- Total steps: Approx 370,000 steps for the trek.
- Equivalent building flights climbed: 2700 (every time we ascended it approximately 1 floor it counts, descents don't count).
- Total days hiking: 17
- Total km hiked: Unknown
- Total mars and Snickers bars consumed: too many to ever have any ever again, ever. Half way through got sick of them.
- Total weight lost: approx 5kg
- Belt notches down: 2
Lukla flight was good, not nearly as exciting leaving as landing, but still better than any other airport!
Arrived in Kathmandu and had to wait for driver for van, as an earlier Intrepid group had stolen ours!
Once I got to the hotel, I had a long hot shower sitting on the floor scrubbing my boots and trekking poles for dirt (NZ BioSecurity would have a word otherwise).
We went out that night for dinner and did the big farewells for some of our band of 12 who were flying out really early the next morning, as well has had the formal thanks to our lead guide Prem.
He's a great guy, and I think we all loved him lots.
Oh, that one member I spoke about earlier, who had some trouble fitting in - she turned out all good, after some love and care, helping her understand we needed her, she is part of the team. So that turned out well. She enjoyed her last few days lots.
The next day after getting back to Kathmandu (my final day in th city), we had a group breakfast and began our fond farewells.
I was surprised how closely we had bonded, way more than any other group trip i had done. We were very close, and saying goodbye was very very hard! Since we all lived in different places, it couldn't be "see you later", or "see you next time", but we came up with "see you on the trail sometime!"
Of course Kancha (Andrew) lives in Oakland, so I shall pop up from Sunnyvale and see how he's doing before too long. He's probably heartbroken from having to separate from Dawa! (Assistant guide with whom they both bonded extremely well)
Packing in Kathmandu consisted of taking the contents of my duffle and daypack, selecting the cleanest smelling clothes out, then dumping the rest into a giant plastic bag and shoving in my backpack for travel home... the giant plastic bag was a necessity, once I had a shower and my nose returned to "normal", I discovered the contents of that bag could also double as a chemical warfare weapon.
The flight home wasn't too bad, and involved an overnight (in hotel!) in Singapore.
I'm currently back in Auckland, preparing for my next big adventure that starts tomorrow - moving to San Francisco!
I don't think I'll journal that trip :)
See you on the trail,
Nick
No comments:
Post a Comment