Kimberley Odyssey Eco Trek - Western Australia

The Kimberley is well known for its spectacular geography as well as its diverse and unique mix of inhabitants and industry. People who are visiting the region are leaving with lifelong memories of the breathtaking scenery, unique Aboriginal rock art and culture, classic barramundi fishing and distinctive East Kimberley characters. The ability to create a sense of awe, and be readily identifiable as Western Australian, has lead this region to be listed within the top ranks of WA's most iconic tourist attractions.

This trek offers you the opportunity to appreciate this natural beauty and diverse cultural wealth and history. There are a number of expeditions to choose from-The Bungle Bungles, Chamberlain Valley, Doon Doon, and the Carr-Boyd Ranges to Lake Argyle.........continue

Our Trek Days 11,12,13

April 16, 2008 - Six hours of trekking today dodging Yak poo and crowds of people going up. It was hard work but feeling heaps better helped I can tell you. It was so nice to be back in Namche. This place is a little oasis nestled in a valley surrounded by mountain ranges capped with snow. We shared lunch with a couple of oxen who were just hanging about our tables - it really is a funny, but normal sight to be seen along the trail. Retired early to bed hoping for a good sleep and the sound of barking dogs kept us awake for most of the night grrrrrr.

April 17, 2008 - Dog Hunting!!!!!!!!! When we finally got over our lack of sleep we took in every bit of Namche whilst sipping on coffee, chatting and eating the best pastries. We were watching the Prayer Flags blowing in the breeze, the smell of incense burning, the frequent stream of hikers trekking through the streets of Namche, the enchanting sounds of Tibetan music playing in the background, the Nepalise people doing their washing in the streams and hanging clothes over rocks to dry, the children playing simple games in the streets and finding so much pleasure from those games. In the evening as we sat in the warm tea house talking about our journey we met a guy who was trekking with his neice 18 and nephew 15. My thoughts immediately diverted to thinking about bringing my boys trekking. What a culture shock it was for this 15 year old.....but he was enjoying every minute of it and it certainly was getting him away from the "computer".

April 18, 2008 - We awoke to the Nepalise stone masons chipping away at rocks to help form part of a new building. This was a daily occurrence in Namche. The chipping started at about 6.00am and continued on through the day until night fall. The other sound which had become very common was the sound of rescue choppers. I would say that we would hear this sound at least 4 times a day. People just push so hard to get up those mountains and get so sick they can't get down without the aid of a helicopter. Just imagine the costs involved in evacuation - It doesn't bear thinking about............We worked hard to get to Phakding with plenty of time to spare, so we decided to push on to Lukla which was another 2 hours down the track. Did I say down????? I certainly didn't mean down. We had so many steep hills to climb before finally getting into Lukla it wasn't funny. I think I had lulled myself into a false sense of security thinking that it was Down. We stopped at a stream on the way to refill our water bottles as there was a sign attached to the pipe coming out of the wall written by the Monks that said "safe holy water for drinking". No way was that holy water - it had so many floaties in it, even our guides wouldn't touch it. Anyway we made it to Lukla eventually, but were pretty tired, so we didn't do much that night....just practically had dinner and were in bed by 7pm.

Our Trek - Days 8 & 9

13th April, 2008 - Last night we slept well, no funny dreams, but I awoke once with a pounding head and needing the toilet!!!! Seems to be the norm at the moment! When morning came we both felt reasonably well rested but again a slight headache was bothering me. Anyway Dawa had planned for us to take a 3 hour walk up to Chhukhung at 3734m in height after breakfast as another way to acclimatize us for what was ahead. It was the coldest part of the climb that we were to endure. After reaching Chhukhung, having magic views of Island Peak and grabbing a bite to eat, we quickly made our decent back to Dingbuche where on arrival, Brad and I went straight to the room and slept for 3 hours solid. We were completely whacked by the climb and the cold. Didn't do a great deal in the afternoon, just tried to chill out in preparation for our climb tomorrow.

14th April, 2008 - Today was a hard slog, particularly with the harsh, cold winds and craggy surfaces we were to climb.....at one stage we were on Khumbu glacier where there was plenty of ice to be seen and hints of snow from the evening before. About half an hour out of Lobuche (4930m) our destination for today, my fingers, hands and arms began to swell at a rapid pace. Dawa said it was probably due to the cold, but I did become frightened as all I could think of was my blood pressure and the fact that I still had a slight headache. Once we hit the lodge, both Brad and Dawa massaged by arms until the swelling started to reduce. I also took an extra Cartia tablet (which I had already been taken daily anyway) as a precaution which helped increase my urine output and reduce swelling. The headache seemed more like just a pain in the back of the head at this stage and was controlled once again by panadol and the addition of coedine. Today although a difficult walk, was a very interesting one. We were now at the serious stage whereby there were memorials scattered about, honoring those who died whilst trying to summit the mighty Everest in the past. We also saw lots of snow.....the roof of the tea house even leached a little bit of snow. The tea house was overflowing with people hovering around the fire (actually pathetic excuse for a fire really). The burning of dried Yak patties just weren't cutting it in this freezing weather!!!!!!!!!!! It took a while to warm up after sitting around for a couple of hours in down jackets/sleeping bag, yak scarf, hot water bottle etc etc.......but FINALLY we were warm enough to retire to our freezing cold little room upstairs. Prior to going to bed though we managed to trade a chocolate bar for some more panadol, as we had run out and my head was still hurting.

Our Trek - Day 2

7 April 2008 - Today we set off from Monjo at 8.00am, after having apple pancakes for breakfast - mmmmmmm stodgy! This trek proved to be a lot harder even though it was to be a shorter distance of approximately 4 hours. We had to deal with some pretty grueling slopes whilst ascending to an altitude of 3400m, finally reaching our destination of Namche Bazaar at approx 12.30pm. It was half way to Namche Bazaar that we saw our first view of Everest - what a beautiful sight it was.... We were in oar of its greatness. Our lodgings for the next 2 evenings was a place called "The Holiday Inn" - it sounds good doesn't it? Well it was another simple tea house which suited us fine, as we were able to interact with the local Sherpa people and have some fun. We were to use tea-houses as our accommodation for the duration of our trek.

Brad and I both had slight headaches on reaching Namche and I had slight shortness of breath, which is quite a normal given the altitude we were at. We were advised that if symptoms arise just to treat the symptom with panadol or something similar and wait to see if things settle down. Apparently if you still have a headache in the morning you don't go any higher. The saying goes - Dont take a headache higher! Anyway for us it was good news, after a good nights sleep we were both fine, also we were to have a rest day in Namche to help with the acclimatization. We spent our rest day buying up some more warm clothing, as everyone we met was telling us how cold it gets from here on in - good advice as we were to find out down the track.

The Trek Begins - Day 1

6th April 2008 - Our day started very early with a 4.30 wake up call ready for transfer to the Kathmandu airport where we were to fly out to Lukla - the starting point of our 16 day trek in the Everest region of the Himalayas.

My god, you should have seen my face when I saw the plane we were going on!! It was a twin otter, approx 12 seats, run by Yeti Airlines. We were fortunate enough to have had the first flight out of Kathmandu which was ok, as they only fly until the weather turns sour. The weather turned sour at about 11.00am that day, so visibility was nil. No more flights to Lukla for that day! The flight itself wasn't as bad as what I thought it would be. It cracked me up that they had a airline hostess on board even though there was practically no room for her to move between the seats to offer lollies and cotton wool. The landing was very eventful - it was the smallest runway I have ever seen and plonked on a nice slope.

Once inside the baggage claim area we were greated by our Sherpa Guide Ang Dawa and Porter Kaljar, then taken to the Sherpa Coffee Shop for a briefing on our trek and some breakfast. By the time we were ready to take off on our trek it was pouring with rain AND it didn't stop all day, so we donned the ponchos over the trekking gear and off we went. Our Porter carrying our duffel bags of approx 22 kilo's and a gamow bag 7 kilo's (gamow bag is a little pressure chamber which simulates lower altitude). I had asked for one of these to be taken on our trek, as before leaving home, my blood pressure had been unusually high which caused me a little bit of concern.

So off we went........up and down, through villages for approx 7 hours until we reached our first destination...a little village called Monjo where we were to stay at a little tea-house. It was pretty cold in there for us....after walking all day in the rain, what with sweating at some stages and then freezing at others! It took 2 cups of tea and 2 changes of clothing and when someone eventually lit the fire, before I actually felt a bit of warmth. Once feeling warm and pretty happy that we managed a 7 hour trek, I decided to ask for a COLD BEER. The guide took a beer straight out of the cabinet and gave it to me. I said to Brad....oooh I don't know if I'll be able to drink that - it hasn't been in the fridge....just have to have cold beer. The tea-house people though it was very funny as they never refrigerate beer in the Himalayas due to the altitude. Oh how stupid of me - I opened the beer and was pleasantly surprised to find that it was VERY cold!

Kathmandu

Aaahh Kathmandu - the atmosphere of this place is unreal. After getting used to the idea of limited power as they load shed daily here, unreliable mobile phone connection, tiger balm sellers, hash sellers and the like we are totally in love with this place. Our first day in Kathmandu we were transferred from the Airport to Tibet Guest House which is located just off one of the busiest streets in the Thamel area. Just away enough so we could get a decent nights sleep, but just close enough to all the most popular restaurants and shopping areas of Kathmandu. Most of our afternoon was spent getting our bearings and trying to work out the Rupee against the Aussie dollar and then a quite night.

The next day we met our Sherpa guide, Nima, who is a lovely man. He met us at our guest house for coffee, then took us back to his office to organise all the formalities of our up and coming trek to EBC. Once the formalities were out of the way, he invited us to meet his family and join them for a meal - wow traditional nepalize food. I love my indian curries, but this may have even surpassed the ol indian curry!! Nima and his family are lovely people and I would gladly recommend his company to anyone wanting good, reliable service for trekking and mountaineering. After lunch Nima's daughter (Chookie) took us for a stroll over to one of the most holy Stupa's in Kathmandu. This was a great experience for us, as her great grandfather on her mother's side was one of the gurus way back and there was a picture and statue of him in the temple. She was able to share a wealth of knowledge with us and even got us in through the back door...whereby as a foreigner we would usually be charge an entrance fee of course. After that we made our way back to the Thamel area and went up to the roof top garden at the top of our hotel which offers magnificant views of the Kathmandu valley. We met a party of 7 Aussies up there who were off to trek Annapurna region. They had an interesting story to tell - they all met whilst trekking the Kokoda Trail 2 years prior and had reunited to do this trek. After speaking with them, Brad and I took off for dinner. Just had to have some western food, so indulged in Pizza and red wine at the "Roadhouse Cafe" which is a very popular cafe in Thamel - again I can highly recommend the food at this place.

Next day Nima came to visit us and took us for breakfast at a Hotel where he does a lot of business. Our breakfast was provided by the hotel free of charge because of Nima. He then booked us in there for our return from our Everest Trek. We then went and got the rest of our hiking gear. Nima suggested walking poles which we got and a windbreaker jacket.

After shopping (one of my favourite passtimes), we took a Rickshaw up to the Monkey Temple which was about 20 minutes away from the city. After climbing the million steps up to the top of the temple we were suitably impressed. It certainly set the mood. We decided to walk back to Thamel after visiting the temple to give us a little warm up for the trek. The walk was only about 45 minutes, so not too bad. Lunch was next at a local Nepalise cafe called Himalaya Cafe which served up good honest cheap nepalise food. After our lunch we popped into the bustling internet cafe as it had POWER on...............(huge thing in Kathmandu...and Skype, so we could contact our boys and my mum. Its always a buzz to see them, gotta luv Skype. Now its time to stroll out and peruse the shops..mmmmm more shops...