Today was another reasonably short
day. We walked form Chame up through the evergreen forests and along rivers to
Pisang. It took us about four and a half hours in all and was actually a pretty
good walk. Walking time is beginning to fly by faster and faster each day, also
given that we haven’t been walking the 6 hours a day we did the first few days.
Some parts of the day were harder; one part was scaling the side of a pretty
big incline of the mountain, weaving back and forth to give you a little better
footing. When we started out this morning there was a bit of a chill in the air
but it helped keep the sweat off a bit. I was thankful for the neck warmer/hat
and light fleece gloves I bought in Upper Chame because they kept me warm when
my jacket felt like too much.
There were the most people on the
trail this morning that I have seen since starting this trek. I figure that’s
because a lot of them got a jeep for the first part so they were off the trail.
I met a very nice lady from Greenland that walked with me for a little while,
but we lost when picked up our pace (we are very fast walkers!). I also met/saw
my first American trekkers since being here, which was weird but not quite as
exciting as I anticipated. You kind of get to the point here where you think of
all white English-speakers as friends. We passed an apple farm while walking
too and had some delicious small apples that were super sweet. Chandra bought a
bunch and stuffed the snack compartment of my bag with them, saying when we
arrived at our guesthouse for the night that they were for me to eat :]
I also met a very enthusiastic
Japanese man on the trail today. He offered me a kit-kat at one of the rest
stops, then we helped him find his way a few times after, each time Chandra
would spot him going the wrong way, laugh to me, then whistle to him. He was
quite inappropriately dressed, wearing shorts and just running shoes, and we
saw him slip a few times, something Chandra had a good laugh at. We also met a
Russian man resting where we stopped too just outside of Pisang, wearing a
brown hemp sunhat, cutting his nails with a machete haha. He talked to us about
the pass in mixed Russian-English, then proceeded to apologize for his English,
gave us each two hard candies, then continued on his way, giving us a friendly
wave.
At some point in the end part of
the walk today I started feeling the elevation change in my head. First my neck
started to hurt, and then I started to feel dizzy. It wasn’t unbearable and you
learn to ignore discomfort on the trail. Once arriving at our guesthouse in
Pisang we met the man from Toronto I met yesterday, and had run into two times
since. That’s the thing about this trek, you say goodbye to people but you will
probably run into them again and again over the trek. We have been here in
Pisang all day now and it is a beautiful place. I got to walk around a little
and my headache has subsided. This small village is in a cradle of a few
magnificent mountains that you can see if you walk to different points. I made
friends with a cow and got an adorable shot of him and some sweet selfies haha
:P It started snowing a bit ago and I haven’t been able to get Christmas music
out of my head since. I thought a lot about Christmas today and how excited I
am for it :] I love picking out a tree and baking cookies with Erika <3 I
actually was able to recall the feeling of Christmas at the Hanover Inn and it
made me so happy.
Thoughts of the day…
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I am going to start writing letters to all of
the people I should be writing to. Maybe I’ll even include the poems I wrote
for them too :]
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I thought a lot about my grandpa Fred today.
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It makes me feel good to know I am a fast
walker, haha
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I still have so much of this trek left.
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I have been watching a lot of TV on my iPod, I’m
going to have to re-watch things after this haha :P
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They have laminate flooring here that is carpet
printed, hilarious :P
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