The Great Himalayan Trek!

We're back in Kathmandu: achey-muscled and crisped by the sun, but very happy and relaxed. Yarrow and I are sitting in the courtyard of our guest house eating banana pancakes and eggs on toast, being assaulted by the clamor of the city - quite the change after having been in the wilderness for eight days!

On May 14th before leaving for the trek, Yarrow and I delivered a presentation on management of second stage and routine episiotomy to approximately 20 Skilled Birth Attendants. It was very well received, and we were even asked to travel to Pokhara to present to the birth attendants there! We'll see if we end up having time...

The next day, we got up bright and early at 4:30 a.m. to start our bus journey to the trailhead near Syabrubesi (Shyafru bensi in Nepali). The bus ride was long, grueling, and colourful. The bus was overflowing with passengers, bags, sacks of rice, and animals inside and piled on the roof. We had three very curious goats nosing our laps for the better part of the trip, until they were loaded onto the roof by their horns. After nine hours in a Gravol-induced haze, we got off on the side of the road and hiked three hours up the trail to our first night's destination.

Sights included green valleys and lush terraced rice paddies. In the morning I woke up to Yarrow saying, "Oh my gosh, Lauren, wake up!! Look out the window.." This was our view:













Day 2 was long - about 18km, 8 hours, and lots of climbing up and down. The high point (literally) was reaching this lookout:
















After a refreshing lunch by the Langtang river, we ascended to 2900m, where we spent the night at the Hotel Lama. We were exhausted after the big day and slept well.












On Day 3, we hiked to Langtang village, which is at 3400m. The Langtang Region borders China and we could see a strong Tibetan influence in the culture and dress of the local people. It was another day of hard work! Thankfully, we saw lots of exciting things on our way. Probably the best was when we walked through Baby Yak Country. We affectionately named them Yaklets and I made Yarrow pose with one.















Below are some photos from the rest of the day.























































Day 4: On day four we enjoyed a short hike to Kanjing Gomba, the last village on our trek at 3800m. We were thankful for the short (3hr) hike as we were all beginning to feel the effects of the altitude and needed the afternoon to acclimatize. Along the way, we were approached by a man asking for help because he had a very infected and painful sore on his finger. We broke out our first aid kit and after treating him, a group of locals surrounded us, one by one explaining their aches and pains and hoping that we could help them. We did our best giving out Immodium and Ibuprofen, and had fun meeting the colourful group. Once we arrived in Kanjing Gomba, we had a quiet afternoon reading our books and exploring the village. We visited a yak cheese factory and tasting the goods right off the line, and also visited the monestary and stupa. Below are a few photos of our day.































































Day 5 was the highlight of the trip - and the most physically & mentally challenging day. We got up at 4:30am, ate our chapatis and set out for the Summit Day. Our destination was the peak of Chherkari, elevation 5000m. Lauren was already suffering from altitude sickness and felt extremely nauseous for the entire climb. We all felt increasingly short of breath, and became each others' "climbing doulas" as we step-step-breathe-breathe-breathed our way to the top. It was a grueling climb, but when we reached the peak five hours later, the view and sense of accomplishment were worth every painful step. The feeling of being over 16,000ft was exhilarating! Some of the mountains visible in the photos formed the border between Nepal and Tibet.




































































































The trudge down was equally as painful, as our knees gave out in protest. When we got back to the tea house, we celebrated with fresh soup made from nettles that our porter Kumar gathered from the mountain. We slept like rocks and spent the next two days working our way back to our starting point. We'll leave you with a few photos from our hike back, and end this epic blog post.

We're travelling to Bharatpur tomorrow to begin a four-week placement at the Chitwan Regional Hospital. Bharatpur is closer to India and is much hotter than Kathmandu (oh no!). Keep your eyes open for another blog post about our baby-catching there soon!

Heaps of love and hugs to everyone,
L & Y