It was Valentine’s Day 1996 when Lee Green walked into a mountain lodge in Nepal, surrounded by
the snow-capped Himalayas, and encountered Mandy Halse for the first time.
Green and Halse were thousands of miles
from their respective homes in England and New Zealand. Both were backpackers
in their twenties determined to see as much of the world as they could. They’d
found themselves in Nepal by a series of coincidences.
When Green entered the Nepalese teahouse,
the stage was set for a memorable meet-cute. Except on February 14, there were
no sparks between the two travellers. Two weeks later it was a different story,
one that’s still ongoing 26 years later.
For Halse, Nepal was a spontaneous layover
en route from Auckland to the UK, where she was set to visit an old friend.
She’d been exploring Thailand and Malaysia, and a travel agent had recommended
breaking up the journey with a stint in Nepal.
After learning of Nepal’s trekking routes,
she met a British woman, Kirsty, while in line for a permit to hike the
Annapurna Circuit. The two decided to join forces to tackle the trail, which
winds through Nepal’s central mountains, taking in picturesque villages and
incredible views along the way.
Halse, who’d had no idea what to expect, was awestruck by the
spectacular landscape, particularly when she and fellow hikers arrived in the
village of Ghorepani, where they set up camp in a “teahouse” mountain
lodge.
“It was the most beautiful setting,” Halse tells CNN
Travel today.
She was sitting in the lodge’s common area with her new friend
Kirsty and other backpackers when Lee Green walked in.
Green, a mailman from the English town of Coventry, was
traveling Nepal on a career break with colleague and good friend Murray. The
two men had originally intended to use their sabbatical to embark on a cycle
ride from the UK to India, but had abandoned the plan after just 200 miles,
realizing navigating northern Europe in winter on bike was going to take too
long.
Instead, they’d ended up flying to India, trekking through the
northern part of the country, before making their way to Nepal.
The two friends arrived at the city of Pokhara, and set off on
the Annapurna trek. Like Halse, they’d befriended other travelers en route.
“There’s one path that links village to village to village,
so most people that go trekking tend to overlap each other, meet up with each
other at the tea houses, along the path,” Green tells CNN Travel today.
When Green’s group entered the teahouse, they were warmly
greeted by Halse and the other travellers. The backpackers ended up chatting
through the night, playing cards by candlelight.
“It was really nice, it was really chilled,” says
Halse. “The teahouse was gorgeous.”
The travelers spent a couple of days there, before continuing as
a group onto the next leg of the trek.
Halse and Green were friendly to one another on their first few
days hiking, but they didn’t have much opportunity to chat one on one.
“We didn’t talk much in the beginning as we were both very
quiet, and we walked in different parts of the group: me in the middle with
Murray, and Lee at the back with Kirsty,” says Halse.
When the travellers reached the Annapurna circuit’s
5,400-meter-high Thorung La mountain pass, they found their way blocked by
heavy snow, forcing them to turn back.
Some of the group decided to give up at that point, making their
way back, via plane, to the trail’s gateway town of Pokhara. Halse and Green,
along with their friends Murray and Kirsty, decided to make the full return
trek by foot, just the four of them.
So began another two weeks of walking — and it was in this
period that Halse and Green started to grow closer.
“We’d become quite good friends, and as we’re walking along
I started feeling the vibe, the tingles,” says Halse.
When the group arrived in Tatopani, just up the trail from their
original meeting place in Ghorepani, the town’s balmier climate and beautiful
hot springs were a welcome change to the snows they’d just emerged from.
From there, they headed to the 5,357-meter Gokyo Ri peak,
because Kirsty had read that the view of Everest was more impressive and that
the trail didn’t have as many trekkers. It turned out to be a highlight of the
trip.
“We were walking on a frozen lake, which if I’d thought
about it, I think I would have been scared, but the snow was up to our
thighs,” says Green.
By the time they returned to Kathmandu at the end of April,
Halse and Green were certain their connection was more than a fleeting holiday
romance.
“We realized that we wanted to be together,” says
Green.
After Murray decided to fly back home to the UK and Kirsty went
off on her next adventure, Green and Halse were suddenly alone for the first
time.
“Lee and I slowly developed a wonderful relationship,”
Halse wrote on March 16, 1996. “I’ve never experienced anything like this
before.”
Halse stayed in the UK for the next few months. Green went back
to work, but they continued to see one another whenever they could.
It was Halse’s first time in the UK, and she wanted to see the
sights. The two recall walking part of England’s South West Coast Path from
Newquay to Penzance. They also visited cities including York, Oxford, Blackpool
and London.
Then Halse had to return down under — her brother was getting
married in Australia, and her grandparents were celebrating their 60th wedding
anniversary in New Zealand.
Halse arrived back in the UK on Christmas Day 1996. Green was
waiting for her at the airport.
(Agencies)
