Mt. Everest: We are all in search of something (day 6)
Mt. Everest: We are all in search of something
Dingboche to Thukla
September 17th
(day 6)
We woke up to the sound of everyone yelling “the mountains” –
“come and see the mountains”. We did not
know which ones they were talking about, but it was the first time there was
enough visibility to actually see the snow crested mountain tops. They were magnificent – higher than the
clouds circling around them.
There was a special comradery at these lodges, where if
there was a sighting everyone would call to the group’s attention.
Once again after a quick adrenaline rush like that it was
time for a bite of breakfast and time to get back on the trail.
The small Yak homes with slate roofs, the solar powered
dishes for hot water were in the foreground, while the mountains remained in
the background of village life (but no ours).
These paths were smoother – a massive relief – if even for
short while.
Soon the road became rocky again. That’s when it became
obvious – the need to follow the path of least resistance – following the dried
river creek path, as opposed to trying to follow a straight line.
My observation for the day, although the land is fascinating
and captivating, it is the people that are the most interesting thing
here. The Nepalese are hard-working and
kind. The Australians personable and
caring. More to the point, we are all
here in search of something. Some for
our identity having been adopted, an immigrant from Russian to Israel, and even
we were looking for where we are going next in our lives. We even saw one woman draped in a shawl
clearly pursuing a spiritual quest.
We were getting closer to Everest Base Camp and as a consequence
a lot of our thought and attention became focused on the things that might slow
us down or worse, stop us in our tracks.
We were mindful of colds beginning to intensify, signs of altitude
sickness, including headaches, difficulty breathing, a sore knee or toe. We even covered our ears with our buffs when the
wind became too strong to make sure we did not get an ear ache from it. They may seem small and pedestrian, but they
are the things that can take you out of the “race”, as it were, and we were not
about to let that happen when we were so close.
We were fortunate. We
saw both Andree and Hemant again. Andree
said he was having labored breathing, but that it was “lo kashov” or no
problem. We exchanged emails and assured
each other that we would stay in touch.
Everything we were doing at 14,000 feet was harder and took
longer but we were all in it for the long haul at this point. After only 3 hours it was time for dinner and dessert (pomegranate and apple slides).
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