Page 69 - KRH Regimental Journal 2022

The Regimental Journal of The King’s Royal Hussars 67
of loads had taken place, the Gauntlet Rise team set off towards Tarakot. We walked through downtown Dunai and crossed the river and as we did so the valley widened, and we got our first view of snow-capped mountains. Looking down the juniper for- est flanked valley the scale of what we were embarking on sud- denly dawned on me. I was here in the Himalayas, leading an expedition. Three years of planning and training had led to this moment. There was nothing else left to do but now live each day as it came and concentrate on the task at hand.
The task that day was a stomach bug which had gripped three members of the team. With afternoon temperatures of 30 degrees Celsius all were glad as we came into the small trading hamlet of Tarrakot, despite the campsite being on a 5-degree slope!
Musi Kola was 12km further up the Thuli Bheri valley. It became very apparent that the local population were not accustomed to seeing trekkers. Lots stopped to speak to us through the trans- lation of one of our Sherpas Tsering. Tsering is one of very few female Sherpas, she is currently going through her guiding quali- fications and is well on her way to leading trips for herself.
The next day we headed to Kakkot. Where we would base our- selves for a number of acclimatisation and rest days before mak- ing our move to base camp over a high pass (4,100m).
On arrival in Kakkot it turned out that we would be sleeping in the playground of the local school as the children were on school holidays. The team were in for a treat as the team cook had been able to buy eggs in one of the shops in town... Pancakes. LCpl Oliver impressed all on the team with his eating ability consum- ing 9 pancakes in addition to his lunch!
Overnight our Chief Instructor Glenn took a turn for the worse, what we had suspected to have been a case of food poisoning started to develop into something more sinister. The Expedition
Leader Capt Turner utilised the team’s Satellite Phone to call back to the expeditions 24hr Medical Cover.
The news wasn’t looking good. The Doctor had made the assess- ment that it was likely to be a Urinary Tract Infection caused by dirty water, and the antibiotic treatment was essential if Glenn were to remain with the expedition.
Capt Turner set about the local area looking for anyone who was a doctor or a pharmacist, just as he was beginning to lose hope, once again (and not for the last time) our Sidar came to the rescue providing a full course of the antibiotics required.
Despite the medical issues ongoing there was still the need to accli- matise and train. The next day the team headed up to reconnoitre the route that we would take in the following days to reach Base Camp. Once at 4000m a new heigh point for almost 50% of the team we sat down to eat lunch before returning to the school playground.
The third day in Kakkot, active rest was the order of the day. The instructors rigged up fixed lines, with direction changes and even a short abseil to finish. We practiced tying into our harness with our expedition mitts on, erected and collapsed our mountain tents and just before lunch made cups of tea using the stoves we would have at the high camps.
In the afternoon Sgt Sudlow demonstrated just how many times one can pack and unpack a bag, carrying out a huge number of kit checks until his bag was exactly as he wanted it.
The next morning we realised that if we thought donkey men bar- tering was wild, haggling for yaks was on a whole other level. After nearly 3 hours the Yaks were loaded and the team left the last peo- ple outside of the team that they would see for nearly two weeks.
The team knew that from now on the trip was only getting more serious. While remaining jovial and jokey there was certainly an
Camp set up on during the trek into Base Camp
Day One descending from the airport at Juphal to Dunai in the distance