Trek Days 10, 11 and Holi

Day 10 was another hard slog, 500m down 700m up and another 200m down to get to Ghandruk. All day we were in the cloud so it was very soggy. Nice forests tho...

It rained for the last hour and the guest house we were heading for was full so we ended up in a really run down place.
Ghandruk is by far the largest place I’ve ever been that has no road to it. Over 4000 people.

On the morning of day 11 the weather was much better and we realized it was Holi (the hindu festival of colour, the second biggest in the hindu calendar) as a couple of lads where preparing there paint as we had breakfast in the guest house garden. We let them paint a bit on our faces and headed off. It was a long 5 hour walk but all down hill. Really nice to see all the kids coming the other way covered in paint and often trying to cover us.

Even the man at the national park check post was covered...

I was lucky enough to be in Hampi for Holi in 2002 and the people here seem, for the most part, a bit more polite about painting strangers. Although there still pretty insistent.
We finally reached a road and got a taxi the 40Km (2hours on these roads) back to Pokhara. We had to keep shutting the windows as kids were throwing paint water at the passing cars. As we got closer to the city there were big gangs of paint covered motorcyclist roaming around.

Was all pretty mad to come back too.
I got a new room (pretty plush with balcony and wifi, £3.50 per night) and rested up.
Today I ache a lot.

Trek Days 8 & 9

Yesterday we descended 1400m!! and covered as much distance as 2¼ days up. The temperature went from about -5°C to +25°C.
Today was harder with much more up and down, but we made it back the Chhomrung.
Have just been watching the news on TV for the first time in months. So many terrible things happening with the Japan earthquake and the North Africa / Middle East troubles.
Makes blogging seem a bit insignificant. I feel like going back up the mountain to hide away from it all.
Anyway I’m in a cozy room with windows on 2 sides that would have amazing views if the cloud cleared.
We’ve chosen a longer route back to see another town so tomorrow will be hard work.

Trek Day 7

2 Canadian lads have been trekking about the same pace as us so we got to know them a bit. They pushed on to ABC yesterday with what I’m told is a pretty ancient tent. When I started the trek it was 30°C. Just 2 days ago it was well above 20°C but up at ABC it often drops to -15°C or lower at night. Around 7 in the eve one of the porters realized his people hadn’t arrived and headed down the valley in the dark to find his wards, 3 Canadian girls trying to get up and back in 5 days. Dangerous with altitude sickness (which some of them already had the symptoms of), not to mention the risks of being lost on a dark mountain.
This morning was incredibly windy. The german weather meteorological station behind the guest house lost its roof, and it was a solid looking building.

Anyways we got up to find these Canadians had headed up the hill in this blizzard. Even there porter was staying put this time. So we have 5 people lost on the mountain in a storm all Canadian. I’m beginning to understand why its such a sparsely populated country.
Eventually one came back, them all having been separated. A second followed an hour or so later having fallen. For some reason the satellite phone was out so we had no way of knowing if the third had made it.
Eventually the storm eased and we headed up the mountain ourselves. We passed the third Canadian, she’d actually made it and was on her way back, and heard tell the campers had found a guest house in the middle of the night.
There were still gusts of wind that pelted us with snow blown off the mountain, but we slowly made it through.

When we arrived we hid in a guest house for a bit as the weather worsened once more and I celebrated with a beer at 4130 meters above sea level.

It’s really stunning up there but we had to make the decent to MBC again when we had a break in the weather.
Tomorrow I descend to warmer climbs in my very wet shoes.

Trek Day 6

3700m, Machhapuchhre base camp (MBC).
Only 3 hours today 500m more to acclimatize too. We started at 8.30 and crossed a small glassier and eventually the snow line. Initially the snow made it easier, leveling the trail and had plenty of grip. But as the sun hit it and the trail got steeper it became very slippy, Often climbing 45° on pack ice.
Spent the rest of the day eating and playing cards and chess in the dining hall. Roberto and I had an epic match that resulted in a draw. Seeing as chess is apparently a sport we’re considering this altitude training. For dinner I had Dal Baat (Nepali Thali) and upon asking for a knife and fork I recived 4 knives, trying to explain only resulted in me getting 4 forks as well. Tomorrow the final push to ABC.

Trek Day 5

In Deurali at 3200m now. You really feel the altitude up here. This morning between 2600m and 3000m I had a headache and my balance too good, But lunch gave me time to acclimatize and after that the climb was more gradual. On this trek the concentration has been almost as hard as the physical side. Place your foot wrong once and you could be edge or break an ankle. Even damaging a shoe could be a major issue when your 4 days walk from the nearest jeapable road. The air up here is so thin they have to use kerosene to cook/heat etc. Also lighters are reluctant to work.
Tomorrow we go to Machhapuchhre base camp (MBC) at 3700m. Can’t go up too quick now due to altitude sickness.

Trek Day 4

I was woken 3 times in the night by, err well I guess there's no other way to say this, Earthquakes. At first I thought it was a heavy person rocking the floorboards, but then I realized all the dogs in the valley were going nuts so it clicked. I have been thinking about quakes as there due a big one here soon. Today I heard through the trekkers grapevine that’s there’s been a terrible quake in Japan and ones here was just a tremor really. Maybe a shockwave from Japan, but more likely the other side of the plate realigning itself.
Anyways this morning we descended from Chomrung and crossed the final major valley. Made the steep ascent to Sinwa that had me questioning whether I could do this but after lunch although the trail got rougher it was less steep and we made good progress up through the Rhododendron forests (which are beginning the flower) and into the bamboo. There are some really cool 50m trees too with Tarzan like vines.

We eventually made it to Dobhan at 2600m. Each night I’m defeating all comers at Tigers and Goats. Although one guy took a couple of games off me eventually. The Nepali find it hilarious to see their friends lose to a westerner.
Tomorrow to Deurali at 3200m, but we have to travel in the morning to reduce the avalanche risk.

Trek Days 2 & 3

Yesterday I woke at 6.30 in time for sunrise which I watched from balcony/corridor outside my room. It was beautiful as it came over a mountain. It wasn’t until I went outside however I saw the huge white Annapurna south catching the sun. It looked really close but in fact it’s just bigger then any terrestrial thing I’ve ever seen (excluding maybe oceans), and this is only Annapurna south, almost 1km lower than Annapurna I.

We set off by 8 and descended till 3 when we stopped at new bridge. Finally I got my first chess win against Roberto (5-1 to him since we met in Pokhara). After lunch it was too late for the trek to the next village before dark so we spent the eve reading and chatting to other trekkers we met the previous night.
Today we started again at 8ish and got to Jhinu for 10 and left our packs there as we detoured down to hot springs, which was great on aching muscles.

I wish I’d taken my chess set for a comedy location game (beats the King Billy)
We picked up our packs, Had lunch and made the 400m ascent to Chomrong in 1h30!! as the weather closed in. Tomorrow we have a steep 500m decent to cross this valley and then it’s all uphill to Annapurna base camp (ABC)

Trek Day 1

Yup paper, Well I didn’t want to lug a laptop up to the 10th highest mountain in the world.
After breakfast and picking up a few supplies Roberto and I got a cab to Phedi at 11, and started up the hill. After about 45 mins we were only about 50m from where we started but about 250m* above it. All day I kept thinking that the top of the hill was in site and then had to remind myself that Annapurna is 6 or 7 days away, and then we still have to walk back. The visibility was down to maybe 5km at times but the sun was out & the views were still pretty awesome. The weather to the north, where we’re heading, looks pretty moody tho.
We did about 10 – 15km and went from 700m to 2100m altitude. In the eve we had a laugh with some other trekkers and Roberto beat me at chess (again). Tomorrow we drop 500m to cross a valley and may make a detour to some hot springs.
I will paper blog again soon.

-Dan

*for those of you not used to the metric system a meter is about 2 cubits and a kilometer about 50 chains.

Happy New Year 2138

Hi All

Went up to orphanage again yesterday with loads of crayons, drawing paper and pencills. The older kids were doing math’s and the younger ones were doing the numbers and alphabets. The nepali (and Hindi I assume) alphabet sounds very similar the phonetic alphabet Chris was learning for his TEFAL course and I’ve heard from westerners who have learnt Hindi reading a word makes the pronunciation much easier. I met a paraglider and retired mushroom farmer from Lincolnshire there. We had a good chat on the hike back. He said that paragliding in Lincolnshire is a bit of a problem as they only have one hill. But south Wales is a really good place to learn.
In the evening I retired to Shiva café, played some chess, drank some beer and eventually ended up around a campfire by the lake with some Tibetans celebrating new year 2138 (yup I’m in the future dudes). They had guitars and drums so there was a mix of modern Tibetan sort of rock with some Credence and Neil Young thrown in.
Today a pan northern European group of us (some of whom I met before in Varanasi) borrowed a boat from Shiva café and paddled across the lake, hiked up the hill to the world peace pagoda, then down again and paddled to another temple on an island in the lake and finally back to Shiva in time for Tea. Good practice for the trek I’m going on in a couple of days to Annapurna basecamp. It’s a 10 day hike up to over 5000m so this might be last blog entry for a while. Annapurna itself is over 8000m and is the 10th highest peak in the world
Tomorrow Roberto (a Dutch 1600 rated chess player I’m trekking with) and I are sorting out permits and supplies. Then the following day off we go. He did the same trek 10 years ago and it’s littered with guest houses and chai stalls every few km so even I should be able to cope. And hay I’m a veteran of the black mountains (Welch and Irish) so the hymalyas should be a doddle, right?
I’ll let you know how it all goes in a week or two.
Wish me luck and good weather.

-Dan

If you look in the clouds you can see the Himalaya

Prabhat Orphanage

Hi All

I’ve been feeling a bit guilty about living the tourist life style and having such a good time in such a poor country.
So today I spotted a notice on a telegraph pole asking for volunteers at a local orphanage. The guy who’d just put it up (Kul) saw me and we had a good chat about how it all works. Its only been going for a year and is community run, 7 people work there and decisions are made by a committee of 34 locals ect..
I wasn’t sure what help I could be but Kul was really enthusiastic so I agreed to walk out there with him this afternoon. (its about 5km out of town) In the end we all got a lift with this Taiwanese chap who had been helping there and then made the 15min off road hike up to the small building.
The kids are really nice and I sat there reading through there books with them (all in UK English that I’m semi literate in)
At one point we were doing body parts and one of the boys pointed to his head and said hair so I copied him but said no hair and made a sad face. This got a laugh and resulted in a little girl trying to colour my head in with a pencil, then rapping it in a bit of ribbon she had. I realized you don’t really see bald Nepali men as other people had asked about my hair (or lack of)
They’re really short of books and things so I’ve asked my children’s book obsessed sister if she can send a few ones she dosen’t need any more. If there were any more books in her house there’d be no room for people so getting rid of a few might make some space and give her an excuse to get some new ones.
Tomorrow I’m going to buy some lined note books and pencils for them and hike out there again.
If anyone else would like to send them books or kids clothes (ages 3 to 10) the address is:

Prabhat Paribartanshil Samaj Dalit,
Orphanage Children’s home,
Sarangkot- 2,
Sindurke Village,
Pokhara,
Kaski,
Nepal
http://prabhat-orphanage.com/

Thanks,

Paragliding and the last few days

So I went paragliding. It was awesome. The “on the count of 3, run off that cliff” thing was a bit daunting. But once you’re up it’s so peaceful. We took off from 1450 meters and got up to 2200 meters, and could see 7 of the 10 highest peeks in the world, before descending to Pokera lake (770m), after about 45 mins. I even drove for a bit. It’s amazing you can fly with just a harness and a big kite. I spent the rest of the afternoon on the net finding out how much courses and equipment are.
Seems one of the cheapest places to learn is abergavenni and the black mountains.
One of the things about paragliding is getting to take off and back. Seeing as my other new love is motorcycling it wandering if there is a way to combine to two. A sort of paramotorbike
So I’d like to put a design team together of…
Roy H (Aerospace engineer)
Lester L (Aeronaughtical engineer)
Chris M (Motorcycle engineer)
Tony R (Crash test Dummy)

The next day I went up to Sarnangkot (the hill the paragliders take of from) to meet up with Jon and Robbie. Robbie is helping a family up there build there house into a guesthouse. We had dinner round the fire in the tipi the father of the family and I played tigers and goats. We stayed in a room on the roof with windows on all 4 sides. 2 sides face the Himalaya, one side towards the Glider take of points and the top of the hill. And the other toward pokera and the lake. Pretty spectacular views. It's on a very narrow ridge maybe 20m wide and very steep drops on each side. In the morning it was really windy and cloudy as you could see the snow falling on the highlands (or even higerlands, or what the Nepali refer to as upside). But there was no sun rise sadly. It was still amazing with the moody skys.
Wednesday was Shivaratri a big hindu festival. Unfortunately this isn’t the most traditional area but there was still lots of bonfires and people drinking and eating lots of stuff containing Bhang or Cannabis from the sadhu’s. I wondered around I bit on a few occasions but spent most the evening around the fires of the Shiva café (bamboo huts on the lake type place)
This all lead to yesterday being a bit of a hungover write off. Tho I was sat in shiva café again for a awesome thunderstorm. Beat a 1800 rated german at chess :-) spent the eve trying to fix Robbies laptop but the power kept going and the internet was too slow to get vista SP1 on there. Grrr.
Today I was planning on sailing on the lake. But there’s no wind so I don’t know what I will do yet. More Chess i guess.
Catch you all soon
Dan

All taken from the paraglider

One way (the lower mountains) from Robbies place

Breakfast chess

Afternoon chess

A drawing from Rich based on this entry...