This morning began early in Birethanti, with breakfast at 6:30 a.m. and our journey on the trail beginning at about 7 a.m. I was stoked! I had prepared myself mentally for this adventure. My friend told me that it was like a walk through villages and I was excited to see the sites. Dorgee had told us the night before that today would be about 8 or 9 hours of trekking, so I geared up. Now those of you who don't know this side of me, I hate hiking. Hate it. Never have liked it (much to the dismay of my family) and I don't know that I ever will. I keep trying it out - keep trying to learn to like it, but there's something about my body that just doesn't like climbing up mountains. This was different - I am trekking the Annapurna Circuit for 5 days and it is going to be amazing. The weather started a bit chilly and I was glad that I had purchased a warm coat for cheap in Bhutan. It's hard to pack a backpack for 6 weeks of vastly different climates and experiences! Soon the coat came off and it was just my jacket. I loved seeing the small villages and saying "Namaste" to everyone that we passed. This is a very wonderful greeting that they have here which translated means "I recognize the godly in you" - what a beautiful greeting!
Hours into our journey, the nice little ups and downs and walks past waterfalls became more serious - much more serious. The pathway turned upward and climbed and climbed and climbed. We had steps that went up, up, and away for what felt like forever but was probably only about 2 or at the most 3 hours. This is when things got harder for me mentally. My friend had told me that this was a walk and this is NOT a "walk". I felt every part of my body scream out, "STOP!" when I knew that there really wasn't any other option other than to keep on going. I had to fight these thoughts and emotions that kept creeping into my mind telling me that I couldn't make it - that I was too slow - that there's no way that I will ever get to the end. We took lots of little stops which helped me and our dear Dorgee carried my smaller backpack for me (the porter ties both mine and Jen's bags together and hauls them everywhere - it's amazing!). We finally reached Ulleri (elevation 2180). I had the thought that this may be the place where people go to die, but I pulled out of it. I still had much ahead of me. We had lunch and met some nice people about our age from Australia. I also discovered that my camera somehow got broken while dear Dorgee was carrying it and it has an error message that will not leave. So sad!
At one point Dorgee asked me how many kilos I was to which I replied, "I have no idea!" He was asking to see if he could carry me! Absolutely not. At lunch he suggested that since we had 4 or 5 hours left of trekking that we stop at a different spot today that is halfway there (so 3 hours away) and change our plans a bit. My stubborn side kicked in and I was determined that even if I was the weakest link and the one that was holding things up a bit, I would NOT give up.
As we made that 5 hour trek to Ghorapani, I felt like God was teaching me so many lessons. I remembered the words of a dear neighbor who taught me an invaluable lesson years ago from her own life. The gist of it is "Look how far you've come." I have remembered and used this thought many times in my life, but it was at this point in my journey that it overwhelmed me to truly think, look how far I have come. Keep going! Don't give up! Don't turn back. After feeling humbled by this thought, I had the overwhelming thought that God was teaching me a very important lesson at that very moment - to have patience with myself. So often I feel like I have to do things within a certain amount of time or a certain way or be accomplished in certain areas, but this is not true! Things happen in the way that they need to happen and timing is everything. As long and I put my best effort into everything, the returns will come and be so worth it in the end. Some things don't just happen to us in life, we have to wait for them and prepare for them and ultimately, those are the things that we treasure the most.
These teachings seemed to consume me as I felt overwhelmed with God's love for me and his acute awareness of me and my situation in life. He knows what I desire most and He knows where I struggle most and yet He still loves me! I felt empowered by these lessons and tried to hold onto those moments for the rest of the day. I'm not going to say that it got easier - it sure didn't, but I remembered what I had already accomplished earlier in the day and knew that if I could do that, then I could do what was ahead.
We arrived in Ghorapani (elevation 3194 meters ) around 5 p.m. or so. I was so, so, so happy to see the sign welcoming us to the town, and then Dorgee took us to the place that we were staying that was on the far end, up many, many more flights of stairs. Let me just say that today alone has put every hike that I have ever done to shame. Table Rock Mountain in Cape Town, South Africa was brutal - my friend Jes and I were doing stairs up to our knees for hours. Nothin'. Tiger's Nest in Paro, Bhutan that I hiked on Friday with Jen that had lots of snow and ice. Still nothing. Try going up flights of stairs for 8 hours straight, increasing elevation by 2,000 meters, then we'll talk. ;) I know for some people this is super breezy, but that's the beauty of it all - we all have different challenges in life.
We had a nice dinner here in our teeny little cold guest house while a group of Koreans yelled stories around the fire. We are starting to get used to the idea of going to bed at 8 p.m.
Some of the sites along the trail....
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