Jagat to Dharapani

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Today we left Jagat early after a quick breakfast and started out on a great day of trekking, not too strenuous and mainly through really beautiful surroundings. Initially we trekked amongst shady, sun-dappled forests through streams and alongside small trickling waterfalls. We crossed the river several times across bridges which inspired varying degrees of confidence with frothy, pale blue water crashing over the rocks below. Needless to say these tested Clarisa's nerves as she is not keen on heights, or moving bridges as she found out. The ones with gaps in or broken hand rails tested me too I must say! Later we came across steeply piled massive rocks making up the valley sides. It was here we encountered a large group of Chinese trekkers and we were all enjoying the great weather and tackling the first steep slopes of the valley. After some amazing rest stops on the hills the trail descended again and wound round opening up into a wide valley floor. We passed a sign telling us we'd entered into the Manang district and soon after a wall of prayer wheels which we sent flying round. We stopped for lunch at what we nicknamed Barbie's teahouse painted a ferocious shade of pink with some lovely red to contrast. Despite the alarming decor the food was good and I had some momo's which were delicious. The sun was really starting to beat down as we ate and I managed to find a small bottle of sun lotion from a local stall and slapped some on before we headed down to the safe drinking water station to refill. They keep some kind of register of all who use it and how much, I guess safe drinking water is a commodity here. It is also so much better than buying bottled water which contributes to local pollution and is not safe to drink anyway. I heard somewhere that 90% of bottled water in Nepal contains faecal matter- could be an urban myth but i'm not going to test it! We reached Dharapani by afternoon and stayed in at a lovely guesthouse. We met an British guy on a trek alone with a guide, he had some experience in the Annapurnas and (like so many) had come back for more. Clarisa was unwell by evening and concerns were raised over the so-called safe water. Sonam, Gansa and I had also drunk plenty so we wondered if it was food or even exertion-related vomiting. It did settle after the cure-all of all gastro symps, flat coke, was administered! I had a different version of dhal bhatt whilst Clarisa made a brave attempt at some momo's without much success. We got an early night partly due to this and partly because Sonam requested an early start (again, groan!) We head to Chame tomorrow where will visit out first Buddhist monastery, so excited!

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