An Epic Clan Wander: Lockdown Trek to EBC Part 3

Factors to consider for safety in the Himalayas are normally the weather and your own health, now we also had Corona to deal with, an unwanted factor. At this point of our trek we were supposed to be in Surke and making our way towards Namche Bazaar. However, here we were in Pakhepani.

We had only managed seven days walking before lockdown arrived in March. We were all in good spirits and as it turned out we were in the right place at the right time. We spent nine nights with Pemba Sherpa and his family, a happy and kind household with many mountain stories. The cold morning mountain air was refreshing in March and the views just breathtaking. We passed the time quite easily here, building an outdoor shower, doing some yoga and contacting family back home to let them know we were safe and well. We were also making the news back home as a Scottish family in lockdown in Nepal, which was highly entertaining at the time.

Mountain life has a pace and way of its own. This was a lesson we were soon to embrace over the next few months. At this point we were all quite familiar with teahouses and how the comfort and facilities can vary from one teahouse to another. Many power cuts, no Wi-Fi, limited mobile connectivity and a basic food menu of Dal Bhat. A Nepali dish of rice, lentils and vegetable curry, a great choice when you’re hungry as you can eat as much as you want. Because of lockdown the menu was even more limited than normal, not to be deterred, Erihn was persistent with her daily requests for toast or any bakery items! We would all have to wait for the food we craved unaware at the time that our mountain adventure would last for a whopping 133 days!

It was here in Pakhepani that we met our mountain guide Kevin Rai and Bruce a fellow trekker from Australia. These two men would become our lockdown partners and friends. As a group we made many decisions with regard to our lockdown situation. For sanity reasons we decided to relocate to Lukla, mostly because we needed more space for the children and a few more facilities. April Fools’ Day came and went, and we walked onto Lukla and into three months isolation.

In the mountains, you are at the mercy of nature and the strength of your mind, body and spirit. Never a true word said, this particular period of our journey had its challenges. We went from week to week, month to month of lockdown extending with no end in sight. By this time we were the only tourists left in the whole area, even our Australian friend Bruce took a private helicopter to Kathmandu and a repatriation flight home. However, we were safe and extremely well looked after by our host Dhanku Rai who went out of his way to assist our every need. Even the Lukla community knew who we were and our background story.

The limited menu and keeping warm was difficult early on, but the food issues did eventually take its toll on our health. Which resulted in many sick days, weight loss and low energy levels not ideal when you’re planning on walking to Everest Base Camp . However, we like to remind ourselves it was great acclimatisation, every cloud has a silver lining!

Not to be deterred we kept a positive mindset and never lost focus on reaching EBC. Looking back I’m sure our family and friends thought we were delusional. However, this focus kept us motivated and we never took our eye off our dream of following Sir Edmund Hillary’s footsteps to Everest.

Eventually July rolled around and phase one lockdown arrived. We saw an opportunity to walk within the district and we, mostly Kevin Rai, grabbed this opportunity with two hands and started the dialogue/paperwork with the authorities. Keen to walk himself, Kevin was delighted to join our wee expedition and so too was our new friend Dhanku Rai, manager of our teahouse. So we went from independent trekking family to a small lockdown expedition. We were happy with the support, after all our energy levels were lower than we hoped for so we realistically needed that extra help. Our persistence and positive mindset had paid off and we could start putting our plans in motion.

Obtaining permission to walk to EBC during phase one of lockdown wasn’t a straight forward process, it took many days, calls and meetings. Not only did we need permission to walk to Sargamatha National Park (including the necessary passes) from all the different authorities, we also needed confirmation that the teahouses were open and happy to take in a foreign family.

This was when local knowledge is pertinent to success. Without Kevin’s local knowledge, his sheer determination and his contacts as a guide we wouldn’t have achieved any of this trek. Amazingly, many teahouses along the way opened specially for us! We still can’t believe the kindness shown to us from start to finish on our Himalayan adventure. The Sherpa people going out of their way to make our trek possible but more importantly they made our trip so memorable through their generosity and kindness.