Day 6: Premature Return

Rarely has my body felt so sore in the morning when I woke up on the second day of the trip. My fever had gotten worse overnight, and sleeping on such a hard surface had done my back in. I woke to hear the clamoring of pots and pans and the buzzing chatter of the porters that told me breakfast was being prepared. When hunger got the better of me, I clambered out of the tent and joined the makeshift breakfast table, for a meal of yet more Haleem, daal and ptok. The group was going up one of the neighboring hills to interview the shepherds that grazed their goats up there, but the climb was steep and tasting and my body did not feel up to it. Haris, Mr Salman and I stayed back at the camp while the others left. It turned out to be a good decision, as our team came back half dead after not even making it up halfway. My fevered body needed some rest after a turbulent night, so I slept a good two hours, waking up when the others returned. We had a quick lunch of, you guessed it, more Haleem and ptok. We were planning on changing camps and moving down to camp at the shores of Baltit Lake. However, things took a turn for the worse when the weather did, and pretty soon we were huddling in the hut with rain pouring around us. After having a long and thorough meeting over our next move, we decided we had to head back as these conditions would make camping near impossible. We waited for the rain to subside, and made our way back down to Hunza. The way back was surprisingly easier for Haris and I, despite Zeeo telling us that going downhill was harder. While it wasn’t easy on the knees, we actually managed to keep up with the superhumanly fit porters, who had far eclipsed us on the way there.  After a good one and a half hours, we reached our starting point, after which Zeeo’s brother picked us up on his tractor. He dropped us at Fayeem’s house in Gulmit, where we met his father and his sister in law. The atmosphere was as warm and friendly as at Zeeo’s house, and our tired bodies were refreshed after some warm tea. The driver picked us up from there. We reached the Nest about an hour later. The group was pretty sad that we had had to cut the trek short, but at the same time I knew that the trek was an experience I would never forget, and one I would definitely try again.