As soon as the bus dumped us at km82, the start of the trek, it started to rain. Not heavy though, and that was the way it was for the whole trek, but enough for us to have to use our rain covers and poncho's in anger for the first time. The trek started out easy, but it wasn't long before Jo and I started to fall behind. We had decided to not use an extra ported on the trek. This was through ignorance on our part more than anything else, and if any of you do the trek hire an extra porter, i will even give you the money for one, that's how important it is. So we were satrting to fall a bit behind, on the uphill sections at least. Our first day started so early so that we could get a jump on the other groups doing the trail at the same time as us. We were to do 16km the first day with an overall climb of just over 1000m verticle. That was designed to put us just 400m below the highest point of our trek, dead womans pass, named I'm sure because this is where you will have had enough of everything and just need to vent and if you are travelling with .... lets say a..... woman for instance...... ok no math needed I'm sure.
Looking back down the valley, you can just make out our porters in red. They caught us in about ten minutes from there. I´m sure they took it easy.
We weren't too far behind the others, only about 15- 20mins by the end of the day. Half way through the day we really started to climb, and were joined by Steve, a fellow Australian, guess what, he didn't hire an extra porter either, the rest of the group did. So as we limped into camp near on dark with quivering leg muscles, to the smell of popcorn, we were buoyed by the cheering and clapping of our group, porters included. Jo picked the trekking company because they apparently treat their staff better than other companies. You don't really know until you are out there, but our porters travelled as a group, all had the same colour clothing on and really looked professional. All porters no matter what tour group they work for do an incredable job and deserve a lot more than they get. You see they a limited to 25kg each, who knows what they used to carry. I had about ten with me and it was killing me. They break camp, race pass you on the trail, we also cheer them on as they go past, set up for LUNCH at the next place and then do it all again for end of day camp, while we struggle along as best we can.
A bit further up the hill, I just needed a rest. It must have been still early in the climb, because we are both smiling.
At lunch, 7 or 8 courses at least, I ate way too much and struggled a bit straight after lunch, but at dinner I just didn't feel that hungry, but there was plenty of food for everyone. It was St Pats day, and the Irish had dragged a bottle of Irish Cream up the hill with them, which they shared out, so we played some card games and hit the hay. I say hill, but just keep in mind that our own highest peak is Kosciuszko at 2228m, aparently you don't start to feel altitude sickness until at least 2500m, we were at 3800m and still going up. But I think we faired rather well and all the training that Jo and I did, didn't go to waste at all.
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