kalopani

Marpha to Kalopani 2530m

Sunday 14th April

Day 14

I woke up feeling depressed. My face was very sore, and Carole was very miserable with her cold sores. I couldn't be bothered to write my journal today, and my recollection of the day's trekking is very vague. I remember being constantly aware of the size of the Kali Gandaki Gorge, with Annapurna 1 rising to 8091m to the east while Dhaulagiri was to the west at 8167m, rising three and a half miles straight up!

At breakfast we were amazed to see a young English couple with a baby that couldn't have been more than a year old. They told us they were doing the Jomsom trek. We saw them later walking on the trail, the baby in a back carrier. They had no porter and obviously knew what they were doing, even so I would have been wary of bringing such a young baby to Nepal, the risks of giardia or similar problems is far too high, and if anything did go the nearest medical help would be days away. Just my opinion of course. This isolation from the real world is quite attractive in some ways. We hadn't seen a vehicle of any sort for two weeks, and although I believe there was a satellite phone in Manang for emergencies, there was no way of contacting 'civilisation' on this side of the pass, the Maoists having blown up the communications mast at Poon Hill. If you broke a leg or something, they'd just have to put you on a mule and continue onward, towards Pokhara,

When we stopped for lunch Carole was sat on the floor outside tea house feeling very sorry for herself. The bottom half of her face was covered in cold sores. A Nepalese woman came up to her and put her hands to her face and made sympathetic noises. I think it made Carole feel that she looked worse to others than she had thought! The gay American wandered up with his porter and we had a bit of badinage with him. He seemed a lonely person and I felt a bit sorry for him.

At Kalopani we stayed at the See You Lodge and I remember our room was over the dining room and the smell of paraffin pervaded all. I was fed up and couldn't be bothered to write my journal. Perhaps it was the fumes.