We’re in Ghunsa after one day of flying from Canada, one day of an early domestic flight and 10 hour drive, one day of a 5 hour jeep with 4WD-ing, and three days of walking.

Check out our route so far: GHT Map Updates. 

We have another 2.5 days of walking before we officially start the GHT from the east at Kanchenjunga Base Camp (KBC), but this is all part of it!

Bodies are feeling good so far and minds are adjusting to no cell or wifi. Jetlag wasn’t too bad for a 12 hour change – just swap breakfast for dinner! 

The lives of people we meet here is a shocking reminder of the immense privileges we have. If for no other reason than where we were born.

We have a wonderful guide (many sections of the GHT require a compulsory guide) Bhola, who everyone calls Som. A bit like Mike’s / Dikko’s names! He is Tamang and his home village is near the border of Tibet. His wife is in Kuwait working for two years and their two daughters are with his mum in the village. We’re getting to know Som and proud of Ang’s Himalayan Adventures for giving him the opportunity for work with us. Ang is good at giving opportunities to people who are underprivileged. As you can imagine, in Nepal if you are underprivileged, your life is a real battle.

The walking has been straightforward as this is a well trodden route. Less like hiking trails and more like narrow roads for people, horses, yaks.  That will change!

Food has been great, most meals sourced from the terraces outside the teahouses or lodging. Organic cauliflower, carrot, spinach. We did not however try the dried frogs in one teahouse! 

Most nights it’s lightly rained for an hour with thunder around 5pm. We’ve been finishing around 2pm as these are easy days to ease us in. Good thing as our backpacks were around 18kg. Nothing compared to the porters with their 30kg+ loads. We chatted to one porter (through Sumi’s translation) as he was carrying a Starlink dish! Little did we know the same dish was used in a repair and is what’s making it possible to share this blog from Kanchenjunga Guest House in Ghunsa. 

The facilities for trekkers have changed a lot in 19 years. Most places have ceramic squat toilets, some even have western sit toilets, and septic tanks. My memories of wooden huts and waste going straight into a field below in the Khumbu are making me feel old! 

As for Mike, he shares that yesterday it was amazing to see +7000m peak for the first time (Kabru, 7353m), and he’s in awe of how deep and steep the valleys are. It’s also been fun to see prayer flags and yaks and other Nepali symbols for real.

Mike sent a note to some friends we’ll repeat here: Feels good to be living in the present. And great to have the anticipation and anxious feeling of an impending massive trip (living in the future) out of the way. Now it’s just one day at a time, left foot, right foot and repeat.

Random trail song from Mike: 

“A HA Nango La, A HA Mango La”

Inspired by Ang’s AHA burritos on the south col of Everest, we’re thinking of selling mangos* on Nango La, a pass we’ll cross over after tagging KBC. 

Random trail thought from Kristy: 

Is curiosity a privilege?

Hope all is well in everyone’s worlds… sending warm and fuzzies!

*Of course this is not viable but it sounded fun.