Altitude illness and sunburn

The number of symptoms I experienced of altitude illness and the intensity of each one of them increased with altitude and time. But I never once thought of turning back or resting for more than 2-3 minutes. The motivation and strength to carry on came from someplace inside me, coordinates unknown. K began to feel the heat of the sun and took off his khadi kurta. He almost held my hand all the way and was a source of great moral support, in his own silent way, during the entire walk. We did not talk, except for: ‘Break. Let’s go. Water. Look.’ and the silence was the best part. My thoughts went back to our wedding pheras. This entire walk-cum-ride, I felt then, was one more phera. I would not have reached Bhojbhasa upright without him.

At Bhojbhasa, we got down from the mules and stopped at the first dhabaa. D was already there. I couldn’t keep my head or anything else up for a moment more, but there were too many people for me to lie down. So I asked K if he could find a place, hidden from public sight, where I could just rest my head on his lap, even if only for a moment. He came back soon after and led me behind the dhabaas – he had also managed to find a throwaway mattress, and two pillows and laid them out for me! Out of the sight of the rest of the world, I crashed. To my utter surprise, K crashed too.

We rested there a few minutes, coming more close together by holding hands, than a newly-wed couple would on a prized honeymoon. When we finally decided to walk back, we found that D had arranged for a tent and had also got our luggage transported into it, helpful soul that he is. We asked no more than a weak ‘where?’. Heading straight for it, both K and I crashed into the beds inside. It was around 4 p.m. K was the only one who had any experience in pitching tents and was expected to do it for all of us - it was when he crashed that i knew value of hiring a tent with cots. K was in no shape to even sit on the cot, let alone pitch tents.