The Longest Day Ever

It is now August 16. Today will be our fourth day of walking. We’ve been told it will
be your longest and most difficult day - but also the most beautiful. We got our
wake up call at 6 am Nelly singing at our door, again, I didn’t hear a thing.
We had breakfast, packed our bags and off we went.

We have two mountain passes to do today. We reached our first pass at almost
5000 m. It was a difficult and long walk. We were walking so slow that a turtle
could probably have passed us. Going this slow is not by choice.  You just can’t
physically go any faster. As I mentioned before (I think) altitude is no joke!
We Had a little ceremony at the top of this mountain to keep us safe on the
rest of our journey.

When we got to the top, we could finally see the Rainbow Mountain in the
distance. What a sight!! but oh my God we have to walk all the way there?! 
Yup! We do! That photo is cropped -seems closer than it really is.

We descended the mountain as slowly as we ascended.  It was a very narrow
trail covered in ice, mud and snow and so it was very slippery. One step at a time.
Near the bottom, Remi decided to slide down the hill -sitting on his jacket -
Weeee! Down he went! We stopped for a short break when we reach the bottom.

We arrived at our lunch spot where we would have lunch. While waiting for the
others to catch up to us, we decided to slide down the mountain. This time,
we had our ranchers and cooks slide down with us! They had so much fun! T
hey were saying again, again! You should've seen them - in their sandals, going
down the mountain -sitting on our jackets, wearing our gloves... something I will
never forget!

Lunch today was not my cup of tea - again - surprise, surprise. We ate well, people ate, and off we went.  We walked for about 30 minutes before arriving to a spectacular sight. The Rainbow mountains. This is a sacred place you don’t walk on it. Just across the way, there is another little "mountain" you could climb to get a different view.  Once at the top the view is simply incredible - a mountain of red and green all formed naturally.

It was so windy at the top that we quickly took our pictures and headed back
down. Again, going down is not easy either it’s deep with steps made in the
ground all uneven.  As we waited for the rest of the group to arrive, we were
getting a little worried (so was Holger) because we could see a storm coming.
Nobody wants to be here in a storm… 

Once the rest of the group arrived, we hurriedly took a group photo with the CLK
flag and off of the first group went.

Because our group of 17 people, of various abilities, illnesses, altitude issues…
we always end up being two or three groups. Good thing we have three guides!

We left rainbow Mountain and arrived at the Red Valley all the mountains here
are red. It’s beautiful! We managed to get a couple pictures here -just the front
group.  After the Red Valley, the trail became quite scary for me. The path was
covered in snow and it was very narrow - it was also a very long way down.
I was going extra slowly, tears in my eyes (height is not my thing -so why am
I there you are thinking? Because in life, you have to challenge and push
yourself -or else you will miss all sorts of beauty!)   Thank goodness I was right
behind Holgar our guide and Remi was behind me. I guess Holgar could tell I
was not comfortable here so he asked to hold the end of my pole and asked Remi
to hold the other end. I held the middle - this formed like a barrier - thank God!
I think I would still be there otherwise!

After this very difficult part, the trail  remained very similar just on sand instead
of snow - not so bad.  If you fell down, you probably would’ve just slid down the
mountain -that wouldn’t be fun, but I don’t think you would’ve died...

From Rainbow Mountain to our next Tambo was a three hour walk. We had to get
moving if we didn’t want to get stuck hiking in the dark -that would not be fun. 
Picture is -very narrow trails, on steep hills…in the dark. Everywhere you look
you see beauty - including the sunset. Lucky for the head group we had about
15 minutes to go. The second group would not be so lucky and would need to
make their way on these treacherous trails in the dark.

When we were about 30 minutes from the lodge we could see little lights bouncing
up and down towards us.  That’s when we saw our porters and animal ranchers
come running with lanterns. What a relief to see them on their way to help us out. 
They were sent on their way to help the others as we were getting very close to the tambo.
As a parent, I was relieved to see how well these people cared for us!  Having Sophie
in the second group - I never worried because I knew she was in good hands.

Our group made it just before it got really dark. Holgar took as many headlamps
as we could give him and he headed back out to meet the back group. What an
amazing team we have we are truly blessed!  

We kept looking out the windows to see if we could see them arriving when all of
a sudden, the lodge guardian blew the conch shell to welcome them. Out in the
distance, one light, two, then three and so on. They had another 5 to 10 minutes
before reaching the temple. This I think is an experience they will never forget. 
The second group arrived about an hour after we did.

This was the longest day so far. They were right. It was beautiful, overwhelming,
terrifying, every emotion you can imagine.

Again, I can’t really explain.  It’s something you need to experience for yourself
to truly understand. This journeys means something different to everyone here. 
Each of us is living his or her own adventure -same place, different meaning.
I’m sure Remi, Sophie, and I will all have found a different meaning through this...