Got up, got out of bed, brushed a comb across my head (most of you would probably find that hard to believe), went downstairs a had a cup and noticed I was late (pretty sure I haven’t got those lyrics correct), but that’s how the day started. I got up at 5:30 and made a cup of tea and sat in bed drinking before I went to have my last shower for maybe a couple of weeks, when I got a text from Tshering saying that he wouldn’t be picking me up un 10:30am instead of 7am. Do I try and go back to sleep or just take my time? I decided to take my time and wondered into Thames for a coffee at the Himalayan J. At 10:30am I was in the lobby having paid the extras for my room and reading a book knowing that 10:30am would come and go, which it did. At 11:45 Tshering picked me up, he had text me to say that he was on his way… I wasn’t in any way worried, as the title says, times in Nepal are ‘Fluid’.
We started the long drive to the start of the trek, nine hours, I was told. In fact we drove for ten hours to a point where we were still five hours drive away . The roads were very busy out of Kathmandu and they started to deteriorate the further we got from the capital. The hotel we stayed in was typical of the hotels and lodges once you get into the mountains. Basic, very hard mattress, all bedrooms sharing one bathroom, with a wash basin, a toilet with a non mechanical flushing mechanism… a cup and a barrel of water. Adequate as it does the job, perfectly.
Fluid… a 30km drive in five hours, most runners could do it faster than that. In fact it took nearly six hours, on roads (not sure I could justify the noun roads). Stephen would understand the words, horseshit and mud, random rocks surrounded by muddy potholes. It doesn’t make for a comfortable ride especially with a fairly steep drop on one side. It’s a ride I wouldn’t have missed, but not one I’d like to repeat. Maybe I ought to explain that last statement. The last two or three times that I’ve traveled to Kathmandu I’ve taken routes to the climbs not normally taken by the those that have booked their trips through the bigger companies. The routes Tshering has chosen have kept away from the more popular routes and I’ve hopefully seen more of the local culture than I would have and this drive was the same. The driver was basically a bus driver in a TATA 4 X 4. They weren’t, however designed to carry seven passengers and the driver. It was somewhat intimate and our combined bodily smells mingled like a farmyard stew!
We suddenly stopped and Tshering ushered me out of the vehicle and suddenly the trek to Base Camp was on. It was a two and a half, sunset walk and the last two days of travelling were all but forgotten!