Land of the Giants - October 24 - Dhole to Machhermo

After a long, cold night we awoke to discover the inside of our windows caked in ice. It took a tremendous amount of will power to drag our bodies out of our warm and cozy sleeping bags and don our clothes and hiking boots. However, drag we did and to our great delight the guest house dining room was warm and inviting. We fueled up on hard boiled eggs and set our sights on the next village.

On we marched high into the unforgiving upper alpine. Quickly we found ourselves in the land of giants. Towering mountain peaks dominated the skyline in every direction. Fortunately, due to the acclimatization game, today was a very short day so we had ample time to stop for pictures and to simply soak up the views. I wish I could find the words to describe these mountains, but I am afraid neither word or pictures will do them justice.

Late in the afternoon we found ourselves in another tea house huddled around the fire, a fire fueled by yak dung, as we tried to fight off the cold. I couldn’t help but notice that the chief cook and bottle washer was also the person responsible for adding dried yak dung patties to the fire. I tried not to think about “hand washing policies.” That evening we were a small group of eight, representing France, Australia, England and Canada. We shared tales of family and home, the trail and of course enjoyed a few laughs. After all laughter warms the heart, even when the yak dung doesn’t.

As we tucked ourselves into bed, literally wearing everything item of clothing we brought with us and mentally preparing for another extremely cold night we laughed at the “Humble Appeal” sign posted on our bedroom wall. It read, “Please kindly share your positive attitude in altitude.” We shall try.

Giggle of the day

Once again Psang took the lead, and with dogged determination he set a slow and steady pace that allowed us to climb to 4435 metres. As we began our short descent to Machhermo he suddenly stopped dead in his tracks. Puzzled I watched him closely as he did a full squat, with an extremely heavy backpack on. Why? There in the middle of the path was a teeny tiny spider. Psang could not bare the thought of it being crushed by our small herd of oxygen deprived trekkers. All creatures great and small. That is Psang.