Rolwaling trek + peak bag + Namche to Jiri, terrible maps at: http://www.caingram.info/CD-Browser/Maps/rolwaling.htm. Michael + Francesca + Anthony + Chhiritheguide + various awesome Porters. On our own after Namche.
December 8 Emergency Evacuation Positions!!!!
Got picked up this morning in The Nirus shiny, expensive new Tata. It's a friggin' truck it is. The man is doing very well and truly deserves it all. The bus to Barabise was eerily comfortable. Driving through the outskirts of Kathmandu was not. The poor animals that are forced to live in this dump with these people. Whom, honestly, I can't say if I feel sorry for them or not. Not that they care, why should they? I feel sorry for the waterways though, having to double as a river and a waste dumb must blow pretty hard. After a pretty great Daal Bhaat, Chhiri announced we would be taking a "maybe four hours" bus ride to save what we thought was a three hour walk. Yeah. And wow. That bus ride. There are places where there really should not be a road. That was definitely one of them, far too narrow and sheer drops for a long way on the down side. The roof was packed and most uncomfortable. Driver left part of the bus on the road side about three times. And then the road got worse. Got to a town I can't remember the name of and made camp right in the middle. Francesca and two of the porters had lost their head torches from their packs to a light-fingered so-and-so. Oh, we have Binod, Hem and Hira again, plus three new porters: Dipak (cousin of The Niru), Bramod (younger brother of The Binod) and Surya (former porter of The Tony). Binod is now just a cook so is privileged enough not to have to carry. Except the eggs. Which there seems an abundance of... Heard Bishnu's daughter is sick, hope all is ok. I think the town made us an offering, and I think we did the same back. It resulted in some super fun, if slightly awkward, dancing around the fire with the town drunk proving to be a joy and then some. First day of Rolwaling trek, no walking. Oh, some kids were mimicking us talking, so we tried to teach them "You're gonna give the company to Eeeeewick!". Fail.
December 9 The Most Amazing Sandwich In All The World.
Walking up most of today towards TinSang La. Gained about 800m, which is 300 short of the pass, Chhiri wanted to stop. I mean, it was 2:30. Chhiri days end consistently about there, but it was a nice campsite and they busted out the toilet tent we asked not to bother with (come on...). Saw the town drunk this morning, yeah he was still drunk. Outstanding. Lunch was pretty special. This sandwich. Ok. Imagine. Brown de-crusted bread, lightly toasted. Spanish onion, lightly sauteed. Yak cheese, slightly melted. And Peanut Butter. Together. Sure, it sounds awful. Sure, it's barely half as good as I remember it to be. But it was the most amazing sandwich. In all the world. Then. Some kids were hanging around, as they do, and (no word of a lie) this old lady just walked over yelling at them, bends over, picks up a big handful of fresh Yak shat and hurls it at them. Then follows up with rocks. Outstanding. Simply outstanding.
December 10 Meeting At 12.
Got to the top of TinSang at about 9. You get a fairly good view of the ridge line that forms Nepal's border with China to the north and the murky brown haze that is the Northern Indian plains to the South, so it's pretty special. Nice forest, very nice actually, lovely walking. Except they're pushing a road through here as well. As sort of expected, we crossed paths with The Tony about 10:30, just in time for lunch. That was really nice actually. Got to Bigu Gompa and camped at a school (strangely, no loiterers). Didn't bother with the Gompa, played volleyball with the porters instead, so fun. Hira was so into it. My height ruled all. Not really.
December 11 Happy As Can Be.
Solid day of walking high up a river valley, feeling good. Loads of mandarine breaks. Lovely. Got to Ladruk, another splendid location but terrible site. On a lumpy, pointy, crap covered dry rice paddy. Pretty hot today, but perfect at night, especially when you have a late night rest break under the full moon under a clear sky with village lights on the other side of the valley to keep you company. Gorgeous. Had a pretty good dinner, this Yak cheese deep fried cake thing was so rich and intense and amazing. Got a star junior loiterer. He was marvellous, will go on to much bigger things.
December 12 I'll Tell You When We Get There.
Really nice and surprisingly flat morning through some Maoist ravaged areas. Afternoon was hot and very up and down. Staying tonight in Jagat, which is a nice little village in a pretty nice valley. It has been interesting to see how the kids ask for things differently in the different valleys from "pen?", to "give me pen?", "give me your pen?", "hello pen?", "give my pen?", to the current "this is my pen?". Whoever teaches these kids English, and to beg, is a disgrace. We met a group of Koreans who are attempting Gaurishankar, seven of them, forty porters, thirty days, 7135m summit, technical winter climbing. They seem a little underdone but have balls for certainly. Hope they summit. We have another 'porter', Ganesh, who apparently is also Nirus top guide. He's a really nice guy, but this is a interesting if not confusing development. Could potentially change the nature of the rest of this trek. We shall see.
December 13 Sigh, You'd Better Get Me The Pentagon... Now!
Rather cold this morning. This valley floor would get no more than five hours of direct sunlight a day. Walked along the river all morning, afternoon was a easier than expected but sweaty 700m climb straight up the side of the valley. Had a sugar cane sucking break which was grand. Simigaon is a really nice village and the start of the restricted zone. On the way up here got to see first hand how the Nepali's blast a road, not pretty, this one is going to China, so more useless toys and poor quality plastic products can be trucked down. It seems instead of the three porter loads we were supposed to get we got only two and no porters to carry, the loads have been spread amongst the porters and considering what we've eaten and some things we no longer needed it's no extra weight for them. We lose three porters up higher, we will be struggling for food if we get stuck in bad weather up there, so hopefully not. I suspect Ganesh is here to get us to Namche in the number of days we've paid for (we were going to take a few extra days, for various reasons), so that's fair enough, I suppose. Had a killer sunset and Binod made us a cake (how?). A whole cake intended for three after another massive dinner was always going to lead to me overfilling myself. Again. We took out about half. Porter cake.
December 14 The Unexpected Ice Caught Alvin Unawares As He Overtook Alice (Quite Unnecessarily, I Might Add).
It's 7pm and damn cold, but it's another beautiful night and we're camped about ten metres from the Rolwaling Khola (river) so can't complain. Nice walking up through the forest, it's all up for a few days now. Pretty quiet as most of the locals have left for the winter and we don't expect to see any other trekkers till Namche. Had pizza for lunch, a lovely surprise. Saw no sun all day on the shady side of the valley. Were going to camp at Riverside Kharka, which is not on the riverside, it's 200m above, to the side of the river, hence the name (ohhhhh), instead walked another 45 minutes to where we are now, which is really nice. Potato cakes have made a reappearance, this boy is killing me.
December 15 Ahh To Rest These Weary Extremities.
No, I feel good actually. Cannot trust these Nepali brand maps though, apparently we climbed 1000m today, felt like 200 but we are at 3700m. No idea. Walked along the river all day and got to Beding way earlier than expected. Only a few people left here but loads of goats and some yak about. Getting cold, too cold to wash. Currently 3km south of China and loving Bradley Hathaway's poetry more than ever.
December 16 Oh Man, It's Everywhere.
So last night was great fun. Woke about 11:30 to really bad stomach cramps and at about midnight decided to try and vomit, sat up and burped a massive sulphurous burp, which is never good, there was about a half a second period where all seemed well then, (still in the tent remember) the vomit came. I tried to hold it in my mouth but there was more than that, sort of into the hand but the tent, mattress, my sleeping bag, clothes, it went everywhere. Managed to transfer most of it to a plastic bag and sat there whimpering and panicking for a couple of minutes, not knowing what to do. I mopped most of it up and put the vomity clothes outside. Fell back into a brief, uncomfortable and paranoid sleep but stomach cramps and gassyness returned after a half hour or so. If you haven't had sulphurous burps, let me tell you they blow horribly. Then the diarrhoea started. And the rest of the night goes as follows: sleep 15 minutes, stomach cramps, go outside, sulphurous burps, watery shat, and repeat. Got up about dawn to clean, which was almost 100% successful considering limited resources and below zero temperatures, but I'm still banished to this tent for a while yet. And turns out the abandoned farm's paddock I was using as a bathroom and disposal site wasn't so abandoned (oooops). The luckily only four hour walk to Na was torture but a (short) afternoon relaxing in the sun was magic. Washed my clothes again, but vomit can be a stubborn stench. Ate practically nothing, despite another stellar day of Binod cooking. Feeling a little better now, hopefully a good night sleep cures all. I am so sick of getting sick in this country. Camped at 4200m.
December 17 Turn This Landscape Upside Down.
Feeling better today, but very weakened, which is amplified by the altitude. Struggled. Still managed the side trip out to Dudh Pokhari (Milk Lake). Gorgeous, murky lake almost completely surrounded by mountains at 4800m. It was a pretty awful morainey walk to and from though, not much fun, then a slog up the natural dam wall of Lake Tsho Rolpa which I somehow managed in one hit. Easy (thankfully) walk below the lake to our campsite at 4700. I have no appetite still.
December 18 Damn These Pants And Their Saggy Crotch, At Least Be A Target.
Today was a slog up to 5200, back down to 4900 then far too long walking up, down, left, up, across, up, down, etc on the disgraceful moraine covered Takarding Glacier. One of the more exhausting days of my life. No surprises when we hit the campsite, trash everywhere as usual. Tables, shoes, food, glass, whatever. Tent site is like a bath made out of sharp rocks. Woeful. No wind and a lot warmer than is to be expected at 5000m+
December 19 Don't Believe A Word He Says, That Fucker's No Martyr.
Hem, Hira and Bramod left us this morning, sad to see them go. Especially Hem, the original porter. Finally got off the glacier, had a very steep, in some places near on vertical, climb up to the next section at 5300. Was quite fun actually, Ganesh got stuck on one section, hilarious. The porters were impressive as always with their awkward loads and Chhiri is half mountain goat for sure. On to another , the Drolambau, at least this one is halfway clean (meaning ice without the moraine topping). Camped on a morainey part again. This is about where Sir Ed saw his Yeti footprints and the pass we attempt tomorrow he claimed was the most difficult he'd ever done. Thankfully, glaciers move, it's now just a lump. Have a slight altitude headache that should be gone tomorrow. Feeling good.
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