Mera Peak day 14 – After the sun comes the rain
The day started really well. The weather was great, it was cold and icy, but sunny and bright. Outside the lodge we were able to look back up to Mera Peak in the distance. First challenge of the day was to cross an icy bridge - it was a bit of a heart in mouth moment but we all made to it safely and had a bit of fun watching each other cross. We were soon stripping off the layers when the sun came out. It was a beautiful walk through the moss by the river.
The most stupid thing I had heard someone say in the morning was 'it's sunny so it won't rain today'. Come on now, we are in the mountains!!
We were being led by the doctor which wasn't going very well - he is a doctor not a leader, he is also pretty unfit so we were walking two steps and stopping, walking two steps and stopping. Frustrating when you can get into a stride. Someone spoke up and we got Dawa back to the front and the doc was sent to the back. We were on the move properly.
Eventually the cloud started rolling in and it started to rain, as it does in the mountains.
We put our waterproofs on, only about half an hour from a tea house we tried to get there as quickly as possible before the rain really came down. The tea house was the same one we saw the Iranians at on the way up, when it was all hot and sunny. It was raining quite heavily by the time we got there and we were wet and cold and people were miserable, tired and touchy.
Sensing the unrest amongst the group the Sherpas gave us soup and fried rice for lunch to try to warm us up.
On our way again fully waterproofed up we made our way up the trail. We started to encounter some snow which got worse and worse and eventually we came to where it was covering the trail.
It was slow going all afternoon, lots of stopping and waiting. At the front we livened things up with snowball fights / snowball throwing competitions / throwing snowballs at people who were urinating. We passed a few groups of people coming up the mountain - having a far different ascent than we did. The trail was unrecognisable from the way up. I enjoyed walking through the snow, what's life without a bit of danger?!
Martin and Martin both had terrible wind today and were making me feel sick. I can't eat eggs again after Martin Ts rotten egg farts. They really were something else.
We arrived at the nights tea house at 5pm, a couple of hours later that we would of had the trail be clear of snow. Luckily they had rooms for us this time. We dried out and warmed up around the fire. The tea house was really busy. The Aussie doctors were there - we have been seeing them on and off since Khare. They are so nice and so helpful. There was a group of Americans there who were all camping.
I wasn't feeling great in the stomach, I was getting those horrible sulphur burps (which tasted exactly the same as Martins bum smelt earlier) so I ordered plain chips for dinner, unfortunately they were a bit undercooked - nothing worse than a raw potato! So I didn't eat many. I got a can of Pringles and had a peptobismol - both of these things solve everything.
Two Sherpas were missing in action, a few of us therefore were missing our bags. Dawa and Passang went out with some head torches to look for them, my bag was one of the missing ones. I was more concerned for the safety of the Sherpas in their t-shirts and flimsy shoes in the snow than I was for my kit. Some people were more concerned about their kit. Luckily they found them, they were exhausted, and Dawa and Passang carried the bags back.
I had to wee before bed so I made my way down the icy path to the short drop with the large hole, it was occupied by 'egg man' so I went around the corner and made some yellow snow. Must drink more water.
People are counting down the days until the trip is over which makes me wonder why they wanted to come on it in the first place if they want so desperately for it to end. I went to bed to get away from the moaning.