Today, trekking of the one-foot-in-front-of-the-other variety started in earnest. We woke surprisingly unscathed from our bus ordeal the day before and after breakfast the porters Ram and Nima divided our belongings, leaving us with our lightweight day packs for water, camera and bric-à-brac. The experiences of the day quickly exposed our inexperience in mountain trekking. Bric-a-brac must be carefully chosen to deal with all eventualities.
Shivalaya is prettily located on a riverside, a collection of farmhouses, trading stores and trekker lodges. A 2,000 rupee toll was extracted from us for entering the newly created Conservation District. (Forget the wildlife; first do something about the roads to the area!)
We left Shivalaya in sunshine at 1,700 m with an unforgiving slog uphill for 3 and 1/2 hours on a route marked by red and orange dots daubed on the rough schist cobbles and giant steps glittering with gneiss and mica. The route is well used by local villagers who breezed past us, and herdsmen with their nervous dzo (yak/cattle cross). Neat, thick-walled stone houses with brightly coloured window frames line the route and we passed right through front yards and by open doors and windows catching glimpses and scents of daily life in these lower reaches.
We were entering the borderlands between the lowland Hindu tribes and the Buddhist Sherpa hill tribes, and the transition could shortly be seen by the low mani walls and small Buddhist stupas on the borders of villages as we progressed further uphill. Mani walls are made of large slate tiles endlessly inscribed with the mantra "Om mane pudme hum". We passed these and the stupas on our right hand side, as dictated by tradition.
We soon shed our too-warm clothing and rested frequently, getting our wind, gradually becoming more physically able, and were finally rewarded by a tea stop at Deurali on the ridge top at 2,720 m overlooking the valley holding our destination, Bhanda. 1,000 m elevation gained so far. Sweet, stewed milk tea never tasted better!
Our guide Gopal called an early stop because of threatening weather. It's not worth getting fatigued and cold and sick so early in the trek. In the final half hour before Deurali the weather had closed in, low scudding clouds grazing the hilltops and a chill on the sudden wind. The visibility, already limited by the smoke haze, became dull charcoal and as we were finishing our tea, it started raining, slowly at first, swelling to large fat drops that were probably hailstones a thousand metres above us. Our too-warm clothing was donned and soon became not-warm-enough/ not-waterproof-enough clothing.
About 1 & 1/2 hours later we slopped into the Buddha Lodge in Bhanda, at 2,200 metres, chilled and grateful for the shelter. A change of clothing, tea and lunch improved things while the rain stopped. Three young lads in their 20's that we'd been pacing all day decided to press on another 3 hours to Kinza, which on a better day we might have attempted. Shortly after they left the rain resumed, this time harder than before. I hope they made it. They were unguided and carrying heavy packs and lightly dressed.
As the sun sets the weather has lifted, the smoke haze has cleared and we can for the first time clearly see snow capped peaks on our route ahead. The peaks are above 4,000 metres so we have a way to go. We are behind our planned schedule by at least half a day and we have to catch up. The highest challenge in the next couple of days is 3,600 m and hopefully by then we'll be a bit more robust. Right now, we're all a bit knocked out. The lodge is unheated so there is only body heat to make up the temperature difference between the frigid outside and a tolerable bunk room temperature. This will worsen as we get higher.
