Dovan where the weather turned

4 Oct - Chomrong-Bamboo-Dovan

It's going to be another hard day! Woke up at 4am, couldn't get back to sleep. Feel well rested though and my body feels better today than yesterday. Peered out the window at 5:30am and saw clouds - okay, no sunrise view for us this morning. I stayed in bed.

Bharat says that the first half is up and down, but latter half of the day will be okay... 

the "long steep stone staircase" marked on the map makes me wonder

There's little evidence of the Dashain festival here. We are definitely on a hiking route, not a route through where people actually live. 

The cloud slowly peeled away and suddenly Annapurna South and Himchule burst into view. Over the next 30 minutes the whole range cleared with just enough lenticular cloud, thermals and mares tails to make the view interesting. 

We could see the river flowing from the glacier under Annapurna South, and above it the whole valley leading to the col between Annapurna South and Himchule.

Chenda shows her skills

We had breakfast outside, looking at the view. Noodle soup, Tibetan bread and boiled eggs (that I gave away).

Boiled eggs are not for me but everything else is meto

8am saw us heading down to Chomrong Khola, the river that comes down from that col between Annapurna South and Himchule. Steep down, a swing bridge to navigate across the river, then steep back up. We had a big variation in pace - I was firmly middle table - so plenty of rest stops to regroup.

Checking our trekker passes

Chomrong Khola from the new bridge.
Hmm, I can see why they replaced the old bridge. 

At the first tea stop I got to play with a gorgeous floppy kitten - her charms overcame my strict rules about touching animals. Skinny but not unhealthily so, she was completely trusting and totally chill - every single muscle was completely relaxed and her whole body was floppy. 

But, the call of "Chalou! Chalou!" went out and so off we all went.

Now we were walking through forest, still steeply up and with big wide flagstone stairs. A little bit busier now we were on the 'there and back' track. We were getting to know the people in the other teams walking with us. The Bangladeshi women. An Indian man with five friends from the same company, who have gone hiking in the Himalayas every year for the last twelve years. And, lots of Nepalis which is great to see.

Jenny heads up

Bamboo took longer to get to than I expected. We spent a long time chatting and eating and regrouping. We chatted to Expansion and somehow the topic got onto castes. He reckons that the caste system in Nepal is breaking down; marriages across castes are more accepted and there aren't barriers to lower caste people becoming professionals or businesspeople.

Meanwhile Chenda, being more observant than the rest of us, noticed that our itinerary ... included a "31 September" date. Oh. Bharat quickly rejigged things. We lost an (unnecessary) day in Kathmandu at the end of the trip.

Lunch was pasta in sweet tomato sauce - and the best momo of the trip. Meto meto! Rabi enthusiastically cut bamboo walking poles for everyone that wanted one. I thought nah, on the way back for me - until all the steps back to Bamboo were pointed out to me! Chenda very kindly gave me one of hers. 

Eventually, off to Dovan we set. A much gentler walk than we'd had up til now. Sarah found a lizard (Agamidae family, maybe, she said) - she was just the right person to do so. She gently handled it and showed it to a succession of passers-by.

Suddenly, Dovan! Much earlier than I expected, like 4pm. I bought the rs300 wifi, old school modem speeds but ok to get text messages in and out and let Twitter update. And Wordle of course. This was when I discovered Bryan's detox - he had brought no electronica at all. Bharat assured him we'd supply all the trip photos he needed, and he'd left Expansion's contact number before he went totally off grid for three weeks. Maybe I should try this sometime.

Dovan

A cup of Raksie appeared in front of me, courtesy of Bechan - with a chopped chili floating in it. I couldn't smell or even taste much of it [foreshadowing again] but it made my tongue and lips tingle. Good stuff.

Bharat had brought a pulseox meter with him, and it was interesting playing with it. My pulse ox levels were well down, and my heart rate was correspondingly higher. Because of the altitude. If I had had covid, it would be at the point where I'd be ringing an ambulance! [so much foreshadowing]

PulseOx at 2600m

As we settled into the common room, it started raining hard and got much cooler. My down jacket came out for the first time. Tonight I'd be zipped into my sleeping bag instead of laying on top of it. The forecast for the next few days is rainy and cold. What will happen to our views?

I was struggling through reading stuff and Bharat lent me some reading glasses. All of a sudden everything snapped into focus and it became much easier to see. Hmm. Maybe I have to face facts and use reading glasses.

Bunk allocations were a little bit fun again - only 3 or 4 bunkrooms for all of us. Somehow I ended up with a single room. Maybe they know about my snoring.

Apparently it's a short easy day tomorrow. But rainy and cool. Time to crack out the merino and the parka.