And I Thought This Would Be Fun!

by Naomi Hanson (United States of America)

A leap into the unknown Nepal

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Nepal? Everest Base Camp Trek? Every ounce of the trekker in me said yes to this opportunity! Every summer I take two to four weeks for solo Mama adventures and after living in Whitefish, MT for over two years and hiking all over Glacier National Park I felt this the next logical step in my world adventures. Fast forward to countless research and youtube video diaries later of other peoples experiences on the trek and here I was sitting on my flight to India where I would spent my first 9 days before heading over to Nepal and the excitement I felt was palpable. I told anyone who would listen I was headed off to EBC. I was like a kid who couldn't wait for Christmas morning. My journey in India was humbling and everything u has hoped for so here I was now boarding a flight to Kathmandu and ready to tackle that mountain. No sooner than landed later than my s scheduled arrival time did the first unknown rear its head hahaha. Food isn't included in this 12 day journey you say. Wow. Ok, Naomi, dont panic. You've carried your own food before and can plan this out in a few hours surely. Nope. No. Ain't gonna happen says the Universe. Trekking on it's own to base camp is one of the hardest things I have ever done. Add in without proper food planning or financial planning to fill in the gap of meals not covered by my guide company and it immediately gets 100% harder. Oh and did I mention you feel so isolated almost as if you were an astronaut on the moon? Thank goodness for my war buddy Brooke who I happened to be paired up with for what we would rename the death march. The Nepalese people are as a whole beautiful in one word and the scenery was like no other. To walk at the rooftop of the world is amazing and an experience I will remember for the rest of my life. Doing it half starved, sleep deprived, frozen and totally unprepared in every way I never even thought of only adds to my memories. Taking that last step back into Lukla and realizing the plans were not going to land as scheduled made for another unknown and then finally making it back to Kathmandu 15 lbs lighter and wondering why no matter what I ate I was still hungry would later be answered by the fact that I had to my surprise caught a parasite in the water and what more could I do I told my friends but laugh and add it to the list of things I never thought would happen. As far as plans when you visit this country, well those do not exist and you better make peace with the fact that your at the mercy of the trail and what it has in store for you. For me. Nepal was a reminder that no matter how experienced or seasoned of a world traveler or hiker you are, the Universe can always insert you into the Unknown and no matter how traumatic in may feel in that moment it will in fact turn out to be one of your favorite travel memories of all time.