day #41, trekking day #11, saturday, april 25th
Or the day the earthquake came.
After our epic moment on the Top of the World, we spent one night in Gorak Shep, waiting to start to go down. The following morning, my valiant companions woke up at 3 in the morning, to ascend the Kala Patthar Pass and reach the top at sunrise to see Mount Everest and the other 8000’s, but since I already didn’t feel so good, I decided to renounce the expedition and stayed in my comfy bed. Despite the high altitude, I slept very well, maybe because all the tension of the top was over.
We retraced our steps through Lobuche, Periche, Tangboche, Pamboche, till reaching Namche, in two days. The lower we got, the easier it was and the better I felt. Oxygen was more and more, walking was easier and the temperature was more and more tolerable.
Saturday morning, around 8:30 am we left Namche to reach Lukla in 6 to 7 hours. The sky was covered by clouds and fog, but we didn’t mind, we were still happy for what we had done in the previous 11 days, rain was just a little detail that morning. Walking down, I listened to a lot of music, I can remember the exact songs. A lot of Italian music - unusual for me - and that made me think of someone, who’s on the other side of the planet…
When you walk, it’s only you and your legs. You have a lot of time to think. You think of your life, your past, your future. The people you met on your way, the people you would like to meet. The things you have done, the things you still want to do. All your projects become suddenly clear, your mind is so pure. When you walk for so long, you immerse yourself in another world you never really have the time to visit. It’s only you, your legs, and your thoughts.
At noon, we reached Phadking, the village where we first stopped the first day. Our guide was not with us. During the week he showed some alcohol problems, we thought he must have been to a bar or something, and we didn’t really mind, he was not that useful anyway. It was only the three of us, with Chandra, our porter. We wanted to eat in a different restaurant than the one we went during the outward way, but Chandra didn’t want to, and brought us at the exact same table where we laughed, full of energy and enthusiasm, 10 days before. I was not happy, I didn’t like that place. I ordered a yak steak, I had it last time, and I must say it was delicious. We were drinking some black tea, when something happened.
At first, I stupidly thought a very big caravan of yaks was running down the street, making a lot of noise and making that fucking shed shake. It was lasting for to long, and it was becoming stronger and stronger…
Someone screamed. We stand up, we ran out. All the village outdoor, the ground was shaking, A LOT. A loud noise coming from the mountain, just above us. It was foggy, I couldn’t see it. A man took my arm. I turned. I saw the mountain on the other side falling. The ground was still shaking, strongly. I turned again, I couldn’t see it. I watched the house next to ours, in stones. The noise resounded louder. No way to reach the street, to high. I watched the small vegetable garden, the tomatoes had felt. It was still shaking, violently. I looked at my friends, what the hell….
In that moment the time collapsed, I didn't know where I was anymore. When it stopped, my legs were still shaking. I don’t exactly remember it, but we went inside, we had our meal rapidly, it came again, we run out again, the noise again, the fog, the stone house next to us, the landslides, the people screaming in the street, looking up, hoping and praying…
Nobody knew what was really happening. The phone was off, I tried to call Kathmandu. Was it an earthquake? Everyone was scared and shaken, only Chandra, our porter, was calm, and smiling asked us “Dessert, sir?”. Around us, most of the houses were still up, apparently. The restaurant we wanted to go to, collapsed. We gathered in the center of the village, on a small piazza just between the river and the mountain. It was the safest area we could find. All the village and the few tourists were reunited there, trying to reach the phone network. Our guide arrived, drunk, I fired him.
We started waiting, and it was just the beginning of a long, unknown wait in the fog, under the rain, uncertain of our life. We didn’t really know what we were waiting for. Some news, a sign? Someone confirmed it was an earthquake, epicenter Kathmandu, all the city destroyed, everyone dead. Then someone said we were on the epicenter, Kathmandu only slightly damaged. Then someone else said even the Swayambou Temple, Kathmandu, had collapsed, that Thamel was in a bunch of ruins.
We were only 2 hours from Lukla, where we could probably have got more informations, but we decided not to move, to stay there with the other foreigners, we didn’t know how was the way nor the situation in Lukla, and the weather was getting worse. We had some other aftershocks, lighter, but the fear was strong and at every movement we ran out under the rain. Nothing, was safe there. We had some network and we decided to call our rescue service, the Swiss Rega, to at least have some information on what to do. They answered, of course nobody was speaking Italian, nor French. We explained the situation and they said since we were not injured, they couldn’t help us, but they would have called back, they said… We didn’t have so much battery, we simply sent a message home - not delivered - and we decided to keep energy for other emergencies.
At sunset, someone came and said they were preparing a place for us. We were a dozen of foreigners from Switzerland, Australia, New Zealand, England, South Africa, Brazil and Germany. We found our home for the night on the wet floor, under a tent kindly built by the locals. They served us some hot food, lit up a fire, and we spent the night speaking and wondering what to do: nobody had a clear idea… Some aftershocks came again, and with them new landslides. People screamed during the night. I told myself nothing could happen there, we were in a safe place, but every small movement woke me up, and I waited all night long the sun to rise… It was probably the longest night of my life.
