I just ate my last orange, perhaps my last fresh green lettuce for more than three weeks. And I think I’m ready for three weeks of Dahl Baat (rice w/lentils). We’re off to Nepal tomorrow morning (arriving early Sunday morning), for three weeks of trekking in a rarely-visited region off the Annapurna Circuit, the Naar and Phu valleys (and their corresponding villages and yak pastures).

We’ve spent weeks preparing — finding out about visas, buying new gear (backpacks, warm sleeping bags, water treatment chemicals, boots, etc.), packing and repacking, and “training”. The training consisted of two practice camping trips and several “high altitude” (3,000m — pretty high for Catalunya) hikes in the past few weeks. We also got set for high mountain camping by nearly having our tent (with us wide awake in it) blown away by powerful winds at Vall de Núria. We didn’t fare very well, so hopefully the tent we get in the Himalayas will be a real expedition tent.

So, we’re probably not actually ready, but I think we’re as ready as we’ll ever be, as well as being excited and nervous and wanting to give it a go! Whether it be leeches, altitude headaches (have you ever tried to sleep at more than 5,000m? — we’ll be trying it, if all goes well), dubious flights from dinky and windswept mountain airports — bring it on! Of course, that’s easy to say now, at the outset. We’ll see how excited we feel after twenty-some days camping…

The truth is, for all of our preparing (well, Dulcinea would say for all my preparing, since as usual I’m the one doing most of the fussing and fretting), we don’t really know what to expect. Weather-wise — will monsoon season wrap up soon? In theory, they say it ends at the mid-to-end of September. Let’s hope it finishes early this year. Will our outfitting company be reliable and safe? Let’s hope so. At the very least, whatever happens there will be a few stories and photos to share once we’re back. See you in mid-October!

Namasté!