust my spotter at the bottom of the fall. That would have been fine had the spotter actually been there. Once near the bottom, I noticed a heavy bounce in the rope and realized it was flailing loose at the end. I panicked when I saw Babs about 20 meters below. "Babs!! What do I do?" She assured me it would be okay and that the fact there was no guide there to help was 100% planned and not some cruel joke. The trick was to abseil to the end of the rope, turn and slide down the rest of the fall. Great, and with the leeches!! Reluctantly, I did just that.
I ran over to Babs with tears in my eyes that I had made it but worried that Jake might have a problem somewhere between the height, the loose rope and the leeches. I stayed and waited until I saw him to scream out the same instructions that Babs had shared with me. He seemed to handle it all in stride. Once down, we commiserated about the experience, proud to have done it but realizing how stupid it could have been had it turned out for the worse. He was lucky enough not to have noticed the leech brigade. We were both lucky to have somehow avoided more bites on the second day, despite the visual proof that we spent the day with them.
Travels to this point have been taxing on the lashes which are now countable at 13. I'm sure some are swimming with the leeches.
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
Saturday, December 4, 2010
Annapurna Circuit Trek Photos
Jake was appointed our official photographer for the ACT and he did an amazing job. Below is a "short preview" of the journey, about 1/7 of what we took but you get the idea...
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
I Would Walk 130 Miles...
(And I would walk 500 more...) We finally know what The Proclaimers were singing about in their 90s smash hit - trekking in Nepal. It's December 1 on the eve of our last night in Nepal and we have three and a half weeks of amazing memories and photos to remind us of a truly special experience we were able to share together in this beautiful country. Our trek of the Annapurna Circuit in the Himalayas was the highlight of this world adventure. Many thanks are owed to both Kent and Susannah who each recommended Nepal as a must-visit destination for us.
The photos speak for themselves so we decided to write up a Top Ten list to recap some of our favorite moments, not the least of which was arriving back in Kathmandu after the 15-day hike by bus from Pokhara instead of by helicopter evac from one of the villages on the Circuit. Sadly, that outcome ran through our heads at least once...
E&J's Top Ten Moments Along the ACT
10) Hearty and surprisingly good food (or maybe we were just starving by mealtime): Favorites were veg momos, noodle soup, chicken sizzlers, Mars Bars, milk coffee and...Dal Baht, the national meal of veggies, rice and lentil soup
9) Watching a herd of baby goats at play in Marpha: We never knew how nimble goats can be and how much they live to stand on anything that looks unsteady and uncomfortable.
8) Nepali dogs: Village dogs looked well taken care of and 99.9% of the time they were fast asleep in the middle of the footpath lazing about in the sun, no matter what time of day. We realized this was because they are so active at night as rarely were we able to sleep without interruption by a barking dog. No amount of thinking enabled us to hatch a plan to smuggle one out of Nepal as Chicago house pet. A typical Nepali dog is a large, predominantly black-coated and long-haired slumbering beast concerned with little by day beyond sunning its backside.
7) Crop terraces: Having missed seeing stepped rice paddies in Vietnam (and feeling a bit guilty about it), we were happy to see crop terraces all along the beginning and the end of the Annapurna Circuit which typically also yield rice and some millet.
6) Dining with a Nepalese family in Tal: Our trusty guide (see #1), was like a trek-style club promotor, able to get us into the secret locations and off-the-beaten track experiences along the way. On our second night on the Circuit, we were invited to enjoy a special meal of veg curry in the kitchen of a Nepalese family with a husband and wife, their 3-year old little girl and her 10-month old sister. The wood-burning stove and boiling kettles made us feel cozy and happy.
5) "Yak-tastic": As you know, we love to make up words (some more than others perhaps), and this one became an integral part of our trip to describe a few things including our very first encounter with mountain-dwelling yaks. They are powerful, hard-working beasts that thrive in t higher altitudes and make tasty cheese. Yak-tastic also describes yak wool products such as hats, gloves and scarves. Again, so cozy, an adjective we aimed to achieve daily on the trek.
4) Healthy living: We're not sure we've ever lived a healthier lifestyle than our 15 days on the trek, especially during the front half when the need to acclimatize to the increasing altitude kept us away from the Everest, Ghorka and Tuborg beers. We walked on average about 6 hours daily, woke up around sunrise and got at least 8 hours of sleep per night before we reached higher altitudes. Our diet was all vegetarian for the first half too. When the sun went down, it was either reading in the room by head lamp, sleep or finding a group of trekkers to teach us a new card game like Swiss War.
3) Himalayan Griffons and other lunchtime views: Sitting at lunch one day on our trek on the way to Pisang, we had a view of the Himalayas under a clear blue sky with a flock of giant birds circling overhead. At first we thought they might be eagles and Jake tried his best to photograph them gliding through the air. He snapped some good shots and when we cross-referenced them in the Mountain Museum in Pokhara later on, we thought they most closely resembled Himalayan Griffons. Here's hoping we were correct in our identification and they were not just common crows. Regardless, we were captivated by them through lunch. Another thing we were happy about? Lunchtime views...much better in Nepal than in cubicle nation or an office with no windows.
2) Crossing Thorong La Pass: We'll be the first to admit that we were not the most prepared when we set out for this journey. Not much had been planned. So midway through the trek when folks started talking about "the pass" and "have you been properly acclimatized," we started to do more research on what was in store...apparently a 5,416 meter (17,769 feet) pass that would have to be partially ascended and descended in one day. We think that's higher than any mountain in the US...and if not, it's definitely cool to say. If our fitness got us through, we still had to worry about altitude sickness which nearly claimed one of us. The 8-hour day of the pass began before dawn where we ascended an hour up 300 meters from Thorong Phedi led by our guide and porter under a blanket of stars like we have never seen. It was as though we were under a planetarium dome with stars so close we might touch them. We made our way slowly along by the knowledge of our guide and light of head lamps. This was the absolute best part of the day. Once at the top, we doled out high fives and drank tea thinking the worst was behind us. Not so...a higher ascent was ahead albeit it not steep. It was like a slow killer so that by the time we reached the very top and a jumble of prayer flags, there was not much gas left in the tank. And still, we had a 4-hour descent to complete to Muktinath where the terrain turned into a steep slant of dust. We were complete jello at the end of that day but we both decided it was more physically challenging than a marathon.
1) Nima Sherpa and Sujay: Thanks again to our Nepal advisor, Kent, we employed a guide on referral named Nima Sherpa. Although the term Sherpa is widely used to indicate a mountaineering guide, we learned in Nepal that it literally means "people of the East" most commonly from the Everest region of the Himalayas. The term is also one of some 30+ castes in the region, which is adopted as a last name. In the Sherpa caste, first names also tend to be Nepalese for the day of the week they are born. Nima (which means Sunday) was born on..you guessed it, a Sunday. This also means there are plenty of Nima Sherpas about in Nepal, one of which is famous for repeatedly climbing Everest and graces the Everest beer label. You can bet we had some good laughs with Nima about that. Nima Sherpa and his trusty 19-year old porter named Sujay made our lives simple from touchdown in Nepal. To name a few things: airport pick-up, accommodation arrangement in Kathmandu and tea houses along the trek, interaction with restaurants and locals, overseeing food preparation to ensure water was properly treated and food was properly handled, medical advice, the list goes on. Not to mention, Nima is the friendliest guy in the world with a warm smile and great stories. It's also clear that he takes great pride in his work to ensure that the guide-tourist relationship in Nepal remains a strong one. To put it bluntly, we both decided we wouldn't want to do it any other way, at least not at this age! And then there was Sujay who carried our 25-kilo backpack for 15 days, up and down 5,416 meters and 130 miles, all with a smile and often reaching the day's destination ahead of us. Sujay did say the backpack was one of the most comfortable he had ever carried (thanks Jamie Ferg).
We could talk about Nima for days...and thankfully we get to see him one more time tomorrow when he drops us off at the airport. In short, he was our Nepali guardian, sort of like a favorite uncle who takes you under his wing. We'll miss him dearly!
Here's hoping we can update the blog with photos and a video interview we took with Nima and Sujay as soon as possible. As we said, the photos speak volumes and even though we thought this entry would be short on words, turns out we had a lot more to say...we'll catch you in Doha!
The photos speak for themselves so we decided to write up a Top Ten list to recap some of our favorite moments, not the least of which was arriving back in Kathmandu after the 15-day hike by bus from Pokhara instead of by helicopter evac from one of the villages on the Circuit. Sadly, that outcome ran through our heads at least once...
E&J's Top Ten Moments Along the ACT
10) Hearty and surprisingly good food (or maybe we were just starving by mealtime): Favorites were veg momos, noodle soup, chicken sizzlers, Mars Bars, milk coffee and...Dal Baht, the national meal of veggies, rice and lentil soup
9) Watching a herd of baby goats at play in Marpha: We never knew how nimble goats can be and how much they live to stand on anything that looks unsteady and uncomfortable.
8) Nepali dogs: Village dogs looked well taken care of and 99.9% of the time they were fast asleep in the middle of the footpath lazing about in the sun, no matter what time of day. We realized this was because they are so active at night as rarely were we able to sleep without interruption by a barking dog. No amount of thinking enabled us to hatch a plan to smuggle one out of Nepal as Chicago house pet. A typical Nepali dog is a large, predominantly black-coated and long-haired slumbering beast concerned with little by day beyond sunning its backside.
7) Crop terraces: Having missed seeing stepped rice paddies in Vietnam (and feeling a bit guilty about it), we were happy to see crop terraces all along the beginning and the end of the Annapurna Circuit which typically also yield rice and some millet.
6) Dining with a Nepalese family in Tal: Our trusty guide (see #1), was like a trek-style club promotor, able to get us into the secret locations and off-the-beaten track experiences along the way. On our second night on the Circuit, we were invited to enjoy a special meal of veg curry in the kitchen of a Nepalese family with a husband and wife, their 3-year old little girl and her 10-month old sister. The wood-burning stove and boiling kettles made us feel cozy and happy.
5) "Yak-tastic": As you know, we love to make up words (some more than others perhaps), and this one became an integral part of our trip to describe a few things including our very first encounter with mountain-dwelling yaks. They are powerful, hard-working beasts that thrive in t higher altitudes and make tasty cheese. Yak-tastic also describes yak wool products such as hats, gloves and scarves. Again, so cozy, an adjective we aimed to achieve daily on the trek.
4) Healthy living: We're not sure we've ever lived a healthier lifestyle than our 15 days on the trek, especially during the front half when the need to acclimatize to the increasing altitude kept us away from the Everest, Ghorka and Tuborg beers. We walked on average about 6 hours daily, woke up around sunrise and got at least 8 hours of sleep per night before we reached higher altitudes. Our diet was all vegetarian for the first half too. When the sun went down, it was either reading in the room by head lamp, sleep or finding a group of trekkers to teach us a new card game like Swiss War.
3) Himalayan Griffons and other lunchtime views: Sitting at lunch one day on our trek on the way to Pisang, we had a view of the Himalayas under a clear blue sky with a flock of giant birds circling overhead. At first we thought they might be eagles and Jake tried his best to photograph them gliding through the air. He snapped some good shots and when we cross-referenced them in the Mountain Museum in Pokhara later on, we thought they most closely resembled Himalayan Griffons. Here's hoping we were correct in our identification and they were not just common crows. Regardless, we were captivated by them through lunch. Another thing we were happy about? Lunchtime views...much better in Nepal than in cubicle nation or an office with no windows.
2) Crossing Thorong La Pass: We'll be the first to admit that we were not the most prepared when we set out for this journey. Not much had been planned. So midway through the trek when folks started talking about "the pass" and "have you been properly acclimatized," we started to do more research on what was in store...apparently a 5,416 meter (17,769 feet) pass that would have to be partially ascended and descended in one day. We think that's higher than any mountain in the US...and if not, it's definitely cool to say. If our fitness got us through, we still had to worry about altitude sickness which nearly claimed one of us. The 8-hour day of the pass began before dawn where we ascended an hour up 300 meters from Thorong Phedi led by our guide and porter under a blanket of stars like we have never seen. It was as though we were under a planetarium dome with stars so close we might touch them. We made our way slowly along by the knowledge of our guide and light of head lamps. This was the absolute best part of the day. Once at the top, we doled out high fives and drank tea thinking the worst was behind us. Not so...a higher ascent was ahead albeit it not steep. It was like a slow killer so that by the time we reached the very top and a jumble of prayer flags, there was not much gas left in the tank. And still, we had a 4-hour descent to complete to Muktinath where the terrain turned into a steep slant of dust. We were complete jello at the end of that day but we both decided it was more physically challenging than a marathon.
1) Nima Sherpa and Sujay: Thanks again to our Nepal advisor, Kent, we employed a guide on referral named Nima Sherpa. Although the term Sherpa is widely used to indicate a mountaineering guide, we learned in Nepal that it literally means "people of the East" most commonly from the Everest region of the Himalayas. The term is also one of some 30+ castes in the region, which is adopted as a last name. In the Sherpa caste, first names also tend to be Nepalese for the day of the week they are born. Nima (which means Sunday) was born on..you guessed it, a Sunday. This also means there are plenty of Nima Sherpas about in Nepal, one of which is famous for repeatedly climbing Everest and graces the Everest beer label. You can bet we had some good laughs with Nima about that. Nima Sherpa and his trusty 19-year old porter named Sujay made our lives simple from touchdown in Nepal. To name a few things: airport pick-up, accommodation arrangement in Kathmandu and tea houses along the trek, interaction with restaurants and locals, overseeing food preparation to ensure water was properly treated and food was properly handled, medical advice, the list goes on. Not to mention, Nima is the friendliest guy in the world with a warm smile and great stories. It's also clear that he takes great pride in his work to ensure that the guide-tourist relationship in Nepal remains a strong one. To put it bluntly, we both decided we wouldn't want to do it any other way, at least not at this age! And then there was Sujay who carried our 25-kilo backpack for 15 days, up and down 5,416 meters and 130 miles, all with a smile and often reaching the day's destination ahead of us. Sujay did say the backpack was one of the most comfortable he had ever carried (thanks Jamie Ferg).
We could talk about Nima for days...and thankfully we get to see him one more time tomorrow when he drops us off at the airport. In short, he was our Nepali guardian, sort of like a favorite uncle who takes you under his wing. We'll miss him dearly!
Here's hoping we can update the blog with photos and a video interview we took with Nima and Sujay as soon as possible. As we said, the photos speak volumes and even though we thought this entry would be short on words, turns out we had a lot more to say...we'll catch you in Doha!
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