Tuesday 9th April

Day 9

We woke up to a cloudy sky for the first time since our arrival in Nepal – until now the mornings had been sunny and the clouds would gather in the afternoon. It had rained heavily all night in Manang, but just a couple of hundred metres higher we could see a new layer of snow. The 100 Roupee Lama would be snowed in!

We were sorry to leave Manang, even though the room was squalid by UK standards at least it had reasonable sound proofing and an attached loo. (Yes, a squat loo, but we were quite used to them now!) The walk to Yak Kharka should have taken about 4 hours but as the altitude was really starting to slow us all down, it actually took 5.5 hours.
As we left Manang we kept looking back at this strange place with its flat roofed houses teetering above the river. I took several photos, (see below) but it’s hard to capture the space and 'other worldliness.' We stopped and watched an eagle soaring and just as we were about to move on a couple of gryphon vultures landed very close by and Roger got some good pictures with his telephoto. Not for the first time I regretted my decision to leave my SLR at home and just carry a lightweight compact camera.

As we set off again we met an Israeli guy being led down by a porter, who was supporting him by the arm. Altitude sickness. He looked really ill, and sad. We all said sympathetic things as he went by and wondered how high he’d reached before succumbing.

We were walking in snow now and we stopped for a drink at an isolated tea house, and Sue and Carole both wanted to go to the loo. The toilet was a hut about 200 metres away in the
snow. (see pic) Apparently it was so awful the girls went on a bit further out of our sight, and while they were gone we played outside with the lodge’s little Tibetan terrier.

We couldn’t get a seat inside because the tea house was full of Israelis, so although we hadn’t seen them on the trail they must have set off from Manang earlier than us. As we drank coffee we talked about home, and wondered what might be going on there. There’s absolutely no way to find out, although the doctor at the AMS lecture announced that the Queen Mother had died. After we’d had our drinks we got under way again. I had really taken to the Nepalese way of serving hot drinks in a thermos. You order either a small,
medium or large pot of tea, coffee or whatever and get a brightly coloured Chinese thermos with a bung of silver paper, and the contents stay hot for ages, allowing a very leisurely break.
As we neared Yak Kharka it started to snow heavily and we were glad to reach the Gangapurna Lodge at about 1.30pm. We had wanted to do an extra ‘altitude climb’ in the afternoon but the snow continued relentlessly.

It’s now 4.30pm and still snowing heavily, and Carole and I are sat in our room looking back along the valley we’ve just climbed. We’re starting to have real doubts as to whether Thorung La will be passable, the wind has dropped and the flakes are huge. The thought of having to return without getting over the pass is awful as is the thought of going back through all the crappy lodges. (we’d been told that the lodges on the other side of the pass are so much better,but would we see them?) We’ve got out the down jackets again and are feeling much more comfortable. (NB We hadn’t been sure whether to hire them or not, and we only needed them on four nights overall. They were lovely and warm but for the time of year that we trekked I don’t think they were necessary. Sue and Clive managed fine without them.)

Later – in bed. Yak Kharka is a wild place, with nothing but a lodge and some wild looking horses. It was very cold in the lodge at dinner and we all sat in the dining room around a table with a charcoal stove burning under it. A heavy cloth (carpet?) covered the table and hung down onto your knees to keep the heat in, and the result was that your front roasted while your back froze. The table top got too hot to touch and we wondered if it would spontaneously combust! There were other Brits dining in the lodge who were camping a little further along the trail. When Carole and I walked out this afternoon to stretch our legs we saw their campsite, it looked bleak. It made us glad we were staying in the lodge even though facilities at this height are sparse. There is no inside tap, just a hose on the ground a few metres away from the building, carrying water down from the hills above. To get a wash you pull the hose pipe apart at a snap joint and the water pours out, bitterly cold of course. Carole washed, I didn’t bother.

Dinner was good, I had vegetable fried rice and Carole had (rather bizarrely) a cheese sandwich and chocolate cake. After dinner Sue, Clive, Dianne and David went to bed early and Carole and I stayed in the dining room with Roger, Nick, Kate and Pasang, talking and drinking hot chocolate. Now that we’re back in our room I’m worrying that I haven’t drunk enough today, and what I have drunk has been the wrong kind of liquid. (coffee at lunchtime, chocolate tonight and only a litre of water.) I know this is nothing like enough at this altitude. You should drink about 5 litres of water per day. I only hope my head isn’t too bad tomorrow!

...town of Manang