Top of the World 2 - the road to Jomsom

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It was clear Jane's knee was not up to trekking Himalayan peaks (or hills) and looking for alternatives I had found the road to Jomsom. Only 120km away it looked a good option for a three day break before we went to Sikles with Mansiri.



The only serious offers we got were for privately hired jeeps with driver. This was not cheap. Buses looked at option but time was tight so we went for the former.



We were supposed to leave first thing on Sunday morning and got a call on the Saturday that it would be better to leave That evening and make the journey as far as Beni. a Bundh (strike) had been call that would effect all transportation, including jeeps, in the Pokhara province.



Bundhs have been a bit of a feature of our stay in Nepal. There was supposed to be another the day after we got back from Sikles that in fact never materialised and then on our last day one was called across Katmandu. It left the city earily quiet with most shops shut and only the odd taxi around. I am still trying to fathom the background to these strikes. Currently there is political tension because the Nepalese leaders are trying to get cross party agreement on a new constitution. It seems that the strikes are part of this negotiation and called by the 'Maoists'.



Beni is at the foot of the Kali Gandaki valley below Jomsom and capital of its own province. It was soon dark and difficult to appreciate the scenery as we wound our way over a 1500m pass to get there. The roads were narrow and rough in places especially when we got close to Beni.



The next day it became clear why the jeep was recommended. The 76km road to Jomsom follows the Kali Gandaki river valley up into the Himalayas. It passes through the 'deepest gorge in the world' cut by the river as the gigantic Himalayas were pushed up either side 40 million years ago. There is not a whisper of tarmac and on occasions the river bed is a better option to the road. Sometimes the road is also a river bed. It is the roughest road we have ever been on. It took 7 hours to negotiate the route. The ruts swayed the jeep this way and that until our neck muscles cried for help.



The scenery of course was stunning. As we entered the gorge foot bridges hung from the sides with vertigo inducing views of the river below. We met the occasional bus taking locals from town to town. It really is impressive the terrain the buses were negotiating. There was also the odd tourist hiking their way up as you are supposed to.



You come out of the Kali Gandaki gorge at Ghasa on the border of Mustang province. You have entered a high desert (it is in the rain shadow of the Annapurna peaks) similar to what we have seen at Breckenridge in the Rockies. You have also crossed a cultural divide with the majority of inhabitants North of here more Tibetan than Nepalese. We were driving up one of the few Trans-Himalayan routes. For a thousand years until the 19th century the key source of income for the inhabitants of Mustang was the trade in salt from Tibet and wheat from India.



Jomsom sits on the North West corner of the Annapurna Circuit trek, a 16 day walk around the range. It is at 2,700 metres and has the only airstrip around. It is alive in spring and summer with trekkers and in January many of the hostels are shuttered and shops are closed. The tourist office statistics showed that we were 2 of 400 or so in January whereas there are 15,000 tourists in each of the summer months.



We had selected two possible hostels and our choice was made easy because the OM Home hostel manager admitted his pipes were frozen. It turned out that the Hotel Tilicho did us very well.



You might not have thought so on first impression because it is right next to the airport entrance and we had a great view of the airstrip from the balcony outside our room. Apparently Jomsom airport is well known to affectionados of computer flight simulators as being one of the most dangerous. Despite daily flight schedules no planes landed or took off during our stay because of the wind.



The weather was beautifully clear and we were untroubled by the wind. The days were warm and in the absence of sun the temperature soon plummeted. It felt like you could reach up and touch the stars. The hotel owner, Sukendra, and his 'Tibetan' family gave us extra blankets (no hotels have heating in any rooms). We had also bought our sleeping bags.



As in any Nepalese town electrical power is sporadic and off for long periods as it is shared around the grid. This happens especially in winter when rivers, which generate a lot of the power, are low. The country has coping mechanisms (and in Pokhara and Kathamdu even an app for telling you when it will go off where). In Jomsom we used candles and a head torch for light. In the evening Sukendra had a great solution: He put a bucket of lit charcoal under the dining table. The table had a valence of blankets to hold in the heat. We all, the family and Jane and I as the only guests, sat round the same table to keep warm. It was toasty. When it was time for bed we made a dash to get under the blankets.



Each evening Sukendra would sit at the table and polish seven solid silver and seven brass cups. Apparently he awoke at 6am and fill them with fresh water as part of his twenty minute prayer ritual at his home shrine. He explained that his family were Nyingma Buddhists, one of the four strands of Tibetan Buddhism. In Upper Mustang they are Sakya Buddhists. Sukendra's family were Takhali, who had come down from Tibet many centuries previously way before the more recent migration created by the Chinese overthrow of the region. Their children were adults and the younger brother's family including his young kids helped at the hostel. Sukendra's oldest son was a DJ in Dallas, Texas! Sukendra also contracted to build for the government and we discovered that hanging bridge where we crossed the river below the airport was his work.



At meals we got to taste some typical Tibetan fare. In the evening they served Thurpa, basically a large noodle soup and at breakfast offered Tsampa porridge. This is made from fine milled barley and was good with fruit and sugar. Jane stuck to the oat variety.



On the full day we had in Jomsom we crossed over to the nearby village of Thini ("Tini"). The village was perched above terraces and had no roads. There were interconnecting slab paths between the houses. As we saw with all houses in Mustang the edge of the flat roofs were stacked with firewood - a safe place for a precious commodity in an environment with few trees.



In one street we found a women and boy crushing thin green fir twigs and brown roots in a communal mortar. She then sieved it to make a green powder. Sukendra later showed us how it was burnt as part of the prayer ritual to make an attractive odour.



I climbed up a side valley in the direction Lake Tilicho, the highest lake in the world and another day and a half's hike away. Jane stayed in the village to rest her knee. I quickly got to snow and found a small hillock to 'summit' at 3100 metres. Even at that height it still gave my lungs a workout. The views up and across the valley in the crystal clear air were stupendous. Nilgiri peak (7061m/23,303ft) to the South obscured Annapurna I (8091m/26,545ft) and the tenth highest mountain in the world). West across the valley was the majestic Dhaulagiri (8167m/26,764ft and seventh highest mountain in the world) alongside Tukuche peak (6920m/22,703ft). As I descended surround by these spires I met a small herd of Yak finding what they could to eat on the steep snowy hillside.



We were leaving Thini back to Jomsom when a passing lady, Santha, asked if we wanted 'rice'. It was passed 1pm and we fancied lunch so we agreed. She took us back to her small house and proceeded to make us a simple curry with rice (thakali) from scratch. She pressure cooked the rice and added dried Yak meat to a base of onion and potato for the curry. It was very tasty. We ate the lunch with the husband, Kulbahadur, who had returned from his work on the terraces. Above our heads more Yak meat and blood sausage hung to dry. She asked for 500 rupees ($5) when we said goodbye.



The winter months are by far the driest in the region. Sukendra and his family put glycerine and vasoline on their hands and arms every evening during the four winter months to stop them cracking. A key crop is apples (and an apple brandy) and we saw these as well as garlic, maize and ginger hung out to dry in the villages.



I was taken with the Tibetan brass 'singing bowls' and bought one from the only souvenir shop open in town. They made such a nice sound and their 'physics' intrigued me. It now weighs down my rucksack and I hope Catherine and Rene will take it home.



We drove back to Pokhara the way we had come. It was tiring with all the jolting on the rough road. It had been a long way for a relatively short stay and was well worth it to experience, however briefly, the high Himalayan environment and culture.

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Photos

A monk on his way up as we are on the way down
The holy Muktinath temple is another 2 days walk past Jomsom and was only accessible on foot in January