heavy layers i have in india, bought some hats, and was guaranteed that if it got too cold for me we could just stop there. ok. fair enough. now this is OFF season for the abc trek. why? because it tends to get too cold in december. so what were we thinking? actually what was i thinking because i agreed to this. not only that, but we left a few days later then planned becaus
e of of Nisarga's visa difficulties, so this meant it was colder and we had to do it faster. right. well, we could always stop and turn back, that was the deal.
and with that in mind we set off one fine morning, on the bus from katmandu to pokora, spent the night there, rented sleeping bags in the morning, took another bus to our start off point and started... walking.
now i've always been the kind of person that has never understood trekking! no, really. i don't see the point. on your way up you have to look down, on your way down you have to look down, you're huffing and puffing the whole time, by the time you reach you are exhausted and missed most of the sites because you were trying not to break an ankle. i don't get it! but i know nisarga loves it and i made it a challenge for myself to go on this trek.
in preparation for this trek i bought hicking boots. simple right? well, since i had never been hicking before, not really. you see, i went to the outlet because these babies are super expensive and i found a 6.5 boot. i'm a 7 but they felt nice and cozy and were gortex and covered my ankle with great traction. and they cost something like 40$, a steal!!! army green with black, stylis
h at that. i was psyched about my little soldier boots, they were so cute.well these pups ended up being the bain of my existance!!! they were obviously too small for trekking. walking around the store, and on flat pavement even, fine! but going down hill became my misery when i thought it would be my delight. i got blisters on my toes, i cried, a lot, i wanted to cut off my feet. i was stuck with those boots and my feet for the duration however.
so what could i do? i tried to meditate, observing my breath, counting my exhalations, then my inhalations. i tried positive affirmation, repeatedly telling myself that i am a devine spirit which is on this planet in this form but i am limitless in fact. i tried telling my toes and feet how much i loved them. i tried observing the pain in order to go beyond the pain. i tried humming. i tried tricks from "the secret". but reality was what it was. my toes were blistered, sore and swollen, and my shoes were not stretching.
in the meantime nisarga was flying through the hills. he was at his peak. at the end of the first day my body was in such shock, from the steep increase in altitude, that all i could do was reach our guest house, and as i was taking off them boots i started to cry. i crawled into a little ball under the blankets. everything hurt. everything! my bones, my muscles, my head, my heart, my feet, my legs, my lungs, everything!!! i just cried and cried and cried and went to sleep by 7. didnt even eat. wasnt hungry at all. that was day 1!
we soon figured out th
at we could not go at the same pace and enjoy. i had no desire to "stop and smell the roses", the journey was not the destination, the destination was the destination. i wanted to walk straight through at a comfortable pace and make it to our stop without stopping. nisarga on the other hand wanted to stop regularly and just sit. i didnt even want to stop for food. so we agreed, that i would walk at my pace and he would go ahead with our guide and porter, harry, and when they wanted to stop they would and i would catch up to them that way. it worked. i decided that i might as well put my slowness to good use and i started to collect trash from along the path as i walked. and there was plenty of it.what i actually liked, very much, was walking on my own. since it was off season there werent that many other trekkers. there were times i walked for over an hour and didnt see another person. i loved the silence. and when i would stop, and there was no more the sound of my own walking, sometimes there was utter silence... deafening silence as they say. and the scenary was amazing, when i wasnt looking down. so diverse! bamboo fields, trees with roots so thick and big that it was like walking over hurdles, flowers and vegetable fields, rivers, huge boulder rocks, make shift bridges, butterflies, everything!
we rarely reached in time to take a shower because we usually got to where we staying
too close to sunset and this mean i would freeze if i tried showering. one great thing about this circuit is that the nepalese government has invested so much money on developing it the guest houses are all pretty decent and there is really yummy food. one thing in particular that is so
crazy good are the potatoes! something about them, or the way they are prepared, throughout the circuit!!! delicious. we had a plate almost every day. now i wasnt hungry for most of the trek, because i was too exhausted. in fact most of the days i ate only once. but that usually included those potatoes!as we got higher and higher in altitude, things that are alive started to become scarcer. as in plant life, but also we stopped seeing dogs and flies. it was very interesting. and in that dry cool atmosphere, any scratch or wound, except for my blisters, was almost immediately healed. it was amazing how fast things healed.
when we finally reached i was so excited! it was just after 2pm and the sun was alread
y behind the mountains. see, when you are that high the sunlight time you get is much shorter. bec
ause it takes longer to see the sun over the peaks and it hides behind them quiker too. it was soooo cold at ABC. soooo cold. i mean really cold. i had to go pee in the night and i think the liquid came out frozen. really it was so cold.i was happy on the way down, as in relieved. but the way down also meant more down hill, and my feet were still not shrinking and those shoes were still not stretching. so i not only cried on the way up to abc, i also cried on the way down. at that point it came time to negotiate our route. harri told us of an alter
native route, that didnt involve as much down hill. i jumped at it! this meant we got to chill for a day at a village by some hot springs. this part of the bargain convinced nisarga. the one hour steep down hill we had to do to get to this village i did in flip flops. i just couldnt take it anymore.
the hot springs were amazing. just a little cement encasing the hot water, right next to the river gushing past, surrounded by jungle. of course nisarga, the polish man that he is, decided to also try out the river. i watched from the comfort of the hot springs. the next morning, nisarga woke u
p an hour ahead of schedule, highly unusual, and ran, yes ran, down to the hot s
prings with harri our porter. they ba
thed and ran back. crazy kids! nisarga also decided to pick dried corn and cabbage from a garden (which was transformed into a yummy salad subsequently).one thing i absolutely loved about our time on the trek was that we were conscious of every sun rise and every sun set. every "beginning" and "end" to each day. this was so beautiful. a wonderfully rewarding and nourishing experience.
so i did it!!! i made it. nisarga asked me if i could find joy and pleasure in the hicking. i told him that this being my first experience, and having too small shoes on top of it, it wasn't about enjoying it really, it was about just getting through it. just like sitting for an hour for silent and still meditation is for him, although for me it can bring great joy. and i did get through it. and i would be willing to do another trek... once i get new shoes.
picassa album with pictures from the trek: http://picasaweb.google.com/nisargaanddeepa/NepalTrekToAbc?feat=directlink
short video nisarga made of our trek: http://animoto.com/play/N2OSAheE8J61GjU1AXPc8A
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