The first few days of the trek are hot and sweaty as we pant and groan our way up the trail. Donkey trains tinkle their way past us in both directions, butterflies flit by, waterfalls roar, terraced rice fields zigzag dizzyingly up the hills, suspension bridges sway and bounce beneath us and mountains appear majestically above us - big, white and surreal against the blue sky. Everything is green and lush after the monsoons, and still hot. We look forward to reaching cooler altitudes once we're past Tal.
The weather does get cooler - and so do the showers. Smithy and I have decided not to bother with the cold trickles that pass for showers in these parts, but Bluey and Ms Libra can't quite bring themselves to lose this particular facet of 'civilisation'. I admire their stoicism but stick with the bowl of 'washie water' I get every now and again.
Faces are becoming familiar on the trail now and we hail people as if they are old friends as we cross paths in the villages each night. There's the "Polish people", as we dub them. They seem to always end up staying in the same lodge as us. We think they're a family - Mum and Dad and adult daughter and husband - but find out much later they are two unrelated couples and that Victek (the older man) was Tomasc's professor at university. There's also the "Two-Stick Woman" travelling by herself with a porter and a guide. She walks really really slowly but still ends up in the same village as everyone else at the end of the day. We lose track of her on the walk from Tal to Chame - that's a huge day and many people stop instead at Danaque. Which is where we surmise "Scaredy-cat" and her husband end up. We first thought she was vision-impaired because of the way he held her arm all the time and the slow slow pace they went at. Nope, she's just scared stiff of going up, going down and crossing suspension bridges - she actually came to a complete halt halfway across one and screamed because it was swaying from the 25 porters, trekkers and villagers behind her. Give them credit though, they did make it to Manang and probably went over Thorung La - since we sidetrekked into Tilicho Lake, we lost track of them.
By the time we reached Manang, Ms Libra was suffering from a raging toothache and was not well at all. She saw the local doctor, who turned out to be the cousin of one of our guides and the brother of the other (small world!) and was given a fist full of antibiotics and painkillers and told to stay away from hot, cold and sweet foods and drinks. We all prayed she would be well enough to enjoy her birthday two days hence.
Whilst in Manang, we visited a couple of old old monasteries. The one in Braga is about 600 years old and full of ancient statues. Some ancient locals were beginning a prayer session when we visited and we received a blessed string from the not so ancient monk. Smithy and I were really happy to see this monastery, as in 2004, we staggered up the 200 steep steps to find the place locked up! The four of us also visited the 400 year old Karke Monastery, with its original wall paintings and massive, ancient wooden pillars. The very young monk - from Bhutan - gave us another blessed string to wear around our necks and some blessed pills to eat.
From Manang, most people head up the trail towards Thorung La - the 5416m pass. We headed instead out west to Khangsar to begin our sidetrek to Tilicho Lake, the highest lake in the world at around 5000m. Ms Libra and Bluey had already decided they were not going to attempt the walk into Tilicho Base Camp as they did not feel confident enough to negotiate the tricky trails and Ms Libra still wasn't feeling the best. They would stay at Khangsar and meet us on our way out to Yak Kharka.
We reached Khangsar on 18 October - Ms Libra's birthday. Unbeknownst to her, the box young Bukta ("Buddha") was carrying contained her birthday cake. It had been ordered in Braga and Kuman had sent young Dawa, the porter, back down to Braga that morning to collect it. Kuman was so excited about it being Ms Libra's birthday, we barely finished lunch before he brought the cake out. It was delicious! A big, chocolate mud cake beautifully decorated. There was so much, even after handing slices out to all the lodge staff, that we ended up giving a good third of it to the "Polish people". They had been inspired by our talk of Tilicho Lake and after coming up to Khangsar for an acclimatisation walk, had decided to go on to Tilicho! They sang a very nice Polish song to Ms Libra, wishing her a long life and ate the cake before dinner since it looked so good.
Next day we woke up to find it had snowed! Everything was covered in a magical blanket of white. Smithy, Kuman and I walked through a winter wonderland to Tilicho Base Camp. An utterly fantastic walk through snow-covered juniper bushes, fantastical rock formations, and a starkly beautiful landslip area to the one and only lodge that comprises Tilicho Base Camp. There were a lot of people there and we had a very social time chatting away the afternoon. The Polish people turned up after initially deciding the weather looked too dodgy to come. We shared our trekking bread and vegemite with them - which, to our astonishment, they really liked!!!
It snowed again overnight but had stopped by the time we stumbled out of our dormitory beds at 5am. Despite the gloomy weather we set off for the lake which was a good 2-3 hours walk away. It began snowing again and got heavier and heavier until it was blowing in our faces and we couldn't see the hills a mere 100 metres across the valley. Concerned about the track back and knowing there'd be no visibility at the lake, we turned back. There were a few scary moments when both Smithy and I slipped and fell on the icy trail, but we made it safely back to Base Camp to find everyone evacuating out! We later found out that all 45 people who set out for the lake had to turn back. After a quick hot drink, we headed back along the trail to our rendevous with Ms Libra and Bluey at the one-lodge place called Sheree. We got there just after 11am, puzzled to find they had not arrived. They still hadn't arrived when we'd finished our lunch an hour later. Kuman had been hoping we would walk onto Yak Kharka, thus saving a day, in the afternoon, but we couldn't do that until the others arrived. He sent our porter, Pasang, down to Khangsar to find out what was happening. Having to wait for his return scotched all plans for moving up to Yak Kharka and Smithy and I enjoyed sitting in the sun, chatting to a couple of young women and watching the mountains. Pasang reappeared a couple of hours later clutching a red envelope. It was a letter from Ms Libra and Bluey and it spelled doom. Ms Libra had altitude sickness - just to add to her woes - and they needed to descend. Kuman went down with Pasang (Dawa had meanwhile arrived with our kitbag) to organise the descent and Smithy and I were left alone in the silence of Sheree (all the other trekkers had moved up to Yak Kharka). It was magnificent! Not a sound. No babble of voices. Nothing but the wind. We exulted in the peace and tranquility, watching Gangapurna, Khangsar Kang, the Grand Barrier and Annapurna III emerge from the clouds.
So, the new plan was that Ms Libra and Bluey would trek back to Besi Sahar and catch the bus to Pokhara where we would meet them after having gone over Thorung La and down the Kali Gandaki valley.
Well, you know what happens to plans.....Smithy and I moved up to Yak Kharka next day - a whole day behind all those people we'd befriended - and I got sick with a stomach bug (probably picked up at the less than sanitary Tilicho Base Camp). That and the continuing snow was enough to convince us to also head back down instead of going over the pass. Instead of moving up to Thorung Phedi, we went back to Manang and next day put in an eight hour effort to get to Chame to catch up with Ms Libra and Bluey. Along the way, we had more magical moments walking through snow covered pine forests.
Reunited in Chame, we all continued our hike down to Besi Sahar. And had a great time. Saw things we hadn't seen on the way up, staying in different villages, meeting new people, exulting in the ease in which we descended hills that only a week or so earlier had sweated and grunted our way up and enjoying hot showers and cold beers!
Spent my birthday on 30 Oct travelling on another local bus from Besi Sahar to Pokhara. Treated myself to a birthday pizza that night and yes, I got a cake too! A lovely coffee cake that again, was too much for us all and so I took it the following day to share with the three children Smithy and I sponsor through World Vision....but that's another post!
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