In Nepal. Manaslu Circuit Days 4 to 10: over the snowy Larke La (5106 m)
Tuesday: Prok (2397 m) – Hinang Gompa (3200 m)
Wednesday: Hinang Gompa (3200 m) – Sama Gaon (3500 m)
Thursday: Sama Gaon (3500m): Acclimatisation day – Punggyen Gompa (3870 m)
Friday: Sama Gaon (3500 m) – Samdo (3860 m)
Saturday: Samdo (3860 m): Acclimatisation day – up the Mayol Khola / Samdo Glacier valley to the Yak Kharka and on up to 4760 m. Eye clinic and LED light distribution.
Sunday: Samdo (3860 m) – Dharmasala (4460 m)
Monday: Dharmasala (4460 m) – Larkya La pass (5106 m) – Bhimtang (3720 m)
You’ll have to wait for my Photos & Notes post for more details!
Off to Nepal to trek the Manaslu Circuit and Nar Phu, with Val and team, Sonia and Sara.
Up early on Tuesday to catch the 06.43 to London. Parked the car at the pay & display for the day – Phil returned from his long weekend in London / Witham later in the day and drove it home. We rendezvoused for coffee and croissant at Paddington.
Overnight flight to Kathmandu via Doha on Qatar Airways QR 0004 (LHR-DOH) and QR 0648 (DOH-KTM).
At KTM airport, the efficiency of the new improved tourist visa process (provided you fill out the form before you go) was offset by there only being 2 security scanners, plus Tihar Holiday meant luggage was slow to materialise.
Mingmi met me outside the new “international” entrance and organised a taxi to the Marshyangdi Hotel, Thamel.
Met Sonia and Sara, did some errands with Val, falafel wrap, had a nap. Dinner at Thakali Bhanchha Ghar.
On Thursday, S, S and I got a taxi over to Boudhanath Stupa for the morning. Back in Thamel, our coffee and cake quest was only partially successful – Tihar holidays struck again. Dinner at the hotel (Tihar again).
We set off early on Friday to drive from Kathmandu to Machhakhola – you can stay in the same jeep (provided it’s local) all the way through to Machhakhola, which is where the new road (rocky, dusty jeep track from Arughat via Arkhet Bazar, Sotikhola and Lapubesi) now runs to. In Machhakhola, the village Tihar party procession keep us entertained (to a point) through to the early evening.
Saturday: trekked Machhakhola (930 m) to Salleri (1360 m). We were on the proto-road all the way to the new bridge over the Budi Gandaki to Dobhan / दोभान (1050 m) – ie not nice walking. Once over on the west side of the river we were on the Manaslu Circuit trail – but the road is being carved out of the hillsides on the eastern side.
Sunday: trekked from Salleri (1360 m) to Deng (1870 m). Lots of landslides, some nasty ones between Nyak Phedi and Deng mean that the trail gets very narrow and precarious, with long, sheer drops down to the raging torrent down in the gorge below. Lots of up and down to the river too, where landslides have destroyed the trail completely.
Monday: trekked from Deng (1870 m) to Prok (2397 m). LED solar light distribution in Deng, Rana and Bihi. The hydo-electric power station high up in the forest just before Prok is now in service. Sara and I got stung by hornets at the old gompa in Prok.
You’ll have to wait for my Photos & Notes post for more details!
Woke to a misty morning on Tuesday, fog lingering late especially in the main A465 valley.
In not so good Nepal news, my inbox contained an email from Qatar telling me they’d cancelled my Doha-London flight and that I needed to rebook or request a refund. The reality proved not quite so alarming – they’d already rebooked me onto the flight that leaves an hour later.
Did weeknotes then headed out to walk Riverdale route. Beautiful day.
Riverdale loop – Lingering mist
Did not want to spend the afternoon sitting at my work desk. Dinner Deliveroo down at TJL’s – mushroom risotto and apple & blackberry crumble.
Wednesday and Thursday workdays were enlivened by the finalflailingdays of Liz Truss’s tenure as Prime Minister, our second dose of political chaos this year. It’s not like we haven’t got some huge social and economic problems to tackle as the Tories desperately try to cling on to power.
God knows who we’ll get next. I pray it’s not that lying philanderer Boris Johnson again.
Thursday’s non-politics highlight was an email from Val letting me know how much cash to bring with me to pay for the trek, and in what currency. Cutting it fine…. And on Saturday my eBay purchased down jacket arrived in the post. Phew. Now all I need to do is pack!
Into town early on Friday to drop Phil off at the station, return library books and for a small shop. Then home to rattle through some admin until CP arrived – main achievement was to sort out various Nepal-related paperwork.
Outside it was rainy; perfect for lighting the first fire in the log stove for the season, catching up and seeing C’s photos from London in the days after the Queen’s death back in September.
We managed a stroll to Kerrys Gate and back on Saturday before CP headed on towards The Valleys. Did a few bits and pieces in the garden – including liberating a blue tit from the greenhouse – started piling up more things onto the Packing Bed and did some LED updates. Fidgety day.
Not quite finished yet – Strawbs and Cherry Toms from the greenhouse
Very heavy rain overnight, and a few rumbles of thunder.
Leisurely start to Sunday. I treated myself to a pot of tea and toast in bed with the LRB. I’ve finished February!
Spent the morning powering through Picos Photos & Notes, mainly getting the blogpost prepped and photos into folders.
Dad and Jean arrived a little after midday. We had a stroll around the garden – lots of mushrooms have emerged, lots of different types – then over to Ewyas Harold for lunch at The Temple Bar Inn.
Back home, I did online check-in and seat selection for my LHR-DOH-KTM flights then spent a good few hours flickring more Picos photos. Watched a couple of episodes of Medici with soup for tea.
Today’s greenhouse bird was a robin!!!! I think it and the blue tit might have got in through the bottom vents – I noticed they were wide open. So I’ve closed them.
We’ve lots of thrushes around at the moment. They move in large flocks, sometimes landing on the lawn (looking for insects and worms?) and at other times take up residence in the yew trees. I’m not sure if they’re mistle thrushes or song thrushes.
Lots of different mushrooms / fungi on the lawn, along the hedge and by the willow stump.
Admin on Tuesday morning – including placing a winning bid on a RAB Ascent jacket to take to Nepal. Val’s not sure how well the stuff I usually borrow will have survived 3 years in storage in KTM.
Then walked Duffryn – Cockyard – Quarrells Green, picking blackberries on the last leg.
Usual work week, with LED Trustee Zoom after work on Tuesday, VWW on Weds and Family Zoom on Thurs. T called round with L and her parents on Thursday afternoon, handily when I had time to take a break from work. Lovely.
Busy day Friday – into Hereford for my COVID booster (I think all the fuss over my sodium levels put me on the “vulnerable” list). In and out in 5 mins. They were powering through. Then B&Q for kitchens and tree labels (we came away empty handed), Wren Kitchens (just mooching), DFS (on a whim, but I think we may have a winner on our conservatory sofa quest), Charity Shop Drop Off, Sainsbury’s (mainly for P to pick up a purchase from Argos, but a couple of jam doughnuts fell into the trolley too….), Tescos for Petrol, Home.
We were lunching al fresco when S & R-the-collie-pup materialised. Nice chat over coffee. R very cute, interested in everything, at the chewing everything stage – including the paint peeling off the patio table.
Did what I hope will be the final mow of the year, although leaf collection may require another. That said, not sure I’ll be able to fit that in before I head off to Nepal. Snipped some brambles out of the front hedge, pulled out some nettles by the old railway track, retied the regrowing wisteria, weed-killered the drive and ditch.
Caught up with Tom, then adjourned to the telly room – pizza for dinner. Yum.
Friday Night Pizza
Didn’t have a great night’s sleep – red wine or COVID jab, who’s to say – so rejigged plans for Saturday and made Damson jam in the morning (BBC Good Food recipe) and pottered in the afternoon. Rain first thing, then sunshine, then sunshine&showers (some v heavy) in the afternoon. This is when I really want a sofa to snooze on in the conservatory!
Six and a half jars of Damson Jam
Took things easy on Sunday as well. Another gorgeous day. Strolled Cockyard – Kerrys Gate, four buzzards on the long field down on Stone Street, more blackberries.
Tried to find a good spot to move the rhododendron to: I’m not sure the far end of the front lawn is a good spot – too exposed overground and too rocky/rubbly underground. After trying to dig holes by the pruned shrub and the willow tree stump, I finally settled on the old garden railway line, where one of the small conifers has died due to the summer’s drought – I think the tree at the back of the garage is a goner too. Didn’t actually move the rhododendron as clearing the ivy and digging the hole took a while.
After lunch, a zoom with the BJH folks, set up the trickle charger on the ride on mower, did a bit of joint admin with Phil then read for the rest of the afternoon before making Meera Sodha’s potato, chard and coconut curry for dinner.
Spent Monday mainly in Hereford with some local friends. Lovely! And another gorgeous sunny day.
Have spotted ripples in the small pond, and seen thrushes flying to/from it – so I think Phil’s repairing, refilling and rewilding the concrete pond is working.
Over by the bird feeders and bird bath we’ve seen the occasional long tailed tit and goldfinches, as well as the usual great tits, blue tits, coal tits, chaffinches, robins, wrens and dunnocks. There’s a red woodpecker every now and again – plus a young female pheasant and a young male pheasant, although never together.
Lilac cyclamen flourishing down by the rose garden and willow stump. Winter crocus on the wane by the bird feeders.
Just about caught up, apart from Picos Flickring and Photos & Notes.
Sunshine Club Talk and Lowland Leader training weekend.
Checking the map
Tuesday afternoon was my long awaited talk at the Sunshine Club in Kingstone. N’s mum had suggested me earlier in the year. So after a morning’s ‘work’ work it was over to Kingstone to talk to 30 ladies about my travels in Nepal. Tech set up was impeccable and the talk went well.
KMCA Social Zoom (sans drinks) in the evening.
Work as usual on Weds and Thurs. Off schedule VWW provided chance to see R and F as well as H. No Family Zoom on Thursday as on Friday afternoon I headed into Tupsley for tea and cake with dad and Jean, returned from their Northern Tour. The catch up was sandwiched between admin in the morning (including swopping over to my new iPhone – at last!) and supermarket shopping late afternoon / early evening. Courgettes proved hard to find.
Pizza for dinner – not had that for a while.
Early start on Saturday to rendezvous with JP for the drive to The Gower where we spent the weekend on a Lowland Leader training course courtesy of Matt Woodfield / Outdoor Matters (instructor) and the GVWC (£).
Lots to take in, and by Saturday afternoon I’d realised my extroverted introvert batteries were running empty. Looking back I haven’t had a day “off” since early September.
The Glorious Gower: Three Cliffs Bay
Beautiful weekend on the Gower mind, and the Gower Golf Club provided good value, great location accommodation and a tasty, filling dinner on Saturday evening. Thankfully, given we’d only got our outdoor clothes, the dining was not as fancy as the website photos suggest!
I’ve got to clock up 20 Quality Lowland Days and a First Aid Course (booked for early Dec) before my assessment. Looking at the diary, I reckon that’ll take 6-12 months.
Returned home to discover I’d just missed dad and Jean calling round after the Harvest Festival at Dore Abbey (with cake), and a young sparrowhawk crashing into the conservatory window.
Gorgeous sunny day on Monday, perfect for a walk with Phil as far as Kerrys Gate, then on to Tremorithic, back via Ewyas Harold Common and Dore Abbey. Ate a lot of blackberries.
Tremorithic Circuit and October Blue SkiesTremorithic Circuit and October Blue SkiesTremorithic Circuit and October Blue Skies
More than warm enough to lunch outside. Read and relaxed for the rest of the day. Strawberries and cherry toms from the greenhouse provided two types of tasty redness to our dinner.
