Fujairah Observer –May 2009-04-17

We made it!

The Trekking For Nepalteam are back from their adventure to Everest Base Camp. I don’t know about theother trekkers, but spiritually I’m still up there, in the Khumbu valley whichleads to Mt. Everest, amid the pine forests and staggeringly beautiful sceneryat the roof of the world.

The trip started witha visit to the New Youth Orphanage. We took milk, fruit and toys on the day,and left FPA teacher, Tina, there for the best part of a week with 150 kg of children’sclothes, books and toys to match up to assorted gleeful children. Our thanks tothe many donations that enabled this to happen, to Virginia Valentine, whodonated 75 of her company’s colourful Fujairah-branded t-shirts, and to AirArabia who didn’t bat an eyelid when I turned up at Sharjah Airport at 4 a.m.with three trolley loads of boxes.

The orphanage hasmoved to a new building which is horribly dilapidated, and along with puttingplans in place to continue the supply of fruit and milk to the children on adaily basis, we have a number of options to pursue. Repairs to the roof areurgently needed before the monsoon, as is a bigger water tank. The children’smattresses desperately need replacing and we have had a proposal from theschool to replace and maintain new school uniforms for the children. We’reawaiting prices for both these projects. The school have also offered freeextra computer lessons for all the children, if we can get a couple morecomputers to them. Anyone have a not-too-old PC they might like to donate?

The trek itself wastough, but spirits were high. The teahouses we stayed at along the way were, um,basic, with hard wooden beds and the food consisted of potatoes, potatoes andmore potatoes. Well, what else grows at five thousand metres? Nightly, Merelitaand I would scan the new menu for signs of a surprise, but no, the menus werealways identical, and, as Mita suggested, probably written and printed up enmasse by some tourist board official in Kathmandu, just a new cover for eachteahouse. We all started to fantasize about our favourite foods. A crisp salad,a piece of fish, a juicy steak, anything but potatoes. At one lunch stopfurther down the mountain there was nearly a riot when I discover an errantpiece of broccoli on my plate. The bidding for it around the table was fierce,until I cut everyone short by saying it wasn’t for sale… and popping it quicklyinto my mouth before I was lynched!

The plumbing at bestwas dodgy, and at worst was non-existent and a flush toilet or a lukewarmshower (usually a shed with a bucket on the roof attached to a piece of string)became an object of great desire. It sounds like your worst nightmare in termsof a holiday, but you know what… we loved it!

For 13 days we shareda mountain trail in mostly glorious sunshine, with yaks, mules, porters andtrekkers, as it wandered through little alpine villages and small holdings withtrees full of peach, apricot and pear blossom, past mounds of carved prayerrocks (always walk clockwise round them for luck).

Few knew what toexpect from the dreaded altitude sickness, and when it struck, or rather creptin, reactions were mixed. Headaches that came and went coupled with adifficulty in sleeping at altitude, made the onward trek a challenge, with it’svertiginous climbs, wobbly, swaying iron bridges over huge ravines, and thegiant rock staircases cut into the mountain side. The final day was a very longwalk, with little sleep and little oxygen. 6 hours of trekking took us to BaseCamp, a surprisingly unexciting spot with a few tents and a rock on which waspainted the immortal words “Everest Base Camp 5363 metres.” One of our guides,Sarki, stood by with a flask of hot lemon, as we hugged each other and gatheredfor photos.

I have to say that ourtrekking company did us proud. The Responsible Travellers (www.theresponsibletravellers.com)who took us there with 5 Sherpa porters and 4 Nepalese guides, couldn’t befaulted. They did everything to ease our journey, from supplying a safe sourceof filtered drinking water three times a day to helping us over rocks, carryingour packs when we were tired, making sure we were fed and made comfortable inthe teahouses, and in between all this providing a running commentary on thegeography of the area, its flora and fauna and its social history. All this wasoverseen by our chief guide Rajendra (nicknamed ‘our glorious leader’) who usedhis binoculars as often to check on his charges as to follow his passion ofbird watching. I can’t thank them enough for getting us there and back safelyand happily. 

The trekkers, pictured from left: Barbara, Donna, Merelita, Matt, Colin, Carol, John (JD), Todd, Paul, Eddie, Amanda, Mita