Deer's Gift

To Dhole, Nepal -- 4040m (13,250ft)

Dex here.  Today we said goodbye to Craig and Kevin and wished them well for their third pass.  The day started out and ended up following the Gokyo River Valley.  The first part was beautiful following the river surrounded by breathtaking, snow capped mountains.  After about an hour, we came to a waterfall where two rivers met.  One, from the Gokyo Lake and the other from the glaciers. It took a while before we saw our first trekkers, which is strange, because we usually see many people. We also met two German girls, 18 and 19 years old, who were hiking on their own in their gap year between high school and college.  If I do that, I want to go to South Africa or Italy again.

Cho Oyo from dining hall in Gokyo

Goof balls ready to go

We called it the "basket ball" bird

After about half an hour more of beautiful sights, we made it around one of the frequent bends and saw our lunch town, Machhermo.  We stopped at the Tera Dele Lodge, which had a great sun room and, better yet, great food.  We met a nice older man, Jean-Luc from France, who had done a lot of biking and braved India in the 70's by bike.  (Wow! Now that takes guts and courage!)  We also got an "Apple Flitter." No, really, that was what the menu called it.  It was sliced apples, deep fried with honey and cinnamon on it, and it was stellar!  When we started up again, it was about 1 p.m. and the shadows were just coming in.  We passed by a couple of neat stone huts, and Mom made up a neat story called "Deer's Gift", which I loved.

Jean-Luc from France

Yak dung storage in out house

Deer's Gift
(Kylie's Rendition)

Once upon a time, there was a grumpy old donkey, who lived in a village with his one old friend, Deer, who was very, very sick.  When he died, the last thing he asked for was for Grumpy Donkey to plant a seed and make it grow.  Grumpy Donkey finally agreed, and shortly after, Deer died.

The next spring, Grumpy Donkey was trying to plant his seed, which he knew he needed to do.  Unfortunately, he had broken his shovel the week before and was searching through his shed when Horse trotted by and asked if he needed help.  Grumpy Donkey quickly snapped "No," even though he knew he did.

Later that day, Grumpy Donkey reluctantly walked back to Horse's house and asked to borrow her shovel.  Horse kindly asked why he needed the shovel, so Grumpy Donkey explained about Deer's last request for the seed, and soon they started chatting about their friend Deer, plants, and a whole lot of other things.  

Grumpy Donkey went back home, and he was very pleased with himself.  He had never had such a fine chat before in his life.  The next day, when Grumpy Donkey returned the shovel, he asked Horse for a bucket.  She didn't have one, but thought that Frog probably did.  

Grumpy Donkey walked over to Frog's small house and asked to borrow a bucket.  Frog gave him one, but it was only the size of Donkey's hoof.  He knew he was going to have to make a lot of trips to water the seed ... but for Deer, he would do it.

Soon the rainy season came, and Grumpy Donkey no longer needed to borrow Frog's bucket. After two weeks, a small sprout popped out of the ground.  Grumpy Donkey got worried it wasn't big enough, so he went to fetch Rabbit.  Rabbit told him it looked just fine, and if he was patient, it would continue to grow.

Grumpy Donkey waited and waited and waited until the seed grew into a lovely blueberry bush, which he adored.  From all the blueberries, he was able to make four jars of delicious jam, which he gave to Horse, Frog, and Rabbit, keeping one for himself.  

Before Grumpy Donkey knew it, animals from all over were coming to him for jam.  Grumpy Donkey planted more and more seeds and opened a cafe called "The Jam Spot."  Now, nobody called him Grumpy Donkey anymore, but instead called him Jam Boy or The Farmer, which he liked very much.

The End.

Dad quickly told his story about Jack and the Beanstalk and the Dragon, which was not as good. Dragon sees the bean stalk and flies all the way up and gets too tired and falls back down to earth, impaling himself on the castle and dying. The end.

The shadows started spreading and Mom got more rushed.  We started to see some juniper bushes and small rhododendrons, which we hadn't seen for a couple of weeks - yeah!  The views never failed us during the hike, and Mom and I never ceased to be amazed.  A little after, we cracked open a Bounty Bar, which helped me get to the Dhole Resort.  We got a nice three bed room, and I got my favorite meal of the hike, absolutely delicious meat curry with rice.  Kylie and I finished it off in about 5 minutes. I'm looking forward to a great night's sleep and another fun, beautiful day.  I'm so glad to be going down!