hehe, I like that one : e-Basecamp : Go somewhere else ! Everest base camp. OK, so trekking in Nepal should be on your bucket list. No question. It’s a spectacular, life-affirming, transformative experience. It’s also intensely challenging. On day two of my first trek, along part of the Annapurna circuit, we climbed 1,200m. That’s the equivalent of four Sydney Towers, straight up. And that was the “easiest” trek the tour group offered. Two days later we stood in a wildflower-filled field atop a Himalayan “hill” surrounded by snow-capped peaks … and looked down to see a plane fly below us. The Khumbu region, home to the base camp trek, is similarly stunning. Trek there? Hell yeah. Just don’t set your heart on reaching a pile of rocks strewn with prayer flags with the view of a few tents in the distance. (Full disclosure: I was within a couple of kilometres of said rock pile when a sudden headache that turned out to be an altitude-induced cerebral oedema put me on a fast chopper down. But my sister, who went all the way, insists that I “made it” to base camp. “It wasn’t like I was high-fiving mountaineers,” she says.) And trekking at above 4,000m is really, really hard. It’s like swimming through wet cement. Despite all the energy you’re expending there’s constant nausea, so you can barely choke down sweet ginger tea or a clear garlic soup. Life just isn’t meant to exist that high. Sure, you’ll spot a bit of lichen here and there but the only animals you see are the yaks and mules dragged there by humans. And yep, the views are breathtaking. But you can barely breathe, so you don’t care. Take plenty of photos – there’s not much else to do when you stop every few steps gasping – and in six months you might be able to look at them without feeling ill. It’s worth stressing here again how incredible trekking in Nepal is. The people are warm and welcoming. I loved every day I was there; I can’t wait to go again. But enjoy it for the experience, good and bad, not because you want to tick off “Everest base camp”. And stick below the treeline, people. It’s there for a reason. – @MarshallNikki
Posted on: Tue, 16 Sep 2014 10:01:18 +0000
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