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October 5th We're off on our own! The first leg of our journey was rainy, but pleasant and peaceful. We arrived at our first checkpoint in Rilkor and actually met up with Nate's group who was still waiting for a hot, fresh lunch. I guess Tibetan food is pretty involved so we were there for about 2 hours while the food was mixing with the spices and we were drinking cups of chai. Unfortunately, a different NOLS course (backpacking) came in and invaded our peace and this wouldn't be the last time...
Nate's group left with a half an hour lead and we continued onto Mapang. In Mapang, the solitary teahouse/rest house that made up the entire village was absolutely PACKED with those obnoxious backpackers that are slowly becoming the bane of my existence. At the moment, I had no interest in standing outside while it was sleeting at a 45 degree angle and the weather was only getting worse so we moved on to try setting up our tent instead of sleeping in the small shack.
We faced the weather and our gloves were soaked and freezing. We set up our tent in record time and scrambled inside after jamming the rest of our stuff under the vestibules and we could finally take a breath. I knew that everyone was exhausted and the weather was certainly killing everyone's spirit so I made sinner and everyone went to bed to the thundering rain on the fly, even though the sun wasn't even down yet.
October 6th Our second day off on solos and I just rolled into Rarigari. I start setting up a sleeping area under a roof and am looking forward to drying off but soon found out that my sleeping back is soaked inside and out! The beginning of the day started with packing up our ridiculous wind-storm campsite and trying to book it to Nahar for breakfast which ended up being an extra full hour away and we were crazy hungry when we got there. Nate's group had stayed there the night before and hadn't yet left and all twenty backpackers took up nearly the entire rest of the hut! Luckily, we found a seat and ordered eggs and biscuits.
After Sam got the feeling back in his hands, we hit the second checkpoint in Bugdia just a bit later. The border patrol even showed us a special piece of paper warning of potential landslides and the dangerous road ahead (they assumed that us three women wouldn't be able to handle the challenges - ha!). We then got into Siuni not too long after that, only to again meet up with the boys as they were finishing lunch and about to leave. It's nice to meet up with them every so often for safety's sake even if this trail is no more difficult than the other valley we hiked. A Black Redstab also befriended us today and came all the way from Nahar to Bugdia with us, such a beautiful orange bird must be a good sign. My only hope is that I can sleep tonight with so much wet stuff.
October 7th We woke up to the grand illusion of rain and Sam shaking our feet with a tray of steaming chai in his hand. It sounds too good to be true that there's blue sky outside, especially wince the cliff above us is still steadily shedding rain on our bamboo roof.
Today really was amazing! Sunny the whole time and we finally got to appreciate the waterfalls! One, I spotted on the opposite side of the river and I /swear/ I saw it stop and then flow with a renewed intensity again. The other, I'm usually nervous about walking over bridges and structurs, but this one I was nervous about walking /under/ it! The walkway went smack under the brunt of the fall and all of the water crashed down above us as we walked under!
The trail had half a dozen kinds of butterflies and smelled like a musty rainforest. As we got closer to Lilam, there were lavendar footed lizards big and small all over the trail - reminded me of hiking in Utah. We stopped in Lilam for the Indo-Tibetan Boarder Police and made the mistake of asking where the hotel was for lunch. He was, of course, very nice and led us to this super sketchy metal shack and served us cold, hard rice...
After two bites, I realized this is exactly the type of food that people get ill from and got immediately queasy. I downed a double portion of garlic pills and crossed my fingers. After we left I learned that Jessica even had dead bugs in her food and now I'm really worried. Lilam sucks.
After Lilam, we stopped in an /actual/ chai and food shop for a drink and some biscuits. Sam and I were enjoying being lazy and our other two tentmates already had their packs on so we said they could leave and we could catch up. We ran to reach them just as we were manuevering around a washout/under a boulder (sketchy business) and ended up traipsing through a forest to an /impassible/ washout. We were not in the right place, I'll tell you that.
We scrambled up a muddy wash and spotted the real trail that we should have turned off on a while back, probably missed it because we were trying to book it to get to the other two. As we walked into the trail, the teal of 6 finally caught up to us and then followed us up the scramble. I guess their lead made the same mistake ours did.
We chatted for a while and then our team was antsy so we left soon after. We nearly ran to town and over a second suspension bridge that oddly was paved with tar (pretty silly since it's just cracked and old looking just after a year or so). Our final destination was Jimigarth where the 6-person group was also staying and ordered dinner and chai. Those DARN backpackers then stride up and we ended up all sleeping next to each other like some monster group and this many people is definitely ruining my solo experience.
October 8th I woke up to the backpackers rustling and bustling and then found out the lightening and thunder show we had last night actually hit us around 10 and I slept right through the pounding rain. The awning of the school we stayed under is dripped and one of the naive backpackers now has 2" of water in his boots that were left out last night.
We packed up and simply had biscuits for breakfast since there were some language barrier problems with ordering real food while we had the chance to last night. The hike was pretty fun till one of the speedy youngsters got himself lost by taking a wrong turn. The group of 6 sent out a search team for their missing member and our tent hopped into a jeep for the ride to Munsyari.
The city here is pretty awesome and Gaurav took us on a whirl wind rug purchasing trip where we had personal viewings of what the city had to offer from the rug makers themselves! After Nate saw that for the rest of my life I was going to regret not buying one (and he would have to endure the tale) he convinced me to go and I bought the most beautiful hand-loomed wool rug EVER.
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