Day 11-12 - GETTING HOME
To say the end of the trek didn't turn out the way we'd planned is a huge understatement. Even though it would've been difficult physically, I wish we could've all hiked the full three days back down. Although the going down isn't as life-altering as the going up, it's still an important part of the journey. . . it gives you a chance to process exactly what you've accomplished, to realize you have so much to be proud of. A victory to celebrate.
Not to mention how your body is just overjoyed to have more and more oxygen as you descend. That feeling is unparalleled.
I got to do experience it all for a day, but it wasn't the same without my amazing travel partners.
I never did get sick. Whatever hit the rest of them, I somehow avoided. But I was more than ready to get my daughter out of Nepal and into a situation where I could control more of the elements.
After one more night in Lutka (because my guide and I couldn't get seats on one of the little airplanes) I got to the hotel in Kathmandu. After a very long shower and six hours of packing, we were headed back to the airport, then heading home. Bekah was still sick, nibbling on pretzels and sipping water through multiple flights—it was a longggggg trip. Nepal to Qatar to Germany.
But we made it. It wasn't pretty, but we made it.
For almost a month we couldn't talk about the trip at all. Didn't want to look at pictures or the items we'd bought. A whiff of spaghetti sauce made both of want to vomit. Our psyches were bruised. It was almost like a form of PTSD.
But, time, as it always does, healed our wounds too.
We began to crack jokes about the trip. Look through our photos over and over. Bekah made the video below. It's amazing.
She's amazing.
I'll tell you one thing, at 17 years old I would never have chosen this adventure for my senior trip. And I certainly did not have the grit and focus she showed on the journey—her will to just keep going. It's crazy to think that maybe she's already faced the hardest thing life will ever throw at her and not even be an adult yet. But if not, watching her on that mountain has convinced me that whatever life does send her way, she'll be able to handle it.
Because now the mountain is part of who she is. Who we both are. Forever.
The video: