The Fairy Tale

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The physical exertion would call for a soul splitting, and I had no idea. At the end of that first day with Dave O' we made it to Ghandruk. We had hiked 8 kilometers and had mountain moonshine at lunchtime. In the evening we broke bread - dhal bat (a rice and curry dish) with an Italian and his Nepalese guides. I always get a kick out of telling the locals that I was born there!

The next day Dave and I powered. First words written in the 2nd day circuit journal are "I'm exhausted". This day was the longest consecutive push we did. We started out early and went up a densely jungle humid ridge. There were schoolkids on their way to class, laughing and greeting us with, "Namaste". They would hold their hands together and bow.

It was peaceful. Until...

The leaches. Ugh. Nasty little bloodsuckers. Apparently they hang out all day and when they smell blood they jump onto your "flesh" and rip their little teeth in to feed on your juices. All the while releasing an anesthetic so the hiker is unaware. Just the thought of it creeps me out. By the end of that first leg we were running down the hillside to avoid the nasty fuckers. The only way to get them off was cut them away or throw salt. I had my small knife that got its usage.

Our donor payoff was worthy. We were at a huge river bottom where the rocks and even the river itself were a shiny silver. It was like the richness of the Himalayas was showing itself in a natural form.

We checked our balls for leaches (seperately) and set off across the river and up the hill. We hiked up the super steep sunny side of the valley and came to a beautiful hut on a hill where we sat for lunch. There we met "Alex" and friends. Alex saw us sitting down and he smiled, prancing over to us as if we were the only boys in the world. He told us that their destination was also going to the Annapurna Base Camp.

Dave and I had our lunch and decided that we would travel alone. 2 hours later we met up with the "boys". We started first but they caught up and passed us. We had in our judgement considered them slow and "light on their feet" but they had powered as well. In fact Dave O' busted his knee when he almost got impaled by a yak so we were in danger of walking in darkness. We trudged on.

We crossed another vast river and another uphill was in the cards. And up and up and up. After we crossed the river we were all together and our 2 man group had become 5. Alex, the cross dresser, Hrishant and James had joined us. It was at least cooling off as we were through the up and downs. It darkened as we barely got into Sinuwa; our day 2 achievement. We had hiked for over 10 hours and between 7 or 8 of that was continuous. I felt I was breaking through to the other side.

We had made friendships and we had shared blood with nature.

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Photos

Mountain Warriors
Josh & Dave

The fairy tale valley
View from Sinuwa Cabins