Of Men, Mountains and Gods

Click here to see the photos

First day out of Darjeeling, we headed to Pelling, where Rob and I met two really nice girls, Nicola from Austria and her friend Paula from Germany. They were planning a few days trekking from Pelling, and so were we, and since we got on really well together that night, we decided to head the next morning together to Kecheperi lake, 16km away.

Had a lovely walk that day, although I was a bit stupid, even after dropping stuff off for storage in Pelling, I had a 14kg rucksack, which made the 5 hour walk pretty strenuous! We stopped off halfway at a river, before heading back up the other side of the valley, to cool down a bit.

Kecheperi is a quaint little village nestled up on a ridge about 2200m high. There's a couple of shops, two places to stay (we stayed at the Trekker's Hut), and a monastery before a holy lake cradled by the hills. On arrival, we were pretty tired, but walked to the lake, where there was a huge array of prayer flags, and a pier leading to the edge of the lake with prayer wheels we had to spin after ringing a bell. That night, we sat in the Trekker's restaurant and got a bit drunk, and tried the local drink, chang, served in either a bamboo trunk or metal container filled with fermented millet and hot water which you drink through a bamboo straw.

The next day we headed off for Yuksom, the former capital of Sikkim, a further 15km away, which took us 4 hours. We did cheat the last 2km as a passing goods truck offered us a lift for free, and we were pretty tired! When we arrived and jumped off the back of the truck, we were privy to watching the final of a local football tournament, between Yuksom (wearing England shirts for their uniform!) and Tingting. We sat eating momos (like dimsum, steamed vegetable parcels) and cheering on Yuksom which won 6-3 to our delight!

That night, again, we drank quite a bit (it's so cheap here!), played cards in the Yak restaurant, run by a very friendly Sikkimese lady called Poompi, then retired to Rob and my room where we played more cards, drank more and listened to music.

After the first night in Yuksom, nursing our sore leg muscles from the two days trekking, we decided to go for the hardcore thing, and organised a trip to Goeche La, a gruelling 8 day trek, over 80km uphill and back down. We celebrated our decision again that night!

The day after the decision, we headed to Gangtok, 6 hours away by jeep so we could apply for the trekkers' permit, a special permit that allows you to trek through the national parks. We spent the night there, it was pretty grubby and crowded in Gangtok, so different after the past few days in quiet villages in the hills.

We returned to Yuksom the following day to find the guide assigned to us (he came to Gangtok to get the permits with us) had ran off, so Poompi assigned us another guide, Chewong, a local friend from Sikkim who seemed really nice. We had a cook, Vijay, two sherpas, a yak man and 3 yaks to carry to equipment (food, bags, matresses, sleeping bags, etc).

So two more days waiting for our permits to be delivered, and we headed off, up through the valley towards Tsokha, a tiny village a 2900m, 12km uphill climb away from Yuksom. It was beautiful walking along paths with no sight of communities, terraces and people. There were waterfalls everywhere, the stunning ones you see posters of, every 5 minutes you looked. The deep gorges, rushing sounds of the rivers, mixed with the scents of nature, and nice sunshine, it was heavenly.

Had a funny moment when one of the dogs that followed us (all the way to Dzongri!) was too afraid to cross a bridge, whining and pacing, and Chewong carried it across! Chicken!

The last 2 hours was incredibly tough, it began to rain, leeches appeared on our legs, and the climb was very steep, we had to use our hands to help us climb sometimes. Finally got to Tsokha intact though (except a few leech bites and a little less blood!).

Spent one night in Tsokha, where we met a couple of other groups of trekkers. Over dinner the guides and some of the other crew sang and dance Nepalese trekking songs. We met three other trekkers that we got on well with, two of them Norwegian, Bjornar and Roy, who worked as photographers and videographers (Norwegian Pop Idol plus other stuff!), and Gal, an American Israeli.

The second day of the trek, we again climbed uphill, through more rain and mud, for about 3 hours before arriving at a tibetan shrine with prayer flags overlooking the valleys below. We were deep in the clouds, plus it was raining, so we had no views over the whole day. We made an incense offering to the shrine, praying for good weather for the next day, and continued through the most stunning hillsides smothered in Rhododendron trees, fully in bloom, the path canopied by them as we finally arrived at Dzongri, a simple collection of 3 huts for trekkers, 3950m high.

On the third day, we woke at 4am to head up the hill from Dzongri to a viewpoint to see the magnificent Kanchenjunga from a distance, but as it was so cloudy, I went straight back to bed, and spent the afternoon chilling out as Rob, Nicola and Gal went for a walk and Paula slept.

I went for a walk myself and found a lovely little grotto off the beaten path, pushing through undergrowth where I sat alone for near an hour listening to the staccato rythm of raindrops on my raincoat hood, surrounded by a glorious spectrum of Rhododendron blossoms. Heard something growl at me, and saw something move fast about 20m away, maybe the movement was my imagination, but I certainly heard a low guttural growl, so I got up and slowly walked away before hitting the main path and legging it back to camp! It was then when I spoke to a guide that I found out Snow Leopards can be found in hills!!!

Fourth day we were much more fortunate, and the clouds were low in the valleys. We woke at 3am and climbed the 30 minute walk up along a ridge to a viewing area 100m above Dzongri, with amazing views of Kanchenjunga. I must admit I cried from happiness and awe. To stand there looking at the third tallest mountain in the world, at 8598m high, 13m shorter than K2 and 216m shorter than Everest, is a humbling experience. We stayed for over an hour, before the sun came up and the warmed air rose, lifting the clouds with it to obscure our view. Headed back down to the camp at Dzongri and spent the evening chatting with the others.

Day 5, we left Dzongri, and walked 3 hours to Thangshing, at 3900m, our last stop before trekking up Goeche La. We spent two days there, on a large plateau, as the sixth day we all woke too late (4am), including our guide, to make it up to Goeche La in time before the sun came up and the clouds simmered up the valleys to ruin the view. The first day there, we sat with the caretaker of the huts and drank 'special water', made from fermented millet and maize, around a fire listening to the crew talking in Nepali. We spent the sixth day instead walking a short way to a holy lake, enshrouded with mist, where the echoes of your voice made the place seem really dream like. Chewong piled some rocks, a buddhist custom, and prayed as we enjoyed the scenery.

So, 7th day, we were much more lucky, and got up at 1:30am, left at 2:30am, and walked through the dark the 3 hours up to 5000m, where the temperature was 4 degrees centigrade, and the might of Kanchenjunga, only 20km away blew us away. To have made it that far, where few people do, to see the awesome magnificence of one of natures most amazing feats, really belittles you, humbles you, fills you with an awe you never felt before. I thought I knew awe, but I didn't until I saw this sight. To be so close is truly spectacular.

We didn't stay long. It was too cold, our fingers and feet numb, so we climbed back down to Thangshing, had lunch, then packed up to leave for Kokchurong, a camp we passed from Dzongri, only an hour down from Thangshing, right next to a raging river, where we had to walk over planks and hop over boulders.

Spent one night in Kokchurong, set in a beautiful river gorge, surrounded by trees dripping in moss, posed like a snapshot of a delicate ballroom dance, each tree telling a story. It was suitably beautiful, in the mist, eerie but soothing. Reminded me a bit of Sleepy Hollow!

Walked 4 hours in the rain back to Tsokha, taking a shortcut along a narrow path, over plenty of streams and carefully navigating rockslides. Spent one more night in Tsokha before we headed back to Yuksom, the final day was bright, no rain, and the walk was quick.

We celebrated at the Yak restaurant that night, Poompi treating us to a feast, and we drank quite a lot! We danced a bit, and I went to bed early as I was quite drunk! Had a nice hotel with running hot water, our first shower in 9 days!!!

The next day, I slept in and spent the day with Paula as Rob and Nicola went to Sorus' house (one of the other guides who lives in Yuksom). That evening, Chewong invited us to his house for dinner and plenty of chang and we got quite drunk again! Rob and Nicola retired early and Paula and I went to bed at 2am. The last full day in Yuksom, Rob, Nicola and I headed to Sorus' house for breakfast where we met his neighbours and family, them serving us chang at 10am!! Paula had mysteriously disappeared, we later found she went off with Chewong for the day. She was acting quite strange the last few days running off without saying a word!

On the final day, Rob and Nicola decided to walk to Pelling to get our stored items, so Paula, Chewong and I took the morning jeep there, where Paula again mysteriously disappeared, leaving me there for 6 hours alone before Rob and Nicola arrived by foot. We spent one night in Pelling, Paula did not return that night from her outing with Chewong, so we gave up on her, and left for Darjeeling the next morning. Seems she ran off with Chewong, our trekking guide. Great.

So here I am in Darjeeling again with Rob and Nicola. It seems weird being here. I don't know why. I think it's because we've achieved something amazing, and seeing all the other new travellers arriving, it's like we're veterans or something. Walking up the hills here are no effort at all now, we're not short of breath, no pain in the legs. Like we have some glint in our eye that wasn't there before that they can't see. Maybe it's just the memory of our experience, the humbling majesty of Kanchenjunga, the long trek, the pain, the otherworldliness of some sights, the feeling of a great power, of nature. It's a life changing experience, a memory I'll always remember, of men, mountains and gods.