Herefordshire Week 205: Tuesday 28 November 2023 – Monday 04 December 2023

Week 205.

All being well, I’m back from Nepal and had a brilliant trek to Kangchenjunga & over Lumba Sumba with Val Pitkethly Mingmi.

December, eh….

05 Dec 2023: Update: Yep, I’m home, after a week that took me from the sunny hills above Kathmandu to the damp, grey skies of Herefordshire. But I’m home!!!

Settling in....
Settling in….

Tuesday and Wednesday I was still in Kathmandu. A relaxing morning at the Chharari Retreat on Tuesday then back to the Marshyangdi and Thamel. Treated Mingmi and Tenzee to a falafel wrap lunch, then shopped. Met Annick for dinner at the New Orleans, Mandala Street. Tiredness catching up with us all.

Wednesday was our last full day in Nepal and was earmarked for three things: indulging in the Hotel Marshyangdi buffet breakfast (the fresh fruit in particular), shopping and dinner with M&T’s family. We managed two out of three. The last didn’t happen, and put a big damper on the whole trip.

Thursday was the long flight back to the UK. An early start thanks to Qatar bringing our KTM-DOH flight forward by 2 hours, and a corresponding longer layover in Doha’s Hamad International Airport – home of the $9 coffee and $25 curling cornered sandwich…..

Perishing cold in London. Thankfully the Gresham Hotel was only a short, cold, walk from Paddington train station and was warm and snug. M&S “bits” for “supper” (not a term I usually use), eyelids held open with metaphorical matchsticks. Then sleep.

We’d got up at 4.30am Nepal time and were in bed 10.30pm UK time = a 23 hour 45 minute day = Knackered and a headache.


I slept better than expected and only really woke up around 7am on Friday morning. Breakfast in the basement – very efficient and ruthlessly clean, these ladies could teach Tumlingtar’s squalid Hotel Makalu a thing or two! – took me back to the one and only visit to London I had as a child – I can still picture the poppy wallpaper and recall my amazement at a Dining Room being deep in the depths, and with no windows.

Trundled back to PAD for our respective GWR trains home, mine on the overcrowded 09.52 through the frosty fields to Herefordshire.

Last leg ..... almost
Last leg ….. almost

Phil met me at Hereford station and we headed home for a late lunch of homemade fresh bread, a cheese board, hummus and carrots. All my meal dreams come true.

And in the evening, pizza!

Friday Night Pizza!
Friday Night Pizza!

Saturday and Sunday featured lots of unpacking and washing and computer admin. Caught up with T & L for a couple of hours on a wet Sunday afternoon. Saturday started cold and frost and stayed cold and frosty all day.

Frosty morning, Forty Acres
Frosty morning, Forty Acres

Monday was mostly admin, including doing my tax return – woo hoo – and Christmas present wrangling.


Lots of sparrows back on the bird feeders. Lots of squirrels in the garden. Lots of finally fallen leaves. And a leaf mulch bin, courtesy of my lovely husband!

Leaf mulching
Phil’s photo – Leaf mulching

TV: Beckham (guilty pleasure, but it is a pleasure!), The Bear (season 1 – not sure it’s my thing), Grand Designs (Series 23, Episode 9: South Herefordshire), Andor.

Podcasts: Anglo-Saxon England

Audiobook: Mrs England – Stacey Halls


Photos: Herefordshire week 205 on Flickr.

Phil: w/e 2023-12-03.

Kanchenjunga Base Camp and the Lumba Sumba Pass: We’re (almost) back!

Hello from Kathmandu!

We got back yesterday from our 25 day trek in the far east of Nepal – well away from the earthquake. Starting walking from Sekathum we went north to Kanchenjunga Base Camp (north side) then backtracked a bit before heading west over two passes – the Nango La and Lumba Sumba.

The Lumba Sumba is technically 3 passes, all over 5000m, and we had stunning views of Kanchenjunga, Jannu (and more) in one direction and Makalu and Baruntse (and more) in the other.

Lumba Sumba, first pass. Looking east towards Kanchenjunga.
Lumba Sumba, first pass. Looking east towards Kanchenjunga.
Makalu from Lumba Sumba's third pass
Makalu from Lumba Sumba’s third pass

Amazingly lucky with the weather – blue skies pretty much every day, with the odd afternoon of cloud on a couple of days.

We are now indulging in two days relaxing at the Chharari Retreat high in the hills above Kathmandu, before a couple of days back in the thick of things in Thamel then flying back to the UK on Thursday and catching the train home to Herefordshire on Friday.

Room 107, Chharari Retreat
Room 107, Chharari Retreat

I’m getting a “Trekkers Massage” later today, we had fresh fruit for breakfast and they have fresh roast and ground coffee in the rooms and organic shampoo and body lotion in the en suite (The En Suite!) – luxury!!

Prayer flags, Ghuna deurali
Prayer flags, Ghuna deurali

So, the trek…..

We flew to Bhadrapur, jeeped through tea plantations to Taplejung (1 day, tarmac) and then on to Sekathum (1/2 day, dirt track). From there, a gradual ascent (with plenty of descents en route) through mostly tiny villages to Lhonak at 4700m. A cold and frosty place but a very warm welcome.

Lounging Ladies at Lhonak
Lounging Ladies at Lhonak

From there we did KBC there and back in a (long, cold but clear) day, then returned to the relative metropolis of Ghunsa (3500m) via Kambachen (4100m).

At Kanchenjunga North Base Camp
At Kanchenjunga North Base Camp

You can get fresh ground coffee and good solid chocolate cake in Ghunsa….

Coffee and cake, Ghunsa
Coffee and cake, Ghunsa

Then we headed west, off the beaten track and over the Nango La and a few days later, the three passes of the Lumba Sumba. There were then a further 5 days trekking out to Num, each day involving A Lot of Up and Down.

At the Nango La
At the Nango La

The contrast between the KBC section and the rest of the trek was striking. On the KBC we met lots of trekkers (Hello, Snickers-fuelled Andorrans!) and stayed in tea houses. Once we turned off that trail an hour south of Ghunsa and started trekking west we were mainly camping or staying in relatively basic “hotels” / homestays, until we got to the end of the trek in Num. The exception was Olangchugola where we stayed in a tea house along with a fair few trekkers (Hello, Belgians!). They’d only had about 50 people trek to / through the village this whole year, and later, in Honggon, we heard that we were only the 3rd group of trekkers to cross over the Lumba Sumba this year.

Olangchungola tea house
Olangchungola tea house

The vegetation was very different to either side of the Lumba Sumba. On the KBC side, we were walking through forests of glorious golden autumn larches, bronze barked birches, glossy green and gold rhododendrons and deep green juniper. On the Arun khola side we had lots of bamboo, tall trees and, as we descended, lots of very lush growth of all sorted of trees, shrubs and plants. Cardamom covered the lower slopes for the first couple of days and the last couple too. Butterflies galore.

Cardamom
Cardamom

The trails were clear – lots of stone steps and slopes where the trail is still the main route between mountain villages and yak pastures. But they really hugged the hillside in places and some of the drop offs were sheer and went a long way down, particularly once we were following the upper sections of the Arun river. So, not recommended if you get vertigo….

There is also a lot of ascent and descent, pretty much every day, rather than the steady ascents / descents of routes further west. Tiring towards the end, when we were trekking down to the river and back up high again at least once a day. And the final day, from Ghadidanda to Num came with a 300m descent to the construction site of one of the hydro power stations being constructed on the Arun, followed by a hot and sweaty couple of hours going straight up the 500m to Num. We earned a beer that day.

End of trek photo with Mingmi (and beers) at Num.
End of trek photo with Mingmi (and beers) at Num.

Lots of bridges – some metal suspension, others new built wooden replacements for ones that get washed away…

Rock and wood bridge, Lhonak
Rock and wood bridge, Lhonak
Suspension bridge over the Ghunsa khola
Suspension bridge over the Ghunsa khola

….. and lots of landslides – the most I’ve encountered on a trek, and the most challenging too, particularly high above the Yangma Khola between the Nango La and Olangchugola village.

The two passes were easy. With no snow to complicate things, it really was just a matter of walking and a lot of up, then a lot of down.

Although we only had 7 nights camping, they were memorable with multitudes of stars, the Milky Way, fingernail moons and bright shining Venus. And yaks… which are not very familiar with guy ropes it turns out.

Yak Jamboree No 1 campsite. Frosty morning.
Yak Jamboree No 1 campsite. Frosty morning.

Our return flight was from Tumlingtar, where we stayed in the most squalid hotel ever. Avoid Hotel Makalu if you’re ever there, although I’m not sure anywhere else is much better. It’s very much an airport village. The jeep journey from Num is a bumpy 4+ hours, until you reach the tarmac at Khandbari.

A big, big thank you to our main guide, the wonderfully calm and competent Mingmi Sherpa, and her brother Tenzee and Mingmi, our local Taplejung guide who completed our trio of guides. Dali and his kitchen team fed us feasts full of flavour while we were camping, and our porters where all lovely, and very good at getting a camp fire going…..

Campfire
Campfire

Thanks – and credit – to Steffi for the photos! Mine are still on the old school camera SD cards….

And big, big thanks to Val for the inspiration, planning and coordination. We missed you!