Into the Wild - Kanchenjunga Trek Part 2

Pretty rustic accommodations here. This is our room. Find your own. Body is sore. Everywhere that backpack is in contact with my body from yesterday is sore. Traps. Hips. After lunch we had a little bit of elevation gain and it was pretty hot and exposed so hope we have more shade today. Leaving Siwa. Headed... Maybe... Maybe we go where today? Headed to Sikathum. We'll see. We'll see how slow I am. Okay. How many hours? Maybe eight hours today? Lot of uphill? Up and down, up and down. Beautiful. Beautiful morning though. Nice weather. Right now it's nice and cool but when that sun comes out it's gonna be hot again. But right now it's perfect weather. Good weather. Here comes that sun. My arch nemesis. It's crazy because we're gonna be up like among the glaciers. Not on the glacier but surrounded by glaciers above us. It's gonna get real cold and icy and right now I'm really... I'm really looking forward to that. We're at the checkpoint right now. And all of the conservation areas are gonna have these checkpoints. And this is one of those access fees, one of those permits you pay. We paid through the agency that we booked the trip through. But like if you're gonna do something like Annapurna Circuit you would have to arrange to get, you know, those permits ahead of time. And yeah, it's just an... just one of those like sneaky little added expenses that if you're planning it for yourself like something like this it's mandatory to have a guide. But like Annapurna Circuit where you're going to try to do things without a guide possibly you want to always remember these little hidden expenses. Getting into the more exposed parts of the trail. At least the most exposed it's been so far. All right, well looks like we're pulling into Chirwa. And almost 11.30 so about three, three and a half hours to Chirwa. The river looks amazing and I am ready to chow down on some dal bhat for sure. Well, lunch in Chirwa. 800, 300 each for the dal bhat. And then four, what was it? 200 for four black teas. So eight bucks. Didn't film lunch because I forgot. So this is actually our first time crossing the Tamar River. I think there's, there's going to be other crossings but this is the first time we're going over the big river. It's hard not to take pictures and video of this river because it's so beautiful. Obviously fed by the glacier melt. Giving it that, that beautiful blue color from that glacial silt. We made it to Banyantar which is where we're going to spend the night. A little bit of an incline up these like rocky stone stairs. But got here, actually he was saying it was going to take three hours. Got here in under three hours, two hours 48. So that's cool. Pretty rustic accommodations here. This is our room. Find your own. Well I was hoping today was going to be down by the river again because yesterday we didn't go in the river but today I wanted to go in. But I'm just going to wash up real quick because I'm drenched in sweat. So got some good looking water over here. It's calling my name. So fresh and clean now. Mountain fresh. Marketing will tell you that Irish spring will get you clean as a whistle. My opinion is trekking to Kanchanjunga will make you mountain fresh. After lunch part is definitely a lot harder. And I realized that I did not drink enough water yesterday at all. I only drank one liter when I went to fill up my camelback this morning. So I made a point to drink a lot more water today. But I think I'm going to take some rehydration salts anyway. Because a lot of cramping. Hamstrings were cramping. Shoulders were cramping. So get some salts in me. Drink some more water. Well leaving today. Papadarna. Headed to Anjalasta today. And supposedly today is the first really hard day. Some steep uphill but we'll see. I thought towards the end of yesterday it was getting difficult but... Today's hard day right? Or easy? Easy or hard? So right at the end it's hard. Now it's not hard. Right before the end. Maybe an hour uphill. So Anjalasta final destination. And lunch where? Lamatar lunch. So maybe like three four hours. She's getting the Red Bull. Not before lunch. You're supposed to get those after lunch. A lot of these stone steps again. Like yesterday. I'm not really digging the stone steps. But I mean it's better than being on a eroding cliffside I guess. I don't know something about the pounding into these big slabs. It doesn't feel too great. But that's all right because it's before lunch. And I'm feeling fresh. So this is where the river forks up that way heads to Tibet. And we're going to follow this fork up to Khenchenjunga. We got through Sukhothum here and just caught our first glimpse of a snow-covered peak. I believe that's Janu up there. Passed some other trekkers on their way down. Canadian and I think the other people were from Austria. And I think they mentioned that was Janu. We could do a side trek to that. And they highly recommended that. So I made it to Lamantar. It took about a little over four hours. Started at eight. We stopped and talked to that Canadian guy for a little while though. And I snuck in a few extra breaks here and there. Just the uphill. For some reason the uphill on the stairs is more taxing than just like a dirt path uphill I find. I don't know why. Something about the pounding into the stone. But after this supposedly it's two hours to Anjilasa. So they call this a pickle. It's basically just like almost like a salsa. It's got chili and some Nepali tomato in here. And it is spicy. But it's really good. Child's play. Jesse's training to carry me and a baby Bjorn. Right honey? Does it feel like you're going to be ready for me soon? As soon as you weigh 66 pounds I'll be ready. One thing I've noticed is I don't film pretty much anything when it's really hard. So this is the part where it's straight up. And man that Red Bull ain't doing anything. Only 50 milligrams of caffeine in that thing. Maybe it is. Maybe the sugar in it's helping. But the problem is I cannot show you how tough some of this stuff is. Because I'm just so exhausted. At some points it's even hard for me. Not right now. But sometimes I've tried to hold this little tiny camera. This point and shoot. And my hand is just shaking because it's just so... I'm just so exhausted. But we're still on the right timeline. An hour left. Which could mean an hour climbing straight up. So we made it to Anjilasa. And yeah I would agree. First difficult day. Don't know how many more there's going to be like that. Maybe all of them. Trying to dry my socks off. Smell pretty bad. They do have a shower here which is cool. Beautiful views of the hills. Still in the hill region. And a beautiful view of the river. Now we started down by the river earlier in Lamantara. And you can see how far we've come. Definitely gonna hit that shower off. Then lay down for a few hours. Eat a bunch of dhalba and then go to bed. Oh man. Sun's out already. Today's supposed to be a little bit easier. Easier day. But time will tell. Look at this big ass bag. One guy, like a strong Nepali guy yesterday we saw. He was saying he thought it was like 30 kilos. Which is 66 pounds. But there's been varying estimates between 25 and 30. Either way it's too heavy. So today we're just playing it by ear. Our final destination is Gabla which is supposed to be five hours away. So we may not stop for lunch. We may just boogie straight to Gabla. Get there around one. Have a nice long rest session at Gabla. But if we're moving slow we can stop. There's a place to stop before that. If we need to fuel up on some dhalba power 24 hours. I'm wondering if this area right here is an area that's been deforested. Because on the other side and other parts it's really dense with trees. But I know that they are having a big problem with deforestation in Nepal. And because the main fuel source for cooking is wood up here. Because it's too expensive to bring gas. And also to build these tea houses. Build these lodges. Build these housing structures. They're cutting down a lot of trees. But the problem is that makes the landslides in the rainy season even worse. So like this area. Just devastating. Mudslides, landslides. And so it becomes a point of diminishing returns. You know you have to cut the trees down to cook your food and stay warm and build shelter. But at the same time if you're doing that and then your house gets taken out by a landslide. You know what's the point? And we saw in Annapurna when we were doing that one. The rapid deforestation because so many guest houses were being built. Another reason they cut them down is to plant crops and grow grass so their cattle can graze. Which again is still going to lead to mudslides. The more developed this area gets in terms of like tourism and stuff. In the short term it's good. Brings money to the area. But in the long term without some sort of better infrastructure built in place. Retaining walls. Limits on cutting down trees and stuff. Eventually it's going to be a big problem. Well right on time. Made it to our our break spot here. No lunch because it's only 10 o'clock. So two hours here. So supposedly three hours to the next spot. Maybe a little longer. So after a 10 minute break back on the trail. Look what these guys are carrying. Motivates you when you see that. And I've seen some people carrying loads like that in flip-flops. So definitely gives me motivation to keep going. Well we're in an area where I think these are the biggest trees that we've seen so far. But still has a very tropical lush vibe. Lots of moss. Still seeing some bamboo. Though the bamboo is getting a lot smaller. The blue water with the mossy trees and stuff almost reminds me of Costa Rica a little bit. Unexpected breaks everywhere along the trail. Something like that comes when you're like a donkey or a horse. You want to stay closer to the mountain side of the trail. Because they have been known to knock people off the trail. Down into the river. Off the cliff. Not good. Although not a sheer drop there. That actually reminds me of something else I want to talk about. There's like this etiquette of taking your shoes off before you go in the guesthouse room and stuff like that. And the reason for that is because the trail is covered in all kinds of poop. You got donkey poop. Cow poop. Goat poop. Deer poop. And so as hard as you try to avoid it you're going to get poop on your shoes. So customary to remove the shoes before going into your room. And I think even the dining area too. Although sometimes it's just too cold to do that. Made it to Gabla. It's a beautiful little spot here. See a snow-covered mountain in the background. Nice little plateau here overlooking the river. And made it here in like about four hours 20. So not too bad. Pretty good time. He was saying five hours initially but I don't know. Oh okay the sign said four and a half. But he thought we were going to be a little slow so he said five. But still we made it in less than four and a half. And stopped for tea. I think not stopping for lunch may have helped me go quicker. Because I wasn't digesting lunch. You know what I mean? Every board you see up in these little towns, these little villages. Every board is handmade. Chopped and planed by hand. No power tools up here at all. It's really, really fascinating to watch. This is probably one of the best dalbats we've had so far. Everything fresh. Lots of green vegetables. Cabbage. These pickled. Not actually pickled but I think they call it a pickle. It's a radish. Tastes like maybe a little cilantro. So a lot of chili. So those are really spicy and good. You want a dalbat? You're looking for a dalbat? Is that what's happening? Infamous.