Showing posts with label karte. Show all posts
Showing posts with label karte. Show all posts

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Day 12 - February 10, 2010 - Second Day on the Trail


Karte to Chame

When we woke up and looked outside we realized that the sky had cleared and the sun was out. The goal for the day and the days to come is to make our way along the Mersandi River and gain altitude with our ultimate goal being Throng La Pass. We hit snow, first it came in patches, then it was covering the ground and eventually it was waist deep if one was to step off the beaten trail. All the rain we received the previous day ended up falling as snow at the upper elevations.














The local people were continuing life as usual and it was to our good fortune. The trails were heavily used, along the way we met donkey train after donkey train, all with packs full of supplies for the next village. Each time we met a heard of animals we'd have to step off the path and let them pass, there was usually a person or two dispersed between the front and back keeping the group moving and on course.

We stopped and had tea at a nice, snow filled village. We ended up staying for lunch, it turned out that the woman that owned the tea house we stopped at was in another village and it was just her 10-12 year old daughter left to manage it. Our guide Sujan and the two porters that were with us, Hera and Umesh, jumped in and helped the little girl, who seemed to be doing very well by her self as it was.




















We arrived in Chame at about 5:30, we checked in and changed, we gathered around the fire to talk and had a dhal bat set dinner. I was in bed at 9:30, but didn't sleep well, the temperature was in the low 30's and the elevation was 2750 meters (just over 9,000 ft) which i'm sure had a little bit to do with it.








Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Day 11 - February 9, 2010 - The Beginning

Go to Day 10
Go to Day 12


It ended up being a pretty long and rainy day. It was pouring when I woke up and it rained until 1 hour before we stopped for the day. It was an 8hr hike, but we stopped after 6 hours on the trail. There was lots of loose rock and tricky terrain. There is a lot of road construction going on which loosened a lot of gravel and stones. Throughout the day we could hear thunderous crashes in the distance of rocks naturally coming down from the sides of the canyon we were in.




We stopped frequently and had tea at the villages along the way. We had dinner in Karte which was amazing. Khem bought a live rooster and had it prepared in "burning feathers off over the fire" style. Part was made into regular curry and the burned feathers were mixed with cornmeal and made into a different dish that was supposed to be good for muscle soreness. We were able to sit in the kitchen and watch everything being prepared on the wood stove.

We also had "mustang coffee" which is raksi mixed with instant coffee. Raksi is distilled jar, it can be pretty strong stuff.

Go to Day 12