Sunday, December 7, 2008

Day 7 - Yeti Country

Wednesday 15th October

Woke early this morning, glad to report no nightmares about yeti's.
Also pleased to report that I am feeling refreshed, no sore muscles after yesterday's climb. Up goes the tent zipper, and here is my morning cup of tea and bowl of hot water, the start of another day. Time for my bird bath, to pack my kit bag and day pack and off to breakfast before another day's climb. We camp at 4,000 metres tonight. Stay tuned.

Wednesday afternoon.

Spectacular! I just know that I am going to run out of superlatives on this trip. This morning we climbed up out of the valley. The sides of the mountains were an array of autumn colours. There were fir trees, red birch with their red papery bark hanging amongst the "oldman's beard" that clung to their branches. We crossed a number of small log bridges over streams and small waterfalls. As we climbed higher the -2 C temperature climbed up to a warm 24C. We were all soon peeling off our layers and stuffing them into our daypacks. It was like being in a middle world. Below us we could see the river winding through the valley and snowy peaks towered above us. At one time we could see the peaks of 5 mountains with a number of them over 8,000 metres. A bit of trivia (according to Mani) of the top 13 highest mountains in the world 9 of them are in Nepal.

There was one point where we had a really tough uphill climb. Everyone was focused on putting one foot in front of the other, a little daunted by the task of the path that reached ever up ward. Mani called for a water and rest stop in a small clearing. We all flopped onto the nearest rock, pulled out our water bottles and looked at what was behind us!! Wedged between the sides of the valley was the most amazing view of Khumbila and a number of other peaks whose names I have forgotten. (picture above). We were all gob smacked by the view. Mani, was still below us watching our reaction, was feeling very pleased with himself that he had been able to deliver such and awesome experience.

We arrived at our camp site in time for lunch. Our tents were all set up in a clearing in front of the Yeti Inn. The afternoon was spent catching up on our washing while we still had some sunlight to dry things, writing up diaries etc.

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