Oct 7th - Namche(3443m)

ALRIGHT, did i say the trek seemed easy on the first day!? I was not even close! Well, the day did begin considerably flat (NEPALI Flat = really up and down, up and down)... We had a LONG break just before the steep climb to another suspension... (photo: Jerrold & I with bridge just before the STEEP LONG TREK to Namche). I slipped on a rock trying to find a good spot to do #1 and grabbed the closest thing to me, which turned out to be a thorny branch. Had to put polysporin on all the little cuts... the spot also turned out to be a popular spot for others(judging from all the #2's around me!!! eww)

The rest stop turned out to be a long one and Jerrold decided to move on so he could hike ahead of the jhokkes(yak train carrying our stuff). The large group started shortly afterwards... it was a slow and strenuous hike. You can't really go fast anyway... I went ahead of Bibek(our guide) at some point, because I couldn't bear to go so slow!). I hiked with Alex(22yr old fresh out of Uni bloke from Brighten, UK) for a bit. I lost him at some point... I was felt like the Engine that could... I kept saying "I think I can... I think I can" over and over. I stopped lifting my head to greet "Namaste" to others. Although I was going at snail pace, I was very out of breath. I tried to breathe long inhales and long exhales, which came out huffffff and puffffff... WHEN WAS I GOING TO GET TO NAMCHE?! WHEN WILL THE SWITCHBACKS STOP? WHEN WILL IT BE FLAT AGAIN? i finally had to ask someone coming from Namche if I was close to NAMCHE and she said "I still had quite a bit to go"... Deflated, i kept going... left foot in front, right foot in front... i started saying left... right... left... right... realizing after a period of time that i had my right in front while i said left... but it took too much energy to switch... I met up with Alex again at a rest stop. A few sips of water and we started off together. A few steps later, i told him to go ahead because my pace was just too slow. He seemed reluctant... haha(he was just as tired, he admitted later).

Before I left Toronto, Kristy & I did a bit of crash training - we hiked up and down a toboggan hill near my high school(silver springs)... i had thought 20 mins of that would prep me for this. BOY, was I dreaming!!! Going up to Namche was 100x harder... and I guess the high altitude did not help. It wasn't until I was passing this girl on her way down from Namche, all dressed in red ski parka, red hat, red pants who said to me "You don't have too far to go..." did I feel alive... was she an angel? am I really close!? all of a sudden, the trail did seem to flatten a bit (A BIT!), it was still a steep uphill... I saw Alex and shouted to him... we hiked for about 5-10 mins before we saw a building!!!

NAMCHE BAZAR!

We had to stick around and wait for Bibek to come and get our tims cards stamped at the park entrance gate before we could go on. The uphill didn't stop there. We still had to hike up a bit to our teahouse. There was still quite a bit of ups to the Hotel Base de Camp. Our veg chowmein was so good at lunch was soooo good that we ordered it again for dinner again. Jerrold & I enjoyed a nice, hot steamy shower. It was as good as it gets. This was Jerrold's first and would be his last shower for the rest of the trek.