Part of the idea of coming south over the winter was to avoid all that cold weather and snow. Maybe when I thought that, I had forgotten that the Himalayas in Nepal are actually pretty high (8 of the world's 10 higgest peaks are in Nepal) and the word himalaya means 'abode of snows'.
A bad start. Also the Annapurnas (the mountains I wanted to walk around) reach over 8,000m high ( there are only 14 peaks over 8,000m in the world), so maybe I had picked the wrong spot. Fortunately the trekking route doesn't go up to the top but gets up to 5,416m - and surely no chance of snow at that level during the early autumn peak trekking season!
Sally joined me for the first month cos she wanted to walk round snowy mountains as well (or something like that). The trek took us 18 days to complete. The first 8 days were almost constant uphill, but not too steep, passing through numerous Tibetan influenced villages (Tibetans came across from Tibet in 1959 after the Chinese strengthened their control there). These were often medieval villages crammed with traditional stone houses and topped off with numerous tall, colourful (prayer) flags fluttering in the breeze like an encampment of knights in armour preparing for a joust.
There are no roads, or motorised transport (everything is transported by mule or human) but plenty of rivers to cross, so the first few days are spent taking photos of mule trains and narrow, usually insanely wobbly, suspension bridges. Then I realised that I had taken pictures of nothing else but mule trains and narrow, usually insanely wobbly, suspension bridges and never took any pictures of either mule trains or narrow, usually insanely wobbly, suspension bridges ever again.
Once we reached 3,500m we stopped for a day to acclimatise and then restricted ourselves to 400m vertical increase each day to try and avoid getting AMS (acute mountain sickness). We reached the heights where no one lived but fortunately, enterprising locals had built tea-houses where we could stay the night. The prices of food increases with the altitude as everything has to be either grown locally or brought up the track by mule, and at the furthest point we were 9 days walk from the nearest road, and apparently it is difficult to grow beer and coke at altitude.
The weather had been great - clear blue sky mornings, sometimes becoming cloudy in the afternoon. It got a bit 'misty' at about 4,000m but no chance of snow.
A bit of a shock next morning then to awaken to a white out. It was still gently coming down, but we decided to trek on as long as we could follow the path, and if it did get dangerousl we could always turn back. Trekking higher up a snowy mountain with only trekking poles (I now understand why they look so much like ski poles) seemed a bit insane but there were other people with guides to follow (Sally and I decided we didnt need a guide or porter). Then we met a whole herd of yak coming the other way. A yak is a cross between a cow and a woolly mammoth, with a huge coat and big horns; very similar to a Yeti in fact. We were going up the mountain whilst the animal that has eveolved over millions of years to cope with such conditions was going the other way! Worst still, the yaks were coming down the only path straight at us. Now the path was only about 'this' wide, whilst a Yak is at least 'THIS' wide! And you dont want to stand in the way of a yak in full migratory mode. So us less intelligent beings scrambled up the hillside and let the more intelligent beasts pass.
We made it to 4,500m that day and waited for the snow to stop. Fortunately it had by 4am the next morning when many people left to ascend the (vertical) 900m to the top of the pass and then (vertical) 1,600m down the other side. We left at 5am - still dark - and followed a trail of lights up the mountain. It was very steep and the snow was up to 30cm deep. It had been -4C in the tea house bedroom and was -11C on the mountain, so it didnt take long for my fingers and toes to go numb. I was praying for the sun to warm me up a bit. By 7am we were in sun, stumbling slowly upwards. The air is very thin at this altitude and it was very hard work especially carrying up to 20kg of stuff on my back. The snow was perfect - I have skied in far worse snow than this - but here I was walking in it! Mountains everywhere, blue sky, white snow ... and an enless upward trudge - well for Sally it was endless, I spent most of the time waiting for her every few metres as she seemed to be suffering a bit with the thin air. It took us 6 hours to get to the top and what an effort it was. Ater an hours rest, at midday we zoomed down the other side (now skies would have been good) helped by the ever thickening air and the knowledge that if we didnt get down by 6pm it would be dark, and there was no way I could have stood the cold on that pass for a night. We made it by 4pm to a place with 'hot showers' - unfortunately solar panels covered in snow do not hot showers make. I did get my nose badly sunburnt though - very silly.
The pass was about halfway so we still had a large part of the 230km to trek, but at least now it was getting warmer as we went, prices getting cheaper, beer back towards a pound a pint, we were nearly back to civilisation. And then we walked into a Maoist trap; not a mouse trap, although that is similar, I mean a trap set by an admirer of chairman Mao. The Maoists have been engaged in a civil war for 8 years and control 80% of the country (mainly the uninhabited bits!). He was just sitting casually on a wall, though he did have a big scar on his face, and politely enquired if I would like to contribute to Maoist funds. I said not and then a walking conversation ensued with he saying I should and me not being absolutely keen. Then he produced a handgun, not a very sophisticated gun, but it was a gun. Suddenly the Maoist cause seemed to have an indefinable appeal, a very worthy cause in fact. Luckily he accepted about GBP8 for the two of us and gave me a receipt to show that this was not in fact robbery but a genuine donation, and in case I came across any other Maoists, so I could prove I had already paid. Very thoughtful!
Other (Natural) Highs
- Tiger hunting - a 2 days in the National Park looking for Tigers. Unfortunately we were on foot. Fortunately our 2 guides were heavily armed with small sticks! Fortunately we didn't see any tigers. We did see a sloth bear, which I was expecting to be a small cuddly bear, but it was enormous - bigger than me - big, black and and dangerous although it did have a cute nose.
- Elephant trekking - sitting on them, looking for rhinos. Very bumpy it was as well, but we did get to see some Greater one horned rhino. They look like they are covered in sheets of armour, but it is just thick skin folded over to make it look like they are covered in sheets of armour - Oh it works! Impressive though.
- Kathmandu, capital and largest city, is like the traffic of London in the narrow streets of York. Tiny streets crammed with cars, motorbikes, people, bikes plus occasional cows. How they all get passed each other is a mystery, but it doees seem to happen, although if they miss you by more than a cm then they consider that a wide margin.
- Old Stuff - Kathmandu and around has squares crammed with 14th to 18th century temples and palaces, all still in use. They are in great condition and laced with erotic carvings (positions from the Karma Sutra) sometimees involving elepants and tortoises; Oh, and of course they are of great religious significance. Some of the temples have fierce guardians to protect them - normally small tortoises or monkeys. Many of the backstreets are untouched by time (buildings dont geet knocked down here, they either fall down or just stay there); narrow streets with ancient wobbly 4 storey buildings holding each other up, and tiny courtyards; people crammed into such small spaces, living so close together - like walking through London before the great fire of 1666 perhaps. Such history they have here, but there is so much of it they dont give it a second thought (except to charge foreigners if they want to see it!)
- Oh, and most Nepali trucks are covered in huge Union Jacks. Haven't been able to find out why yet though.
Other Confusing bits
- Religion is a bit confused (well I find it confusing) - most people are Hindu, but many of the temples are Buddhist (Buddha was born in Nepal about 2,500 years ago). But Hindus claim that Buddha is the 9th incarnation of their god Vishnu, so enabling them to worship at any Buddhist temple, where they have also added shrines to numerous hindu gods. So you go into a nice clean Tibetan Buddhist temple (often huge stupas - like an upside down ice-cream cone) which then get invaded by hoards of Hindus queuing up to chuck rice and other offreings (mainly food) over their favorite god, and leaving little piles of embers all over the place for unsuspecting people to burn their feet on. Its all a bit confusing, but this is their religion and as messy as it is and as many flies as the piles of food attract, I have to respect that. I think I may get bored of Hindu temples pretty soon though...... Er Yep, bored now.
Other Crap bits
- The roads, if you can call them that are worse than dirt tracks. So the buses go really slowly, and really bumpily, especially if you happen to be crammed onto the back seat. Enough said (although I could moan on at length).
And now Sally has gone home and I am off to do a bit of rafting in the far west of Nepal for 10 days - back into Maoist country, (I'll keep an eye open for those mouse traps), then south to India.
Bye for now
Pete
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