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Day 9 Manang(3,540m)- Yak Karta (4,050m)
Keen to regroup after our disastrous days (the guys had got completely lost up another mountain and had to retreat back to Manang) we set off for Yak Karta. It was good to have some banter for the journey and the guys were particularly keen on tea breaks so we managed 2 tea breaks and 1 lunch stop on a 3 hour journey! Lunch was an experience, we stopped at a place where the owners were away taking their son to start school in a nearby town and so had left their daughter in charge- who would've struggled to boil an egg, so bless Tek he went to give her a hand. I ordered noodle soup and got hard super noodles in warm water with extra salt mmm! No surprise I was ill later (to be fair not necessarily from lunch but who knows) Yak Karta is not a place you want to stick around in, it was damp, grey and even colder as the altitude increased. We took the last beds one of the 3 guesthouses that make up the village and sick or not I was keen to get out of there as soon as possible.
Day 10 Yak Karta (4,050m) - Throng Phedi (4,450m)
Tek rushed me out the door after breakfast whispering about shortages of accommodation in Throng Phedi, which given the fact there are only 2 lodges could be true, but they are both pretty big so it wasn't an issue. Anyway given I still wasn't feeling too hot I guessed the guys wouldn't be long catching me up on the 3 hour journey but I hadn't factored in their tea breaks so just saw them at the end of the day.
The atmosphere in Throng Phedi was definitely one of anticipation with everyone talking about the big day ahead-crossing Throng La Pass the highest point of the trek. Throng Phedi meaning foot of the hill is just that- a camp at the foot of the hill, so with nowhere else to go we all huddled into the 'restaurant-' a ten, as the former restaurant blew up in a gas explosion last year- reassuring. The tent however was great craic, I met loads of really interesting people there including an American couple, where the guy is in the army and they have been round the world with some very interesting posts of his. A Dutch couple who both quit their jobs and are now going wherever the wind takes them. And a Norwegian and British couple who have been working in Japan for years and are massive trance heads- the girl sporting a neon pink and white fluffy unicorn hat and everything to prove it. They had cooked for themselves the whole way through the trek to save money- so they had massive packs with stove and food for the whole 2 weeks- fair play to them but I can't imagine the amount they would've saved would make the extra weight worth their while- but hey each to their own! It seemed everyone was stocking up on food to get the energy reserves in place, garlic soup being the order of the day (supposed to be great for altitude sickness) however after seeing grown men almost cry eating it I thought I'd leave it and take my chances.
Having ordered breakfast for 4am we all went to get some sleep- very excited!!!
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