September 13th- Everest Base Camp Trek: Day 11

And So It Goes

We had gone to bed unsure of what the morning might bring. Thankfully, Holly felt much better than she had the night before, and though still not quite 100%, she felt up to the 5 hour hike down to Mongla, and even could carry her bag. The walk unfortunately was not very scenic, as clouds obstructed our view most of the way, but we did see our fair share of yaks stampeding passed us. Mostly focused on getting to Mongla without Holly feeling too unwell, we failed to take many pictures, preferring to spend as little time trekking today as possible.

The one picture we managed to take holds a funny story. We were overtaken today by dozens of yaks, at least 30, all making their way in a hurry. We did what we normally do and stood aside to let them pass.






Once the herd had passed us and were out of sight, we heard a huge CRASH! Raju and Matt both looked up at the mountain, weary that it was a small landslide in the making. With nothing to show, we carried on until we reached the remains of a bridge. One of the yaks, or simply the weight of them all, had broken the bridge!

The remains of the yak bridge.

We had to carefully make our way across the loose rocks, making sure not to knock the bridge anymore and send more logs tumbling down.

About 3/4 of the way through the trek, the walk took its toll on Holly and she began to feel very unwell again. Thankfully, Raju being the amazing guide he is, offered to take Holly's bag to ease the journey for her. We powered on and about an hour later, we arrived in Mongla.

Our tea house in Mongla was aptly named the "Mountain View Guest House," perched on the edge of a cliff it would offer, in clear weather, a panoramic view of the surrounding mountains. Again, the abundance of clouds and the poorly photographer means we have very little to show for our day.

Tired, we hit the hay that night hoping one last night's rest might get Holly back into ship shape.

Altitude: 3957m
Altitude gained: 557m
Hours trekked: 5

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Where the Rainforest Meets the Reef

Image
Finally, we've made it out of the Outback! A few wrong turns, a couple canabalistic acts and some hair raising encounters with kangaroos later, we've finally made it out of the desert.... No, only joking! We've been out of the outback for months now, and wow do we have a story to tell! While in Alice Springs, we made the most of our time and applied to a couple jobs in and around the Cairns region, hoping that someone would reply by the time we reached the coast. Resumes sent, we went off into the Outback. Turns out we had left the worst of it behind us and the journey through Tennants Creek and detouring to the Devils Marbles was hot, yes, but completely manageable. We definitely felt we could take our time.... However, things don't usually work out the way we plan and we suddenly had a deadline looming over us. The "Devil's Marbles," a series of curious rock formations in the Outback, North of Alice Springs. The day after we left Ali...
Read more

October 25th- So This Is Van Life!

Image
As of Sunday (the 21st), we can officially call our new van our home! We sprung from the nest (thanks a million Barrie, Shana, Stephen and Asha, we had an amazing time!) and have been travelling around the Blue Mountains region. We're sticking around the national park as we find our camping legs and are enjoying getting into the swing of van living. Our journey so far! To be honest, our route planning skills aren't quite there yet, we are bouncing around a little bit and back tracking rather than doing everything in sequence, but it's been fun so we're not complaining! After we left Sydney, we drove to Old Ford Reserve in Megalong valley and set up camp there for 3 nights. It was a beautiful, small camp ground with fire pits down a long snaking road that boasted spectacular views. Matt the photographer taking some snaps of our campground neighbours. It was admittedly a bit far from any towns or attractions so we found ourselves with a lot of spare...
Read more

November 3rd- The Sun is NOT a Lie

Image
We last checked in from Oberon, a lovely small town in the Blue Mountain Regions, where we were re-cooperated from the bumpy glowworm fiasco. We spent the day sitting around the library and enjoying the sunshine before we started off towards the Boyd River campground located in the Kanangra-Boyd National Park. We set off, admiring the scenery which had changed from winding roads to country lanes. We reached the park and were immediately engulfed in flashbacks to the glowworm tunnel, potholes everywhere! We struggled through and made it to our campsite. It was lovely, tucked in the middle of the forest with tall gumtrees all around and a fire-pit with every campsite. This was by far our favourite campsite yet. The next morning we walked down the end of the park road (we were not taking the van over the rest of the potholes!) towards the Kanangra Walls Lookout. From there, we walked the the Kanangra Walls and walked the Kanangra-Boyd Plateau Cliff, taking in astounding views again. A...
Read more