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October 4th
Today we walk 13km and climb 540m, reaching Crystal Guest House at Germuphant-Lanjung. It's pleasant trekking through rice fields with views of hillside terracing. We pass a woman spinning yak wool, and see other trekkers, many with guides and porters. Some of the loads they carry are huge! We cross a stream over which local youths are 'building a bamboo bridge'. They laughingly ask us for a donation: we oblige. On the approach to the bridge Kevin rocks off a stone, and his ankle goes 'crunch'. The rest of the day is a painful hobble.
Our rooms are quite adequate, in a pretty hostel. There's an 'ugly thing' on the wall tonight: it doesn't want to be caught and disappears down a crack. We pull the beds (how thin the mattresses are!) away from the walls.
October 5th
Our 3rd trekking day. The ankle hurts and is pretty swollen. We wonder whether this trek might be shortlived. It's a convenient time to discover that Angela is a nurse and Laia a physiotherapist. They apply their skills and construct very efficient strapping.
As we walk today, we gradually leave the rice fields behind and move into gorge country. Lots of climbing today (we will eventually reach 1700m). Marijuana grows wild here (Mark creates a photo opportunity) and we also spot (and photograph) Liz's greenhouse plant: we never discover what it's called! Lunch is taken at Chamje, It's a big day and we're all very tired. But what a walk this is! The scenery is stunning. The path is a stream of locals and trekkers, families and porters carrying huge loads. Everything used must be carried up the hill - we saw a new fridge on the move today! Angela 'went to school' today - saw the classes and spoke to the headteacher. Very old fashioned tables and chairs. No toys, pictures or books here. We finish at Tal,
And stay at Evergreen where our hosts are charming. We take photos in the kitchen. Mark and Miguel sample 'local beer' (it's white, made from maize and tastes……very odd. Mark thinks it's 'a strange meeex'). Tonight we sleep on soft pillows, new mattresses in pine panelled rooms and have hot showers. This turns out to be one of the best houses of our trip.
October 6thtrekking day 4
To Bagarchap (2140m) in the rain. Only a short day (we finish at lunchtime) as we're very wet! We traverse through two big (cold) waterfalls on the way. We see nasturtiums, bugle, dahlias, docks, mullein and comfrey. Anna, Laia and Mark decide to continue to the next village, and so our group goes from 7 to 4. They've been good company, and we've laughed a lot!
We stay at Marysandi Hotel (100NR or 80p) for the room. It's cosy and we return after tea……………woah!!!!!!!! What's that on the wall???? Certainly too big to handle. Our hosts grin and tell us that 'in our culture it is good fortune to share our house with spiders'. Yeah, us too, but not when they're plate sized! It's (eventually) removed with laundry tongs: the beds are moved to the middle of the room…… and we sleep soundly (ha ha).
October 7th
It rained all night and all morning (the raindrops were seriously big!)We walk for 30 minutes to Danakyu, but the bridge is down, and everything stops. We find a hotel which looks OK, but turns out to have a design fault (the walls and ceilings don't meet) and it's freezing! The outside temperature is only 10º and of course it's still pouring down, and the wind is howling. Even the chickens shelter. We exchange grumbles with Didier and Pascale from Toulouse, and stick it out until 4pm. Our move across the road causes quite a bit of stress! Our new hosts are most welcoming: we stay in their family room and they provide us with a charcoal brazier - refilled every hour. We dry all our kit.
October 8th - day 6
We awake in the morning to blue skies and the first views of snow-clad mountains. We cross the newly built bridge and join the queues to climb the hills. It turns out to be another hard day as we cross a succession of spurs and valleys. We pass many hill villages; vultures pass overhead, there are roses and dahlias in pots. Walls and verges grow hollyhocks, Virginia creeper and love-lies-bleeding. We pass an old woman: she's selling ginger and mushrooms, while chain smoking. It rains again in the afternoon and it's still cold. The trail is busy today with trekkers and locals 'backed up' after our enforced rest. We trek today for 4 hours to Chame (2670m) where we send postcards home (they'll go by donkey), and buy Nepali hats for 150NR. We meet parties descending from Manang - there's a metre of fresh snow and they've had to abandon. We keep our fingers crossed.
We find a pretty little hotel in which to stay. Torrential rain again during late afternoon and evening: we go to bed only to be woken by a huge roar and a shaking room. We evacuate and our torches reveal a collapsed wall which has ended up on our room. Exciting stuff!!
October 9th - day 7
Blue skies today and our first views of Annapurna 2 - simply stunning! The cameras go wild. We trek to Lower Pisang (3250m) and it's starting to feel high. We're tired too - carrying packs (only 11kg and 9kg) is new for us, and so is the length of this trek. We begin to understand 'how big it all is'.
We walk from 7am to 11am and find lodgings in a tiny family home which has only 3 rooms and a dining area with a big fire (cooking and heating). A charming couple make us very welcome. We've become a group of 6 as Ellie and Ramon (from Barcelona) join us.
We walk to Upper Pisang where there's a monastery. We listen to the monks chanting (they've crisps and cups of tea) and see our first yaks. Impressive!
We sit around the fire and have cookery lessons (vegetable spring rolls).
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