“On a Mish” #130 Into the Mountains Mist – Adventures in Nepal (Part Five). Mera View Guest to Gurdel. Sulokhumbu Area. 1.11.2015. After Tenzing Norgay and Sir Edmund Hillary successfully climbed Sagarmartha / Mt Everest, the world saw a mountain conquered. Then it was onto the next significant challenge for mankind. After the eyes of planet earth stopped looking at the country containing its biggest mountains Sir Ed saw a happy, but very poor land. 42 schools, hospitals and medical centres later he etched his name into Nepal for a reason other than climbing a mountain. Now over seventy years later I was hiking with aid following a good friend who many see as a modern day Sir Edmund Hillary…
Clearly realising that the day was getting away from us, Bibek and a couple of the other boys sped on ahead to locate the tea house that would be our home for the night. I was hot on their heels the whole way and I think this was a key factor in Bibek and myself becoming great mountain mates from day one.
We found the Mera View Teahouse just on dark, and at that stage the name of our accommodation was a mystery. Slowly one by one the team arrived, and after regrouping we hoovered up our first feed of Dal Bhat. Food was just what was needed and closely following that was a sleep everyone was looking forward to.
The next morning I was awoken to a symphony of snoring and the sunlight creeping through the gaps in the Teahouse’s roof. I made my way down to the kitchen to see Arjun, Bibek and the rest of the team looking fresh and ready for action. Seeing this would be the norm for the rest of this and all other trips from now on.
I grabbed a cuppa and headed outside to be blown away by the view. The Mera View had an excellent vista of the 6476m marvel Mera Peak, a mountain I wish to climb in the future.
Slowly the non-Nepali contingent clambered into the dinning room of the lodge looking like they had been in a battle and needing some breakfast.
After loading ourselves up with fuel for the day we set off towards our next target – well we did once the boys finished their game of volleyball. I would have never picked volleyball being the most played sport in the country, however I would learn over time that Nepal never stops surprising you with its awesomeness.
From views of the Himalaya’s mountain monsters to quiet personal contemplation in light precipitation, our day was a long hike just like the day before and, once again, we found ourselves reaching our accommodation in the dark. After two days of walking through very undulating terrain, we were slowly getting into the swing of things and after each day our need for some nourishing Nepali food grew.
We only had one day left of solid walking before we got to the village of Gurdel, and I could tell that Bibek was rather excited about getting back to his hometown with a pack of people keen to distribute aid from all over the globe….
