Saturday, April 16, 2011

breaking bridges

Lessons of Nepal

(to be continued)

9. Tread lightly

My experience trekking thus far has been great. Tons of fun really, and I’m stoked to announce that the plan is to head out this week to attempt making it to Annapurna Base Camp! But that’s just a sidenote. Really, I realized that I left a vital story out of my explanation of my last trekking experience, and I couldn’t let that happen now could I?

On the last day of our trek a couple weeks back (from Gorhepani to Nyapul) we went down a lot of stairs. A LOT of stairs. Huge stairs (similar to the ones we’d gone up the day before, except this time going a mile down, of course). Fortunately, most of our descent was over by lunchtime, and after a quick stop we were on our way again, following the river as we approached Nyapul and our final destination: Pokhara.

At one point, it came time to cross the river. It was a small river, more of a stream, really (since it’s not yet monsoon season) and there were four beams of bamboo tied together and stretched across as a bridge to allow trekkers to safely cross. Of course, nearly everyone crossed over without an issue, so when it came to my turn, I figured it really shouldn’t be that bad. (Though admittedly I was a little concerned considering my lack of coordination, but hey – everyone else handled it without a problem, right?)

False. Inconveniently when I went to cross the bridge, the bamboo piece I stepped on in trust that it would help me to the other side… well, broke. Suddenly I was on my hands and knees, awkwardly holding on in hopes of not completely falling into the water below. Yup, broke the bridge. (Don’t you worry, no injuries, some sunglasses swept away, and a little water in the shoes later all was fine and we were off once again.) Solid, chubs.

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