I went for EBC trek in September 2019. I started to trek from Paphlu to reach Lukla. It was Day 2 of trekking and I had another 8 hours of trekking today to reach Lukla.
Today was a much better day while trekking, I got to cross beautiful valleys, dense jungle, grasslands etc. I met a friend, a dog to trek with me and I named him as Bruno.
Scenic landscape all around me and Bruno was a good company in the unknown land. The day was bit bright; there was decent sunlight yet white clouds flying around the sun covering the sun many times. I was crossing grassland at that time and the view was spectacular with patches of light and shadows on the ground. Me and Bruno kept on walking along with the guide through the mountains.
The beautiful paths through sacred rocks
And this is the thing about mountains that the weather keeps on changing swiftly. In hours of walk there was light to moderate rain. We kept on walking in the rain and Bruno was enjoying it way too much.
Tiny messengers of nature
Sunset was approaching and visibility was getting diminished by every minute. My guide mentioned that we are very close to the home stay, where we had to stay for that night, and we continued to walk. Me and Bruno were walking on a narrow path having mountain on my right and straight fall on my left. We both were dependent on the torch to locate our path. And since it was getting dark, it was getting difficult for me to walk in rain and my raincoat was making so much noise by friction that I was not able to hear what my guide was saying. So I had to time and again remove my head cap to listen to him.
After walking for a while, I could now see lights of houses and I was happy that I am going to reach Lukla. And another minute my torch died may be because of rain (I don’t know). We only had one torch with us. Somehow we walked slowly and covered the rest of the distance and reached the home stay.
I took off the raincoat and other gears and got my room. My clothes were slightly damp with rain and it was getting cold. So I thought to dry myself up. The moment I sat on my bed I felt something sting me on my hair around forehead. I called someone for help. My guide came running and looked into my damp hair, and he said, ‘hold on, hold on, I will be back, he ran to the adjacent room and got his torch as there was a small solar bulb in my room and it was not giving ample light. He looked in my hair just above forehead and said that there are two leeches in my hair.
He somehow managed to pull one out with his bare hand, and it did sting him. The other one was embedded itself in my damp hair and coiled itself. It was hurting me. It was getting too difficult to take out the leech because of wet hair.
My guide said he is not able to pull out the second one completely, he asked me if he can cut a section of my hair where the leech was entangled. And that’s how I got it removed.
I, in my head was thinking that it was another level of adventure for this night, and now I just want warm water and some rest when my guide said we are in the wrong home stay, our home stay is bit ahead of this place.
And again we took our bags and gear and started to walk with one torch to the home stay we were supposed to be in. But this time Bruno decided to stay back, he called his day off.
We walked for another 30 mins to reach our home stay. And trust me it was hell of a night, a night to remember.