A truely beautiful morning in Bimtang.

---

Bimtang (3590m) – Tilije (2300m)

Awoke in Bimtang to a fairytale scene of fresh new snow everywhere with icicles on the trees, clear blue sky and surrounded by high peaks on all sides. It really was beautiful, albeit freezing cold!

Once I’d packed up and was waiting for the other guys I sat by the fire/stove in the kitchen and watched the lady make the breakfast for us. One interesting thing was that Tibetan bread and chipate are the same, that is a dough of barley flour and water, the difference is that the Tibetan bread is fried whereas the chipate is cooked over a naked flame.

It was silly hats day today so as you’ll see from the photos we started out in silly hats although due to the warming day they were discarded by mid-morning.

After breakfast we headed off into the fairytale scene with numerous stops to photograph as the sun slowly rose behind us.

Very soon we entered a forest of, what looked a bit like, redwoods and rhododendrons. It was lovely except with the sun now getting higher in the sky the snow on the boughs was softening and falling in big clumps. I think we all got hit at least once but with the temperature rising it wasn’t much of a discomfort.

A couple of stops for people to discard extra layers. This is always the challenge here as you either start out cold (my strategy) or after a relatively short period of time are overheating due to the exertion of the walking and rising temperature of the day.

After we left the forest we continued, always downward although the odd steep uphill thrown in to keep us honest, until we got to Chauli where we stopped for a lemon tea and devoured some of the chocolate wafer biscuits that Arch had purchased in bulk a few days earlier.

After the stop and feeling invigorated (the usual sugar rush after chocolate) we carried on through more rhododendron groves high above the Dudh Khola river that we had followed for most of the day.

Arrived in Gho (Goa) Early afternoon and considered stopping for lunch but decided to plod on and get to Tilije. This was turning into quite a long day after the very long day prior but we’re all feeling pretty good so nice to just plod on.

Finally got to Tilije at about 3.00pm. The guest house advertised hot shower which got us excited until it became apparent that it was solar and the sun hadn’t been out. So we’re looking like heading into day eight without a shower. All getting pretty dirty and presumably smelly but the old adage of not being able to smell yourself (or presumably people who smell the same as you) applies. It was noticeable that people we met on the trail tend to keep their distance. Perhaps the aromas or might just be four old blokes with scraggy beards and in Arch and my case dirty caps with salt crystals (from three weeks of sweat) adhered to the peaks.

After unpacking we went to the dining room and ordered a late lunch of local spring rolls and pokada (pokada are a local snack food comprising fried grated vegetable balls generally quite spicy). Unfortunately the kitchen must have been on a go slow as the food didn’t arrive until about 5.00pm. To compound things the pokada were, for the first time, stodgy and lacking in flavour. Immediately after finishing it we needed to order dinner which was all a bit confusing, so much so that Gordie chose to just call it a day and headed off to bed.

Sumon was planning on singing for us tonight but given Gordie’s absence we postponed his performance until tomorrow night. As an aside and by way of explanation, Sumon is one of the guys porters and is Himal’s cousin. He is actually a singer/dancer and performs at weddings and other celebrations. Looking at him you’d think he was the Justin Bieber of Nepal (small guy with orange dyed hair) but for nearly three weeks now he’s lugged a kit bag weighing about 15kg up and down hills without a complaint. Himal said he’s good for up to 50kg although I’m sure that would slow him down somewhat!

Anyway ,without a concert to watch we’re again off to bed early and all tuncked up by 8.00pm. If nothing else we’re setting records for early to bed.

---