markhowartharcher

My Tsampa porridge was very watery this morning and the apples in it didn’t taste too good at all, after yesterdays bad experience I really was not really looking forward to today. Starting the day with bad porridge was exactly what I didn’t need! I was however feeling much livelier today after 15+ hour+ sleep! The first 1 ½ hours of the walk were not promising at all, even at this early time I could feel the wind starting to howl and once again we were following a boring dry, dusty rived bed. Would there be no mercy for me? Well fortunately yes there would be. About 3 hours into the journey we arrived into a small village called Larjung, at this point the scenery instantly changed for the better, once again I saw the beautiful ... read more

It was not a good nights sleep for me or anyone else at high camp, indeed I was somewhat lucky in that I did manage to get at least a few hours sleep, my guide KC didn’t manage to get any at all and I’m sure plenty of others suffered the same. It had been a bitterly cold night (I believe about -10 centigrade) and the high altitude had made breathing difficult. I woke up in the middle of the night struggling to breath and it took a good hour or so for me to calm myself down, relax and get back to sleep. We departed camp at 06.15am, others had left at as early as 04.30am so were walking in the dead cold of the night, well below zero and also in the dark. Not ... read more

Today was to the start of the big 3 day journey over the Throng La Pass and it didn’t start well. Despite sleeping better than the previous night I woke up with a dull headache in my right temple and felt very lethargic. To top this off my muscles also felt stiff, probably a result of running back to Manang the previous day. The walk to Gunung (3,900m) was much more strenuous than it had been the day before taking around 2 ½ hours instead of the 1 hour and 10 mins it had taken the day before. The scenery was of course again fantastic but I found it hard to focus on anything other my headache and my higher than usual fatigue. Oh yes altitude was very much taking effect today. The walk to Yak ... read more

The first half of today’s walk contained some relatively mundane river and pine woodland scenery, it wasn’t that the scenery was ugly, far from it, it was just that it did not contain the barrage of knock out views we had seen yesterday. Had I taken this walk anywhere else I’m sure I would have been praising the scenery but standards here are high, anything less than spectacular is mundane. Part two of the trek was however a different beast altogether, things once again became rather interesting. Veering right from the sheltered woodland/riverside area the landscape around the trail very quickly opened into a large, dry rocky valley. To the front and right hand side of us were a mighty range of lifeless grey rocky mountains, completely devoid of any greenery. Around us the woodland thinned ... read more

After a fabulous sleep I start the day with a local speciality, Tsampa porridge. Made from barley, sugar, water and a little milk it is brown in colour and thick and smooth in texture. When it is placed in front of me I think good god what have I done, this large bowl of thick, brown gunk does not appear to have been a good choice. However, on further inspection things start to look up. It smells good, a little like peanut butter and it’s cement like texture is somehow reassuring. When I come to finally tasting it I realise that my initial fears were misplaced, it tastes good, really good in fact! Sweet, a little nutty, thick yet perfectly smooth, it makes for a very satisfying breakfast and blows boring oat porridge well out of ... read more