This is the third time Iwafuchi has visited Nepal. In 1996, she trekked to the Annapurna Base Camp and through Langtang region. Three years ago, she trekked along the Annapurna circuit, and also to Everest Base Camp and Gokyo. She did it all alone, and was convinced that only a novice could lose way along Nepal´s trekking trails.[break]
She was no novice!
Lost!
On May 25, Iwafuchi arrived at Gosainkunda and checked in to the Hotel Peaceful Lake. That afternoon, she left for a stroll and couldn´t find her way back through the maze of trails. For the two weeks that followed, she fought loneliness, fear, hunger, thirst, rain, cold, insect-bites, and blisters while a police team mobilized by Deputy Superintendent Om Bahadur Rana searched for her without success.
"When I left the hotel, I just wanted to walk for an hour as afternoon exercise. But I got curious to go farther. It was a mistake," said the former jewelry retailer.
After being convinced that she was lost, Iwafuchi did not leave the spot she was in for two days. She even slept beside the trail hoping she would be rescued. But let alone being spotted, she didn´t even hear a sound that could be faintly connected to a human being.
She then decided that waiting for rescue was meaningless, and she had to find a way back herself.
"For the remaining days, I walked from sunrise till sunset," she said in Kathmandu on Friday.
Iwafuchi survived for the first three days on river water. She knew that a person can last for as long as 10 days without food. But after three days, she couldn´t keep from eating grass, leaves and bamboo shoots.
She slept inside rock caves, and under trees, covering herself with bamboo leaves to keep her warm. "It wasn´t too cold, so I knew I wouldn´t die of cold," she said.
Once, it rained at night and she was completely soaked. But looking back at how things turned out, she feels glad that it didn´t rain the rest of the nights. Daytime drizzle, though, was common.
Clinging on to life
Iwafuchi doesn´t subscribe to any religion. But she has a strong belief that she cannot die before her parents. Also, she believes she has many more people to meet, and her life won´t end before she meets them. It was beliefs like these, however funny they may sound, that gave her strength to cling on to life.
"I was thinking about surviving and going back. I promised to God that if I survive, I will be more generous and kind to people. I also thought about friends I wanted to meet," she said.
But there were times when she was overtaken by despair. She feared that her one stupid mistake of not sticking to the main trekking trial was going to cost her nothing less than her life. She was embarrassed and very angry with herself.
Her daily wandering was leading her to nowhere until June 6 when she found a trail she believed was the one she had strayed from on the first day of her ordeal.
"[After finding the trail] I thought God had given me the last change. I thought if I followed the trail, I would survive," she said.
Found!
On June 7, eleven Nepali travelers were noisily walking along a trail downhill from Hotel Peaceful Lake. Iwafuchi overheard them and cried for help.
The travelers stopped, and one of them came over looking for her.
She was found!
The group showed her the way to her hotel. It was a 50-minute trek from where she was found.
Only after reaching the hotel did Iwafuchi realize that throughout the two weeks, she had wandered along a radius of just 500 meters from the hotel.
On June 8, she was taken to Dhunche Hospital, where Inspector Sitaram Chapagain took her statement.
Medical examinations at the hospital surprisingly revealed that all her vital signs were all right. But her body was full of insect-bite injuries, and her toes covered by blisters.
She rested that day at the hospital and travelled to Kathmandu on Thursday.
"I lost six kilograms during the two weeks," she said.
Iwafuchi will continue to trek, but probably not alone anymore.
She is embarrassed that she burdened policemen and soldiers who spent two weeks looking for her. She is also full of apologies for making her parents worried, and for making them travel to Nepal looking for her.
Most of all, she is feeling the weight of gratitude for the police, soldiers, and commoners who spent so many days looking for her.
"I don´t know how I can repay their kindness," she said.
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