Day 5 - Pain

It is beautiful up here. But that isn't the first word that comes to mind today. Pain is. I know I've said it before but trekking here is tough. The climbs and descents from mountains village to mountain village are long and dramatic. It's not uncommon to gain 1000 meters of elevation and lose 1000 meters in a single day. I am increasingly envious of the Nepalese porters I see who, with bodies that look hardly able to lift a pack, are carrying two or three; and water jugs and metal crates of eggs and kerosene and things heavier than I can even imagine.

Tonight we are sleeping at 1945 meters, yesterday we slept at 2245 meters, in between we descended 400 meters, climbed 600 meters and descended another 500 meters. To say this is brutal is an understatement.

Our goal is to reach Annapurna Base Camp at 4100 meters. Our initial plan to hike there in seven days has now been lengthened to nine. Already after three days on the trail we took a one day break at Chhomrong. John developed a 24 hour stomach bug (maybe bad food - hard to tell), and I'm beginning to feel it today. Our motto: "Slower is Better".

Everyone that we've met along the trail has been sick at some point. The Brit had a 'travellers tummy' in Jomsen, the Hawaiians felt queazy at the base camp, a girl from Holland had gardia twice and the list goes on. The reason why is simple, Nepalese sanitation or lack there of. There is no systematic waste disposal system in the hills, so all water must be boiled or treated with iodine to make it potable. Food, even when thoroughly cooked, can become contaminated if the cook didn't wash his hands before grating the cheese, for instance. Of course the cheese is grated onto the stone steps; the same stone steps that have been walked on, sat on and spat on, so clean hands are really a mute point.

The higher mountain villages use kerosene as a fuel source. It all has to be carried in on foot. Boiling water to wash the dishes isn't a fuel priority, and the higher the altitude, the more kerosene it takes to bring water to a boil. The lower villages use wood burning stoves. (70% of Nepal's total domestic energy consumption is wood). But this fuel source is becoming more and more scarce as trees are pruned down to the nubs, forests are cleared to make room for hotels and erosion and land slides are carrying trees away. So again, starting a fresh fire just to boil water isn't usually a priority. We try to be careful about what we eat and where we eat it. But occasionally some nasty bug slips onto the plate and there's not much we can do about it.

The rooms prices increase with altitude too. At lower elevations the costs are standardized at 50 Rs (US$.90) and at higher elevations they are 80 Rs (US$1.46). But you get what you pay for and a dollar doesn't buy much. A typical room has two beds with wooden frames and foam mattresses, wood, stone or rattan walls and a window with wooden shutters and usually no glass. At the lower elevations that dollar also includes the smell of smoke from the kitchen fire, and up higher, the smell of kerosene. There is no heat in the lodges, so all that fleece and wool we packed has been worthwhile.

I'm glad that we are doing this hike. It's gorgeous here in the mountains, but much more difficult that either of us thought it would be. Every day I question our ability to keep going, but as John is so fond of saying when we are up in the mountains with no way out but our own two feet, "We have no choice."