Down, down, down... and more down...
True to Mahesh's words, we were going down and down and down.
But mind you, it wasn't an easy down.
600m of descend in a short few hours meant only one thing ~ that your knees were almost guaranteed to be banged hard as the impacts from repeated blunt contact with hard rock surfaces would transmit the force of connection all through your leg bones right onto the cartilage of your knees.
And viola! Knee pain and ligament strains were a constant companion.
Those of us who were familiar with the uppings and downings of trekking in Nepal would know the pit falls.
I myself have learned, by observation, that the Nepali porters always kept their knees
slightly bent whenever they descended and they would do a
forefoot landing rather than a heel landing. All these translated to shock being dissipated properly instead of being focussed right onto the knee cartilages and ligaments.
Granted, in order to do this, you had to have strong thigh muscles and calf muscles.
But that's how one should trek to avoid too much knee and ankle injuries.
... I kept a close watch over the younger two girls while I descended with them.
Main purpose? AhSing was the one with the weakest knees amongst all the children and I just got to make sure she was ok.
I wasn't too worried about the climb. But when a day's trek was almost entirely descending, one often became complacent and coupled that with tiredness, and a trekker could easily slacken and loose the proper form of trekking.
And that was when injuries most often occurred.
The other issue was that of hydration. No doubt it was cold throughout the whole few days of trekking.
The cold and the low humidity (we had absolutely no precipitation and the days while we trekked were almost cloudless days) predisposes one to dehydration.
It was easy to just walk and forgot about drinking because one was not hot, as compared with walking or exercising in the Tropics.
I literally had to keep reminding the children and SereneXMM and myself to drink.
Water had also became a premium up here in the mountains.
What cost 25 rupees (Singapore 35 cents) a 1 litre of bottled water had escalated to 150 rupees (Singapore $2.11) per bottle.
If one was daring enough to ask for refill of 'Drinking safe water' from the lodge, it would cost 50 rupees (Singapore 70 cents) a bottle.
Cokes and beers were also at a premium at such high altitudes.
Thus, the best deal? Just drink plain bottled water. And if the guest lodge didn't sell bottled water, ask for 'Driking safe water' to refill your water bottles.
