The stay at Lama Hotel , at jungle view, was great, very simple , room, with a couple timber beds and a thin foam mattress, with a doona. Shared toilet, but it had a hot shower! Gas unit and man it was good after the day yesterday.
I also shared some time with who would become friends that we would bounce up and back down the trail with, David and Lucia , and their guide Karma and porter Dami . David and Lucia were from Germany and karma a local guide with Odyessy Treks, after spending 4 days meeting, passing, sharing meals with, swapping laughs, would highly recommend Karma and his company if your ever travelling to Nepal
Starting at 2476m above and knowing that langtang is 3400m above, was a little daunting, seeing how the body would handle the altitude jump of 1000m. Many succumb to altitude sickness at above 3000m especially those like me that live at sea level. The air is thinner, with less oxygen. The body reacts with lethargy, headaches, shortness of breath and in extreme cases lung squeeze. How would I go? I knew my lungs are healthy, and have large volume, but I’m also not the smallest kid on the block, and with my size and weight, have quite a few cells to feed.
Waking up ready to go and having a 7am porridge with muesli became first nature for all further days. I hit the trail 10mins or so after Karma and his crew. The Israelis had stayed at lama in a different tea house, and also headded off a little earlier. As I didn’t want to impede on David’s and Lucia’s trek. And I was here to enjoy a solo experience in this remote and beautiful part of the world, pushing myself to see that I could handle it.
1000m elevation today, over 14kms sooo a little less stressful than yesterdays endless stairs…. Well, the first 2 hours were just that! Stairs! Add in doing these ones up to around 3000m after yesterday… slow going that’s for sure. Passing through the jungle at this stage but knowing that today I would break through the tree line, and onto flatter ground as I got closer to langtang.
The walk for the first day was mainly through dense jungle, and that continued today, but it was a little more alice in wonderland, with stunning trees, cute bridges, and different, more sparse vegetation. Heading up through riverside, which I’d later learn from a local is where they mill most of the timber for the region. It’s expensive as it’s a National park, and they have fees for utilising the timber in the area. Stunning mossey trees and rock steps.

A little further on and the valley really opens up, and I start to begin to break through the tree line. This is when it struck me that I was in a some place! Remote, beautiful, vast, mammoth. The tiredness from the last couple hours of stairs and the altitude disappear, as the scenery takes over
With the trees disappearing you could really feel the walls of the valley above you, steep, and tall, waterfall after waterfall pour out of these walls when it’s on your side of the river that I’m still following, you know that your up for a water crossing, will it be stepping stones, a rickerty timber bridge or just a few logs thrown accross. Always kept me guessing.
Quick stop at Goda Tabela for a hot tea, me, the Israelis and Karma, David and Lucia were all there, around the same time again…. Feeling a pattern? That pattern was about to break. Literally 1min after leaving I was walking with the Israeli couple and it started raining, I stopped, grabbed my waterproof jacket. Threw it on, kept walking, the rain got harder, so all 3 of us ducked into a small tea house. We took a little time to assess the situation, the weather, and the prevailing distances tea house to tea house, as we could hop between them. After some map assessment, I decided to keep pressing on, it’s rain, I had good wet weather gear, bring it on. I left the couple to carry on with their decision making.

I knew at this stage we were approx 2 hours from Langtang where I was staying, and I’d be able to get dry and warm there. So I kept rolling on. It continued to rain for the next 1hour 45mins getting wet, but spirits not burns damped.
Langtang has a bit of history that’s been documented in a Netflix doco called “Aftershock, 2015 Nepalese Earthquake” actually so was Everest base camp, my next destination, and Kathmandu, literally the 3 places ill be while in Nepal. After seeing the doco earlier this year, it definitely had impact on me wanting to come here, unbeknownst to me I’d be chatting to for 6 months prior to the trip to the “man in the yellow jacket” the local Nepali in the langtang section of the doco. I’d even been and bought him shoes as he’s also a guide and struggles to get real shoes here. Least I could do as he gave me a lot of confidence to do the trek solo, as he had reccomend stays all up the valley for me. I didn’t know that it was the man in the yellow jacket I’d meet the next day. He was just Sanbo to me, he helped me, I helped him. Simple.
The earthquake in 2015 had caused a landslide in Langtang, wiping the entire village out, taking with it the lives of 175 locals and it’s not known how many other visitors. The landslide literally buried the people and the buildings of the town, with only one building left standing under a cliff face. It’s a very somber moment to round a corner and see first hand the amount of rubble and earth that had broken off of the cliffs and valley above during the earthquake and took out langtang.

Though you could see on the other side of the landslide, a new, bright Langtang. The locals had to rebuild from scratch, and it’s been 8 years, and there’s still construction happening here. Sanbo had built a new guesthouse, here, and he also had one further up the valley in Kyangen
Just before crossing the landslide the rain stopped, I was at this stage walking with Karma and his clients and we rolled into Langtang, and I stayed at the same guest house with them in Langtang.
14km done, I was now at 3500m elevation, and my body was feeling it, not too bad, but fatigued, and slow, with a slight dull headache just at the base of the neck. Food then bed by 8pm. I hadn’t seen the Israeli couple arrive into Langtang, so wasn’t sure if they did come up, stay put, or turn back? I got a ping before bed, they had stayed out, didn’t move from where I had left them. They had just gotten wifi for WhatsApp. we shared numbers where I left them so I could report on actual times, and weather up ahead, which I did, “first guest house 15mins” but they didn’t get service till that night.