Monday 8th April

Day 8

I woke up during the night gasping for breath, a strange feeling as if I was being suffocated, and woke again later with a splitting headache. Carole felt the same, and at breakfast everyone had a headache! We had aspirins and drank loads of water and black tea to re-hydrate. None of us wanted to take Diamox if we could avoid it, but it was a comfort to know that Pasang had it in his medicine bag should we need it.

Before breakfast Carole and I had walked down to the clean water station, along the main street. The dusty street was very wide, with prayer wheels in the middle and we turned them as we walked, saying “Om Mani Padme Hum” together. On the other side of the road a large
herd of goats were making their way through the mist towards us, heading out of town to graze. They were unsupervised and were led by a large old goat with huge horns, who strutted proudly, his bell clanging deeply.

The early morning scenery was incredible with the huge bulk of Gangapurna and the Annapurnas towering over us, and low cloud swirling along the street which made it look almost mystical. I looked at Carole and saw she was crying and asked her what was wrong. She said, “It’s just so wild.” It was that feeling again, the one that we just don’t have words for, and I felt a lump in my throat as well. Must be the altitude!

After breakfast we climbed straight out of Manang for about 1000 feet to visit an old Lama who lives in a hut/cave. The nine of us went together with Pasang, and were met by a very old lady who led us into a cave and told to sit round the monk in a semi-circle. The lama was obviously very old, and in fact he told us later that he was 86. The old lady brought us all a cup of black tea, and we made some awkward conversation with her and the lama. I noticed that on the walls were dozens of passport photos, pictures of trekkers he had blessed. Had they all got over the pass? Then it was time for us all to be blessed, so one at a time we knelt in front of him while he chanted prayers and tied a cord around our necks and touched our heads with an old book . “For the Pass, you go over the Pass,” he said.. None of us were
superstitious but no-one removed their cord, in fact Clive was still wearing his six months later. “I’ve got used to it,” he told me.

Blessing our prayer flags

Pasang received his blessing last and then had a string of prayer flags blessed in a special ‘Puja’ ceremony. We would add our prayer flags to the rest when we reached the pass. Pasang said we should give the Lama 100 roupees (£1) and later that day when we attended the AMS Lecture we heard he was known in Manang as ‘the Hundred Roupee Lama’. The Lama had told us that his sons live in Manang and carry food up the hill to them.

Carole receives a blessing from the lama

We walked back looking down at the glacial lake next to Manang. (See photo – you can see the houses at the bottom of the picture giving a sense of scale)

My headache had gone and I was feeling good. We got back down to the lodge and had lunch – a vegetable omelette. After lunch we all strolled to the lake and looked up at the glacier stretching away up the mountain. Looking back Manang seemed to be teetering on an edge just waiting to slip towards the lake. The porters were having a day off as well and we found them down by the lake and we played ducks and drakes with them, seeing who could get the most skips.

We walked back to Manang for 4pm and attended the AMS lecture at the medical centre, given by an American volunteer physician. He gave an excellent 1 hour talk but as we sat the weather outside deteriorated to sleet and it got colder in the room. By the time he finished we were all shivering. He told us the dangers of hurrying and how it’s the younger walkers who tend to get AMS because they rush at the Pass. He said that there wasn’t any medical
assistance on the other side of the Pass, so if we felt unwell, don’t attempt it!

There were about 50 of us at the lecture and the Doctor asked where we were from, “Is there anyone here from England?…” etc, and there were about 15 from UK, 4 from USA , 2 Southern Irish, 4 Australians, a couple of Germans and the rest (about 30) were Israeli.
After the lecture I walked back down for more ‘safe water’ and Carole broke out the Down jackets we had hired in Kathmandu. It looked like they were going to come in handy after all, we felt warm at last!

This rest day has done us all good and everyone’s spirits are high. As I write my journal my mind keeps going back to this morning’s early walk in Manang with Carole. As we walked up the high street a huge eagle with black and white feathers flew above us in the same direction, and behind it were the Annapurnas. What a sight!

on way down from Lama

Manang