Climbing for 4 hrs plus a rest day! 12/12 Day 10
Up at our normal time and a quick breakfast of apples and muesli w warm sugar yak milk and Andy had a veg omelette. I'm all about the more calories for my buck. We were on the trail before 8 since we weren't interested in chatting up the other folks in the hotel- lets just say they all showered last night. I don't have anything against it, but we are in the Himalaya dammit, the locals don't take warm showers. I don't think we've showered in 10 days? Well not completely unclean. Those Burts Bees peach and willow bark wipes have done my face and important parts wonders. I wouldn't use them at home since it's wasteful, out here it's critical. I wish I could use them on my socks.
Anyways, we quickly made it to Yak Kharka in under 3 hours (yay porter!) where we saw the Aussie kids from Tilicho Lake w their friend who's had diarrhea for 6 days. The kid doesn't want to take any pills but can't walk more than 40 min without having to take a poop. Andy, being the caring guy that he is, gave the friends 4 pills for the guy's stomach issues. They were annoyed the guy wouldn't take anything, so maybe w these magic stop pooping pills will do the trick since they want to summit tomorrow. That guy is too dehydrated to summit, bad idea.
We push on to Letdar which is at 14k with no problems. All the acclimation hikes we did seem to be paying off. We reached the hotel before noon and busted out the yak cheese and Ritz (you read that right!) and it was the most delicious thing I've ever eaten. We should have bought more than our $2 worth of cheese.
We spent the rest of the afternoon in the sunroom reading and relaxing. So happy to have a rest day after hiking for 4 hours. We petted the kitty. She was a little grey thing w beautiful greenish blue eyes. She was a total lover digging the face rubs until she was over it and tried to swat Andy. No more petting. Once that sun goes down its going to be cold!! The wind picks up in the afternoon, that's why we hike early as possible. Tomorrow should be a good day too, planning on reaching high camp before the pass!! I think we'll get a large thermos of tea before bed so we have something warm to wake up to (a great idea from another Aussie friend). We are the only travelers in this little village. Time to enjoy some alone time before we get back to crazy.