EVEREST ODESSY
Three wonderful weeks winding through the ways and valleys of Khumbu, Northern Nepal. From lush low-lying lichen lined forests resplendent with rhododendron and magnolia to towering pyramids of sheer ice encrusted granite slicing higher and higher into the clear shimmering lapis lazuli sky.
Great grinding crashing cracking clunking snapping cascades of frozen wonder plunge like pearls around a woman’s neck from the shoulders of the great peaks, gathering in glaciers which bulldoze their way through mighty hills like a child can push their hand through sand.
Lakes line the valley floors, one tan, one emerald the next such stunning glistening shining topaz that you take off your sunnies to confirm the colour only to find it is yet brighter still.
Wonderful people I have met along the way. Mountain folk – tough as all blazes, men who will carry a full size fridge on their back for days up a winding mountain path – but the moment they lay down their load will flash a smile of such genuine heartfelt open kindness that you really wonder what they must be on.
Such a pleasure it is to spend some time in a land where walking is – and always has been – the only viable way to move. Distances are days not k’s and the sound and smell of motors is a far off distant none too favorite memory.
Time seems to drift through the valleys and passes in it’s own special way out there, hours merging into days – days into weeks. I hope that time will draw me back up there some day soon.
