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Day 11-13: ‘shouldn’t it be down-down-down’

Any mathematician would agree that if one goes from 6,000 to 2,500 meter, one should go down-down-down. Right?? Wrong! Not in the Himalaya. Its slogan says ‘a little bit up and a little bit down’, which I already relabeled as ‘ a hell of a lot up and a hell of a lot down’. Even on the way back!

Our expedition did not complain too much though, as we had become as fit as a fiddle. Ups were no longer a problem and, in fairness, there was significant more down then up. Did I already tell you how much I LOOOVE gravity? If not, then here you go; most wonderful concept of all times! There are three other amazing things of going down:

1. inhaling increasingly oxygen-rich air. Especially not having nightly ‘gasps’ is a blessing. At altitude, one startles awake, realising that one was slightly choking followed by some gasping to replenish the oxygen. A bit scary, so very nice to get rid off
2. increasing temperature. Surprisingly, even those places that we ‘froze’ on our way up, felt better on the way down. Probably we had adjusted, or the few days simply made a biggest difference for the season. Please don’t think that we switched to swim suits immediately… It was still down jackets plus heater in the evening, but no more gloves and no more fear to move from the heater to the table for diner. Swell!
3. increasing appetite. Altitude normally supresses appetite. (Claire, be relieved; I actually found others that are not sensitive for this phenomenon…). Downwards, the food tasted better and I could eat a fork or two more ( 🙂 ). Plus we could finally indulge in a drink again. Whoop whoop, party time!

There are the yaks again…

…and a goat… Plus a horse… And the first flowers of the SpringTea time…and party timeBack in Kathmandu Baggage collected from ‘belt 1’ (= just directly of the airport trolley)And a final farewell drink…. I will miss you guys. I had been a pleasure and a privilege!!!!!