The first day of trekking was fairly easy – two hours before lunch and one and a half after. We were under instruction to take it very easy to avoid precipitating mountain (altitude) sickness, and that proved surprisingly hard for me; I got gently told off twice by the lead sherpa. Thankfully we had a small army of porters going ahead taking our big rucksacks with our overnight gear so we just had to have small backpacks.
There were many small farmsteads and villages strung out along the mountain path, and as was apparent from the air there was no road route to most of them other than the path.
A typical example of the buildings along the route, with multi-coloured prayer flags hanging above the settlement.
All goods were carried back and forth by Yaks (see below) and on the backs locals, who have a massive carrying capacity (eg. 10 15ft 8×1 wooden planks!) – see pic below.
One of the super-human porters charging past us up the mountain with up to 60KG on their backs!
Yak… yak…. yak….
We arrived at Phakding at about 4pm, and I promptly crashed out in the very minimalist room, and other than getting up for supper spent most of the rest of that day and night asleep.
Proof that I really am here. :)
