Hike Nepal 2024 – 23rd May & The Seven Star Hotel

Still going down at the start of today’s hike!

Naomi and Linda asked Binod if we’d have a hot shower tonight. Or complete walls. He said tonight. “It is a 5-Star Hotel?” they asked? “It’s SEVEN stars”, he replied.

And that’s what got us out of bed and on the road this morning.

The SEVEN Star hotel. We could picture it. Lush, warm sheets. Wine with dinner. A flushing toilet. Walls so thick you couldn’t hear the inhabitants next door, and WIFI – fast, reliable WIFI. We were ready.

But first, we had to head down to the river, cross it, and back up the other side to a town that we could see from where we were staying. The down was lovely, despite our sore and wobbly legs from yesterday. We passed a monument to a Jewish hiker that died in the earthquake, then crossed a swinging bridge over the river. We followed the river up and down, or Nepali Flat for a few kilometres, and had lunch overlooking it.

We passed through quaint little villages and saw what we think were honey badgers (don’t worry, we didn’t go near them!). We saw a chipmunk too!

Our bags lined up at lunch

After lunch we had a 3hr climb to our seven star hotel. It may have taken us a little longer than usual, because we passed under a family of monkeys on the way! We enjoyed their antics for ages before moving on. About halfway up we stopped again for a loo break, an breather, and were captivated by a woman making belts on an old-fashioned loom. She was literally strapped in to it like i strap myself in to my windsurfer, and used her body to arrange the threads. Every time she made one line of belt, she had to rearrange the threads exactly so, in order to keep the pattern going. It took her 2 days to complete just one belt, and she sold them for 800 Rupee (about $8). We bought one each. Binod bought one for Maia which was sweet too.

Mukta and Terry were stopped a third time by a girl with a baby goat. She even let them hold it for a bit! So it was late, past 5pm before we got to this 7 star hotel. We were sweaty and stinging for showers. We had barely any time to enjoy it before dinner, which we forgot to order in our excitement over clean sheets and hot water. It was around 9pm before we finally ate and crashed in to bed.

It was, however, and bloody fantastic bed.

 

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Linda

Linda is a Northern Beaches mum, born in the UK, married an Australian, and the rest is history. She makes up one of the three gigglers that were late on Karla’s birthday, these three women are all Englishwomen who have moved to Australia for good, and lean on eachother like family during the school term. She signed up because Tracy T signed up, and she’s always wanted to see Nepal. She told me about a list she put together as a young woman, and the only thing left on her overseas “list of things to achieve before 40” was a trip to Nepal. Better late than never, she seized this opportunity to join us, without even looking at the itinerary. Even as I interviewed her, her husband still thought she was doing Everest Base Camp! Luckily she saw it from a helicopter before we started hiking!

Linda was attracted to the mountains. She is from an active, hiking family and feels comfortable taking on a challenge like this one. In fact, she lived in Hong Kong for 5 years, and would often hike up the mountains home of an afternoon after work, her daughter often joining her.

Linda wants everyone to know that cancer didn’t kill her. She’s now 2yrs breast cancer free, but only 6mths complication free. She had ongoing issues after her double mastectomy and breast reconstruction surgery, that impacted her health and ability to function. In addition, her mother in law died while she was undergoing treatment (of breast cancer). So it’s been a really awful couple of years for Linda. However, in her own words, she’s a fighter, something which we saw each and every day she hiked.

Linda at Kathmandu airport with her “welcome” garland of marigolds

Tracy T

Tracy is my friend from my very first personal training job ever, at Fernwood Fitness, in Sydney City, in 2001!!! I told her about this trip and she said “I’m coming”!!

Tracy says that “over the years you have subtlety mentioned where your groups were going, and I never felt I could come along and leave the family. This year, I knew the kiddos were old enough and capable to be without me for a few weeks so I hot footed it out of Sydney.🤩 Nepal and a hike would be a great challenge – for many years I thought my body was broken and I had lost confidence in it, having the goal of the hike was a great way to test all of the hard work I’d put into it and challenge my belief that I need to stick to things that are familiar to stay injury free.”

Anyone who ahs ever walked with Tracy knows that she has zero sense of direction, but walking with a group meant that she felt confidence that she was going the right way. In training, we laughed at the extra work she managed to get out of everyone by making her way up a hill and then having to turn back.

Tracy has loved every minute of Nepal, she loved making new friends and sharing experiences. She loved turning negative self talk and beliefs into exhilaration and joy and she loved the spiritual side – meditating and story telling as she walked. She says “I’ve definitely grown as a human and deepened and grown my friendship circle – thank you Clare, feeling very blessed!”

Tracy and I on day 1

Tracy and I at her wedding in 2006. If I could have found an older, sweatier photo I would have, but we’re talking about the age before digital cameras!

 

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