The Best of Wanderlust (A GeoEx eBook)

The Best of Wanderlust

THE ABOMINABLE TREKKER Jef f Greenwald

T he Arun Valley, slicing through Eastern Nepal, is the world’s deepest river gorge. Back in the 1980s, not many travelers bothered with that remote and undeveloped place. Trekking in Nepal was all about Everest, Annapurna, and the Langtang Himal: places where the mountains had celebrity status, and a hungry hiker could find a good buckwheat pancake. In the spring of 1984, I was living in Kathmandu on a Rotary fellowship. Having learned a bit of Nepali, and eager to test my mettle, I flew east from Kathmandu to Tumlingtar. Our twin- engine plane shimmied to a stop on the grassy runway. From there I set off north, on foot, intent on tracing the Arun along the length of its gorge—all the way to the Tibetan border. This was in April, and it had been a wet winter. Conditions could change in an instant; my backpack was heavy with gear. After a few hours alone on the muddy, slippery trail, I realized I needed help. Stopping in a wayside town, I was able to hire a porter: a friendly teenager named Norbu. Norbu—meaning “wish- fulfilling gem” in Tibetan—was a Sherpa Spider-Man: fleet of foot and incredibly fit. He shouldered my huge pack with ease,

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