09:02 The excitement is kicking in, blood is rushing and we can’t wait.
The excitement is kicking in, blood is rushing and we can’t wait. Probably it had something to do with the crazy dangerous bus ride to Jiri. Busride from hell, they say? About 6 hours into our drive I actually enjoyed the ride, views and even the loud horrible Indian music was not that bad, but then it all went to crap. Delayes, stops and landslides…
We planned to hike on the first they, but arrived by the dark and had to settle for a night in Jiri. Our most expensive night of the trip, were they asked 500 rupiah or 4€ for 3 beds. That doesnt sound that bad, but it is!
Next morning, full of anticipation, we woke up early, but were quickly brought down to earth by rainy, misty and awful weather. We were kind of expecting bad weather and a bit mud, but what was coming, was totally unexpected.
First day was relatively easy – All the way to Shivalaya we walked mostly on car roads, if you can call half a meter of mud a road, and some very leech infested areas. All the way up to Shivalaya, it was raining. We got there really early, about 12.00 and decided to take a break. We found several blood thirsty leaches in some weird places, dam, Veronica was now really afraid, and threatened to abandon the trek, if one of them should bite her.
Happy trekkers
Shivalaya to Deruali was all the way up, from 1790m to 2705m
Still, we had a pleasant and tasty launch, where we decided not to have a night in Shivalaya, but to continue. We did our ticket check, where they obviously did not know what is Estonia. They asked, if Estonia is a country and asked my passport to ensure it – I guess I cant go bonkers, as I also dont have the knowledge about all the micro countries around the world.
Aah yes, and the weather turned to be perfect on our way up 🙂 Rain stopped, sun came out and our morals were high again. The Part from Shivalaya to Deruali was all the way up, from 1790m to 2705m. Very steep and exhausting, we almost regretted not stopping in Shivalaya. But we made it, at about 5PM we arrived to our location, our first high altitude accommodation – Good starting point for our acclimation.
Had double dinner, met another backpacking couple, exchanged our stories, washed our socks/undies and then we fell to our very cold beds at 2705m. We did not have shower this day, as hot showers are expensive and just did not felt taking cold one at this height yet 🙂
Stats for the first day:
2/3 rainy and muddy roads9 hours of walking
About 14km of map distance
26.4km equivalent flat distance *
1120m of ascents
430m of descents
Few leeches and first nice views
Three very tired, but happy persons (including our brand new friend Pavel, from bus)
* Using Naismith’s rule, I calulated the actual distance of the trak, taking into consideration the elevation gain.
