Day 11 - February 9, 2010 - The Beginning

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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.

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Day 10 - February 8, 2010 - The Departure

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We got up at 7am and packed all our bags and ropes in and on a taxi. The taxi took us to a place where the "micro bus" was leaving. It was about a 4 hour drive to Besisahar, we stopped once along the way to have lunch. When we arrived at our destination we had to wait for a 4x4 to drive us up to Syange which is where the actual trail starts.

It seemed like a long ride, especially after the original 4 hours. It was another really cramped and bumpy two hours. We arrived in darkness around 6:45 and we unloaded as Sujan booked rooms for all of us. After moving in for the night we went up to the dining room area to have some tea and talk about the upcoming trip. We ordered dinner and I'm writing as we wait for it. Tomorrow we start hiking, I think it may be an easy day? (ha!). Current elevation 1,100 meters (3608 feet).

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