Nepal day 14-19: Suffering from altitude sickness
Day 14
I woke up feeling really tired and I struggled to get up when my alarm clock rang at 6:30am. I didn’t get out of bed until 7:30am and then I had breakfast and I left for Shree Kharka at 9am.
There are two paths from Manang. One goes towards thorung la pass and the other goes towards Tilicho lake. I plan to visit the lake first and head to the pass at a later date.
The weather wasn’t great today I woke up to cloudy skies with spots of rain in the air. After an hour and a half I reached the next village called Khangsar just before 11am where I stopped for lunch. Lunch would take a while but at least I had WiFi.
The trail to Shree Kharka was easy going and within three hours I arrived at my lodge around 3pm. They only had dormitory rooms available but I didn’t mind too much, I’m sharing with an Italian, American, Indian and a Lithuanian. Pretty cool mix! Although I’ve noticed that most people are late twenties or in their thirties, I suppose because trekking isn’t usually high on the list for youngsters to do. I’m now at 4050m so pretty high as I get closer to the pass.
Unfortunately there was no internet at all which kind of forced you to chat to people which was nice in a way. Many people were actually coming back from Tilicho lake however for them it was foggy and cloudy. Hopefully for me it will be clear! It’s very cold here now, the fire was lit in the common room thankfully but there’s no heater in the rooms. I was shivering as I got into bed and it was just 8pm!
Things took a turn for the worse soon after with headache, heavy breathing and nausea. Signs of altitude sickness. I woke up my dorm friends and they gave me a pill to take called diamox which helps you to acclimatize. Thankfully by midnight the pill worked and I got some decent sleep.
Day 15
I woke up at 6am with a headache and after asking a couple of people I decided it was best to return back to Manang at a lower altitude and visit a doctor. After a tricky 2 and half hour descent where the sun was in my face, I thankfully reached Manang with decent health.
The doctor recommended I carry on taking Diamox and rest for the next couple of days. If I feel good then I can continue, otherwise it means the end of my trek! Let’s see how the next 48 hours go…
Day 17
I woke up feeling good so I decided to try and start trekking again. This time instead of heading to Shree Kharka (4050m) I am staying in Khangsar (3700m) for the night.
If everything goes well then tomorrow I will try and head to Tilicho base camp, which is the base camp to see the beautiful Tilicho lake. If not then I’ll probably reluctantly head back down having not completed the circuit/going over Thorung La pass (5416m).
I had the usual lunch and relaxed in my room. In the evening I went back to the dining room and to my surprise I met Shing and Peter whom I met way back in Kathmandu. They were trekking with 3 other Austrians and like me they had decided to go to Tilicho Base Camp tomorrow.
Day 18
I woke up nice and early at 6:30am and had toast for breakfast. I left soon after and began the climb upto the next village called Shree Kharka where I fell ill last time. I took a different less steep path than last time and I successfully navigated the trail with relative ease. There’s a beautiful Gompa along the way and from the Gompa the way is very steep. But it’s also quite short and I reached Shree Kharka in good time.
I took a break with my Austrian friends where I snacked on dried grapes and a kit kat. After about twenty minutes I carried on by myself and it’s a steep uphill to the next lodge. From here the path forks into two trails and nearly everyone including the locals take the lower trail.
After a short while you reach the dangerous landslide area where rocks could fall at any time. It’s scary because the trail is like loose gravel so you can slip very easily which I did a few times. At the same time you have to look up to make sure no rocks are falling. Probably one of the scariest things I’ve done.
After this area it’s a short walk to Tilicho base camp where I reached at half 12! I had lunch and then relaxed the rest of the day. I spoke with a few people to find out when they would leave tomorrow to go to the lake and some said as early as 4am whereas others said 6am. I think I will try and start at 5:30am when it’s light enough to see without using a flashlight or your phone.
There’s very limited WiFi here and barely works, also no mobile signal. There’s also a price to charge your mobile phone! To be fair at least there’s a restaurant and rooms, I’m not camping in the wild. I had fried rice for dinner and went back to my room to get into bed at 6pm.
Day 19
I woke up at 5am and had an omelette for breakfast. I started trekking at 5:30am and to get a picture there was about 20 people in front of me and 30ish people behind me all trekking to Tilicho lake.
It started off kinda steep and kept going uphill gradually. After an hour I started getting an headache and I was pretty scared because I didn’t want to get altitude sickness again. I kept going for a little while and my headache didn’t improve, I was at 4400m altitude ish.
I now had a decision to make. Either to go back down to base camp where I would feel better again. Or continue going up to see Tilicho lake risking getting altitude sickness. I started feeling a bit nauseaous and decided to head back down. Definitely one of the hardest decisions I’ve had to make!
I decided to head to Shree Kharka which is at a lower altitude at 4050m. I passed the landslide area again and after a couple of hours I reached Shree Kharka at 10am. Here I had lunch and I was feeling much better, I could go down to a lower altitude or rest here.
Instead I decided to head to Yak Kharka which is also at 4050m but 4 hours away trekking. I reached Yak Kharka just after 3pm. I had Dal Bhaat for dinner and slept around 7pm.
