Thursday 10.10.2024
Trek Dharapani – Chame
Start: 07:45, 1885m
Finish: 14:45, 2670m
Weather: partly cloudy, warm in the morning, a little cooler higher up, shorts/t-shirt
Drink: 2,5L
Expenses: 300 (Coke at lunch), 150 (Thai Red Bull)
There was a lot of ascending today. Fortunately, the guide said there wouldn’t be much downhill, so there shouldn’t be much more climbing than the difference in elevation between the start and end points. The profile of the route was peculiar, meaning that almost all of the climbing would take place during the first half of the route before lunch break in Timang. At the start, we walked for an hour or so, ascending slowly until we reached the suspension bridge over the river. The bridge was followed by a fairly long uphill climb along a stony stairway. Slowly, we managed to get through it and had lunch on the rooftop terrace of the Manaslu View guesthouse. As its name suggests, Manaslu, one of the 8000m mountains, could be seen on the horizon. Fortunately, we had taken a picture half an hour earlier, as the cloud cover was steadily increasing and partially obscuring the mountain. Although the cloud cover increased, the rain did not start until early evening when we were already having dinner in Chame.
Chame is the centre of the Manang region, with a police station and a hospital, among other things. According to the net, the population would be around 1300, which sounded like a surprisingly high number. Perhaps the village continues down the road.
So far we have slept all three nights with just the fleece liner. The first two nights were very warm, so the liner was more than enough. The previous night was already quite cool. I had woken up in the middle of the night, feeling cold and needing to go for a pee. I didn’t start digging for the sleeping bag, but put on long underwear and a fleece shirt. The minimum temperature for this night was forecast to be only five degrees. The inn offered blankets, and being a lazy man I grabbed one so I wouldn’t have to get the sleeping bag out of the duffel bag and pack it in the morning. Pude had taken out the sleeping bag and Heikki claimed that the fleece liner was fine if you put on socks and a shirt. I look forward to seeing how that works out!
Friday 11.10.2024
Summary:
Trek Chame – Lower Pisang
Start: 07:45, 2670m
Finish: 14:00, 3200m
Weather: sunny, below 10 degrees in the morning, warm during the day, shorts/t-shirt
Drink: 2,5L
Expenses: 500 (apple juice and apple muffin), 300 (Coke at lunch), 250 (Coke at the lodge)
The night was cool, but not quite as cold as I had expected based on the weather forecast. I slept well under the thick and warm blanket. Heikki slept with the fleece liner, as he said he would, but he had been forced to put on his long underwear during the night. In the morning my breath was steaming, but the sky was cloudless and the sun was already lighting up part of the valley. As in previous days, we set off in shorts and t-shirts. The right choice, because after 15 minutes the sun started to warm up. Today we were expecting about 500 metres of ascent. After a few hours we arrived at an apple farm, where you could buy a variety of apple products at the café. The freshly squeezed juice was delicious. Apple pie was not available, at least at that moment, but the apple muffin was good. Apple cider was not available either. The bottles on display turned out to be apple wine, which I didn’t feel like drinking in the middle of the hike, nor did I care to carry it for the rest of the day to have it as a dinner drink.
The hike continued to Dhikur Pokhari, an hour and a half away, where we had a lunch break. We walked along a long stretch of roadbed with a thick layer of reinforced concrete across one lane. Mysteriously, there was hardly any traffic on this stretch, so some old track was apparently still in use. At Dhikur Pokhar, which we renamed as Tsikuripokari, we were served totally unreasonable sized portions of food. Although we were all really hungry, I in particular could not finish the whole portion. From the lunch spot, it was only an hour of fairly level terrain to Lower Pisang. By now, however, we had climbed above 3,000 metres and there was no end to the panting at the inn. On the other hand, the wrapping paper of the Mars bar was also bulging like the inner tyre of a bicycle.
Since we arrived at 2 o’clock and the sun was shining brightly, it was a good time to wash our sweaty clothes. Without the sunshine, the clothes are not going to dry. Unfortunately, the direct sunshine ended before 5pm, so shorts, for example, didn’t have time to dry completely.
