Blood and Tears

In the morning for breakfast there were 2 liters of Masala Tea. It was really really delicious. Our hike today should take about 4 hours. So we plan to start at 10:00 am and be at the destination by 2:00 pm. Unfortunately, this time estimate proved to be unrealistic for us. After we have covered the first 2000 steps after breakfast we were on a level ground and could walk straight ahead. But after about 15 minutes, the beautiful path came to an end. Due to heavy rains, we had to cross some rivers on our way.

But that's not all. The normal path was blocked by a landslide. A tiny signpost showed us how to walk now. The path was very narrow and hardly recognizable as a path. After checking the route three times with my phone, I still wasn't sure if we were on the right path. But there was no other path in sight, so we kept going. After walking for about fifteen minutes over stones and under trees, we encountered stairs again. At first, we thought, what a nuisance, but then we were glad because that meant we were on the right track.

After another 15 minutes, we encountered some hikers coming towards us, so we were now sure that we were on the right path.

The path through the forest was really beautiful. It felt a bit like being in Lord of the Rings.

But now it turned out that the time estimate was completely unrealistic. It was still a long way from our destination at 2:00 pm. Unfortunately, it started to rain now. Due to the rain, a large number of leeches emerged from their holes in the ground. That meant we had to remove leeches from our clothing every few minutes, and that in pouring rain. It's really stressful!

It was also not helpful that the hikers coming towards us all gave different estimates of how long it would still take to reach the destination.

The combination of rain and fear of leeches also did not help with the motivation of the children.

To boost motivation, we stopped at a hut. When we took off our clothes, we discovered that Heike had a leech on her back. When they removed it, the wound started bleeding heavily. As a result, the children became even more panicked when they saw a bloody tooth.

In the hut, we met a couple from Austria who were also traveling around the world. We walked with them to our destination Gorepani.

Since the children were busy with the Austrians now, they forgot about their exhaustion and we could walk to our destination with less stress.

When we arrived there, Heike was in her element: her exhaustion and her only thought was to find a clean accommodation. Eventually, she had to realize that it doesn't exist and then she focused on the second priority: finding a room where everyone had space. Finally, we found a room where everyone could sleep well and where the common room was very cozy.

We met three hikers from Barcelona. We talked to them for almost the whole evening and exchanged experiences about the further way. They came from where we still wanted to go.