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Published: April 5th 2018
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Truck and bus got stuck trying to pass each other.
Took about 20minutes to sort this out and get underway again Firstly apologies but there is going to be a bit over a weeks blogs downloaded in the next hour or so as this is the first internet We’ve had.
Finally the big day where we get underway is upon us! Up quite early and b real fast downstairs followed by coffee down at Black Olive. It appears with us in Kathmandu there has been a spike in dry bag sales and McVet ensured this continued for another day by purchasing one more.
Trip to Soti Khola is about 125km and takes about 7 hours, hard to believe but indicative of the state of the Nepalese roading.
Met Himal at the hotel and walked around the corner to the waiting Jeep, actually a Mahindra. Mahindras are Indian knock off Jeeps but ten time simpler and consequently ten times more reliable, something we were grateful for as the day progressed.
Porter bags and Gordy’s and my pack on the roof and off we go.
Stopped on the outskirts of Kathmandu to pick up one of the porters. Chris bought some Oreos while we were stopped which were a blessing later given the time we were in the Mahindra
without stopping for lunch.
Road out of Kathmandu was congested, dusty and dense diesel fumes from the large number of trucks and busses. A mad dance of busses, trucks, cars with pedestrians and motorbikes thrown in for good measure.
Made pretty good time to where we left the main Pokhara Road and were starting to think the 7hours was overly generous, we’d gone 60km in two hours and only another 60 to go. Then it all changed!
The road became a total dust bowl driving in front sandy dust from where they were recutting in into the hillside. Never seen anything like it if you caught another vehicle or one came the other way visibility was zero. Actually zero you couldn’t see the end of the bonnet. With massive drops off the sides it was all rather precarious but seemed to work and we crawled along up hills back down into river valleys and back up again.
The switch backs made the Crown Range road look almost straight!
After about an hour of this , having gone about 10km we came upon a truck and bus that couldn’t get past each other so had to
wait while everyone dismounted the bus and the locals slowly edged them past with the help of bug rocks under wheels to tilt them away from each other. We then carried on for another couple of hours until we came across a stoppage where a guy in a digger was digging a hole in the middle of the road ,actually around a blind corner. Took him about half an hour to create a ditch that was wide enough that the line of trucks and Jeeps could pass.
One notable thing was as we moved further towards Manaslu the number of new buildings either being constructed or finished to the point of habitation. This area was the epicentre of the 2015 earthquake and was devastated.
The journey continued in this vein with a few more stops and much more dust until we finally reached Soti Khola.
Packs on the roof rack we totally coated in red dust. Tried pretty hard to dust off but will need to just live with in until we get a big downpour which might rinse it off! I had the mistake of putting the grandkids Easter rabbit on the outside of my pack so he finished looking like he’d been through five rounds of mud wrestling!
Got rooms at the Hotel Green Valley. Rooms are very basic but probably better than we will get later in the trip so enjoying the luxury of concrete floor and cold showers.
Really great to be here in the Himalaya foot hills. We all feel excited about what lies in front of us and so very fortunate to be able to undertake this.
Momos before dinner with McVet in his PJs as he washed his shorts before discovering they were the only pair he had! He went off in search of another pair of shorts and much to our surprise returned with a pair a quite nice Jack Wolfskin (knock-off) hiking shorts.
Cards after dinner with McVet teaching Arch and Gordy and refreshing me on the rules of rummy.
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