70 Makalu
A 8-day Trek to Danda-Kharka in the Makalu Base Camp Route in Nepal
Background, Trek Summary, Pictures and Videos of the entire Trek:
WIP - Day wise Diaries
Kipa & Ming Tengi - Kipa the Sherpa lady who runs the Danda Kharka Teahouse, with her 1-year old son Ming Tengi at Danda Kharka below Kongma on MBC route
Background
The window in April-2019 was always there. But which trek to do? Had booked BOM-KTM-BOM flight tickets; even when not sure which trek to do. Options had narrowed down to 3 M-treks .. Mardi-BC, Mera-BC and Makalu-BC but till 3 days before flight to Kathmandu was undecided.
Then suddenly decided on Makalu-BC trek as it seemed to be longest one with 18-19 days of trek that was appropriate for the long window I had. So 2-3 days before I boarded the flight on 5th April, I had decided on Makalu-BC trek knowing well that it was a tough trek. And without getting a flight to Tumlingtar for my dates, it was going to be a long tough bus-jeep rides; a pre-adventure to reach Num Village the starting point of this trek.
Before the flight to KTM, I had made the usual Trek Route survey on Google Earth and marked the typical night-halt teahouse places on this route and made a FB-post with GE-image of the last 5-6 stops to Makalu-BC. Surprising those last 5-6 places I never saw having returned from Danda-Kharka a place below Kongma-La. The places visited in the first 4-days of trek are in the second picture across >>.
Google Earth Image of planned 16-day Trek Route (click to enlarge)
Trek Summary:
In short, did not reach Makalu-BC and the Trek turned out to be just of 8 days 4 days Out from Num and 4 days back. Got some kind of injury or muscle pull on the back of my left thigh (Hamstring?) and a worsening rainy weather every day in the afternoon. So went upto Danda-Kharka (some 200M below Kongma ) and returned from there.
The long bus ride(s) from KTM to Num turned out to be kind of real pre-adventure!
Day-wise Trek Diaries: (pending)
The actual Trek Itinerary is in the footer at the bottom of this page.
And Day-wise Trek Diary in Sub Pages in the Left Menu margin
Google Earth Image of Actual 8-DayTrek Route (click to enlarge)
Trek Pictures:
The Trek pictures in Daily Trek albums here:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/ks_bluechip/collections/72157677965522537/
Day-wise Itinerary (Actual):
Day-1 : Friday 5th April - Flight Mumbai - Kathmandu (landed 9PM) by Nepal Airlines
Day-2 : Saturday 6th April - Stay Dolphin Lodge; Trek arrangements; and 4:00PM bus departure from near Swayambhu Bus stand
Day-3 : Sunday 7th April - 8AM Ithari & Local Bus to Dharan. 10AM Bus to Khandbari reached at 6-15PM Met Dawa Sherpa & Jeep to Bhotebas
Day-4 : Monday 8th April - at Dawa's Home in Bhotebas - Local ridge trek for view - Booked Jeep Bhotebas (noon) to Num (4-15PM)
Day-5 : Tuesday 9th April - After night at Sherpa GH, 7:00 AM started trek from Num to Seduwa (reached 4PM)
Day-6 : Wednesday 10th April - Trek Seduwa (8-30AM) to Chansaydanda (11-15AM) stay at Chaksaydanda Teahouse
Day-7 : Thursday 11th April - Trek Chyaksa-danda (7AM) to Tashigaon (10-15AM)
Day-8 : Friday 12th April - Trek Tashigaon (7AM) to Danda-Kharka (11-30AM) stay
Day-9 : Saturday 13th April - Return Trek Danada Kharka (7AM) to Tashigaon (10AM)
Day-10 : Sunday 14th April - Trek from Tashigaon (7AM) to Seduwa (1PM)
Day-11 : Monday 15th April - Seduwa (7AM) to LumLuma (10AM)
Day-12 : Tuesday 16th April - LumLuma (6:20AM) to Num (11AM)
Day-13 : Wednesday 17th April - Bus Num (5AM) - Khandbari (10AM) and then Share Jeep (10AM) to Dharan (4PM) and Bus (5-30PM) to KTM
Day-14 : Thursday 18th April - Arr KTM 6AM by bus from Dharan - Stay Dolphin, Preponed flight Ticket to Mumbai
Day-15 : Friday 19th April - Flight back to Mumbai (2PM dep) by Nepal Airlines