An awesome day

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Day 3 Machha Khola – Jagat



A really awesome day!

Up at 4.30am and ready to depart at 5.00. Walked down through the village past the pony corrals and onto a rough track on the bluff above the river. A couple of places just a foot wide track on the face of the bluff with the river below, a bit hairy and some of the German woman were quite unnerved by it.

We the came to a flat area where a man stopped us, as they were dropping rocks from above onto the track. We were there for about half an hour during which time probably 30 people and 50 ponies had congregated in the small flat.

There was a group of about eight guys working on the hillside above prying loose and rolling down rocks. Not a safety harness in sight yet they were working over a sheer drop of perhaps 30m.

Finally the “stop-go” guy gave the word and a mad scramble to get moving, everyone wanting to get ahead of the ponies but the ponies pretty quick off the mark.

Notable were the children some as young as five or so walking with mothers to distant villages. This was tough walking, up and down, lots of exposed trail where one step wrong and you would plunge off the side, yet these kids just wandered along. We kept seeing the same families all day which meant some of them walked for seven or more hours and seemingly without complaint. Testimony to the toughness of these Nepalese people.

We did have one really difficult river crossing where you needed to try to find a way across exposed rockers and boulders. All made it across dry except one of Arch’s feet which unfortunately went in above the top of his boot.

Stopped for breakfast at about 10.00 at Dobhan. Omelettes and Tibetan bread all washed down with the usual lemon tea.

Just like last time lemon tea has become the staple drink, it is refreshing and tasty and available everywhere. You buy it either by the cup or based on the thermos size they serve it in, that is small, medium or large. Coming in a thermos it stays warm for a long time so is good to have in the afternoons and evenings when just sitting around.

Gordy spent all day fighting with and complaining about the water bladder in his backpack. Seemed it had a blockage of some sort and he could only drink if his pack was lying down. Somewhat sheepishly he told us later he had it in upside down!

About an hour after breakfast stopped at the “big rock” and it really was a big rock, a village was sort of built around it with the rock right on the side of the river gorge. We climbed to the top from which the views up and down the river were great, although it was pretty hazy at the time.

We then carried on to Jagat. More “Nepalese flat” meaning we didn’t really gain altitude but constantly were either climbing steeply or going downhill equally steeply. All pretty tiring especially given our early start.

Got to Jagat at about 2.30pm so a good 9.5 hour day. We’re pretty weary when we got there so didn’t shop around for tea house to stay, just grabbed the first one as we entered the village.

Village pretty small only perhaps a twenty dwellings and three tea houses, ours probably the roughest but frankly after a long day we weren’t overly fussy. It did have a hot shower which made up for all other issues.

McVet and I thought we had a wardrobe or similar off our room but were treated to a pleasant surprise when we opened the door, a western style toilet. Complete with the obligatory leaking plumbing, it does seem plumbing isn’t a strong suit amongst the Nepalese. Gordy and Arch had a similar door in their room but unfortunately it was An unfinished toilet, bowl but no plumbing!

About 5.00pm a storm rolled in, complete with rai and thunder and lightning. Deafening on the tin roof with no ceiling or insulation!

While we were playing cards in the eating room it turned to hail and the hails found its way through the roof flashings so we have to contend with hail stones on the card table.

I had the first dal baht of the trip, great and felt like a days worth of energy. Dal baht is essentially lentil soup served with rice, various vegetables curried and generally some pickled vegetables or fruits. Always different and very much the staple diet of the local people up here.

Off to bed at about 7.30pm as we were all pretty weary after a big day.

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Photos

Waiting while the workmen throw rocks from the hill above.
This was the Nepalese equivalent of the stop go man except there was just and old guy and no sign.

Happy at the end of the day!
Oops you may have noted in the previous posting this was wrongly captioned