Poon Hill Day 2

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After a reasonably comfortable sleep on a somewhat questionable mattress, we went down for breakfast early and planned to be back on the road for around 8am. Two veggie omelettes (both mine), some porridge and a pot of black tea later, we paid our host for his hospitality, roughly 3000 rupees for 6 meals and 3 beds, and we set off on what we had already presumed would be the hardest part of the 4 day trek!



At 8am on a Saturday morning in the Himalayas, nothing can quite prepare your body for the literal uphill battle which it is about to endure. Starting in Hille, we were already 1500m above sea level and our next destination Ulleri, the point which we had not quite made it to on our first day, was regrettably another 460m higher at 1960m. While this may not seem like the greatest distance on paper, bare in mind that this is just our first stopping point and our overall aim for the day was to make it to Ghorepani, which stands at a whopping 2874m and at this point seemed like a million miles away.



Once we were out of the Hille/Tikhedhungga area, approximately 20 minutes after we’d set off and surprisingly more downhill than we’d expected, we had caught up with a group of 25-30 Asian tourists that were also on their way to Ghorepani and for the remainder of the day played a game of cat and mouse with them, essentially based on who’s legs would give up first and which group would be the first to cross our imaginary finish line.



Luckily for them, their porters were doing all the hard work in carrying their bags for the duration of the trek and no more than 5 of the poor fellas were carrying this entire groups belongings strapped to their backs and even across their foreheads, kitchen sink included! Realistically, my now two bags, which for some reason I had decided to carry on both my back and my front and only weighed a total of around 12kg doesn’t seem as bad a hand as what they were dealt but this was not what i had signed up for and I lapped up every pitying look thrown my way, milking it when the locals seen that Becky was only carrying her camera!



By the time we reached Ulleri we had already realised that the blogs I had previously read about this day being a total of 5 and a half hours long even at a slow pace were complete bull and were relying on the other guides and locals to give us a rough guess as to how much more of this we were going to endure. A nod towards what we thought was the peak and simply saying “close?” was simply welcomed with laughter and a wry smile that suggested “as if.” That being said, it took us two hours to reach our first checkpoint and we were now 100 floors closer to where we needed, not wanted, to be.



Trekking really does build up quite an appetite and although we had came prepared with snacks, we agreed that by the time we reached our next stop in Banthanti it would be a perfect time to stop and refuel properly. During this part of the journey we also decided to stop purchasing more bottles of water as the higher we climbed, so did the prices and now most places would refill our bottles for a lesser fee, roughly 50r. Once we reached Banthanti we opted for the least busy of the many guesthouses and restaurants scattered in front of the teasing viewpoint and again tried the quick and simple veg noodles while we talked about how far we’d came in now just 3 hours and 45 mins. 2210m and 204 floors in total.



By now, our Asian counterparts were a distance behind us as they had all chosen to eat at the same place and we had also been witness to a number of the group/couples arguing amongst themselves along the way which had set them back even further. Not only were we beating them on foot but even our group morale was better! 2 nil to us.



The walk to Nangge Tharti was just as scenic as the rest of the route, passing waterfalls and creeks running alongside the steep cliff face and luckily for us, was covered in shade for pretty much the entire time. Every time there was a brief respite from our climb as we miraculously started to descend it was quickly followed by an even longer period of an uphill battle which all 3 of us were beginning to lose our patience with. Nevertheless, although at a significantly slower pace and myself in an already worn but still drier ‘new’ t-shirt, we arrived to Nangge Tharti fully aware that the end was now in sight. The locals informed us that we were only 1 hour from our final destination of Ghorepani and as it was only around 3:30pm, we rested for half an hour before we improved on our already staggering 311 floors.



Before we reached Ghorepani there was a number of thoughts going through my mind. First of all, how were we now behind the large group of Asians that earlier I had seemed so determined we were going to beat? Secondly, why did we keep asking locals for help with timekeeping when they’re either clearly lying to us for sh*ts and giggles or we’re walking at the pace of a drunk baby? And finally, and probably most importantly, why exactly have we voluntarily done this to ourselves? That final push was no easy task and the extra 97 floors which took our final total to 408 for the day was achieved in closer to 2 hours than the 1 we were promised and the disappointment of that was plain to see just by looking at us.



We stayed at See You Hotel for the night and, as we had experienced the night before in Hille, our bed was part of a ‘eat here twice sleep here once’ meal deal that we were under no obligation to refuse. The 3 of us even had dessert as our treat for the evening, apple pies and chocolate cake to distract us from the reality that we had just spent the best part of 10 hours walking up a mountain and were now also expected to wake up at 4am and trek up to Poon Hill for sunrise the following day.

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