Day 4 - Briddhim

 

 

I think I am going to make it.  After a discussion with Norsang about the next two days, they don't sound impossible. 

 

I was tempted to ask for an alternate route back to Syabru Besi and Kathmandu.  The 800m, very steep climb down to the Langtang Khola from Thuman was gut-wrenching.  There was no snow, but the incline was steeper.  My knees ached and I feared total knee failure or permanent damage, requiring surgery at home.  Who knows?   I brought two knee braces, but had no idea the path would lead straight down. 

 

On these steep ascents or descents, with jagged, uneven, or gravelly granite forming the trail, it is imperative to analyze and engineer every step, pick the flattest or most secure looking footfall.  One look to the trees or the distant mountain could be disastrous.

 

This guesthouse is about the same as the others, except the shared toilet has a western style toilet, not a trough.  The toilet drains to outside, but as elsewhere, there is no incoming water, so a bucket of rainwater or snowmelt is in the room for the user to use for flushing. 

 

All these villagers are friendly - their clothes and children are dirty - what little kid is not dirty - but no one looks hungry. Norsang said that at this altitude chickens take about four years to reach killing size and are too valuable for eggs, and cows are too valuable for milk, so most people up here are vegetarian.  Every menu has looked the same...starch, starch, starch: momo - a dumpling stuffed with cheese, vegetables, or even snickers, are either fried or steamed; chow mien, spaghetti, soups (last night I had pumpkin soup, freshly mashed pumpkin made into a liquid..very plain, but different); rice with eggs and vegetables, even pizza if the kitchen has invested in a pizza oven.  Bread is either chapatti or Tibetan bread (a flour, water, and baking powder dough rolled out flat and fried, always with two slits in the round slab of dough.  Teas: black, masala, milk, ginger, lemon, coffee (instant), with hot milk or black.  Sugar up here is very course, and we use a lot of it to keep the energy up.

 

I am also using maca, one in the morning, one at lunch if I have the opportunity.  Sometimes, the exertion is so great, the heights and narrowness of our stopping place (10 minute rest) are scary enough to make me pop a pheno, because I'm feeling shaky or vulnerable.  When we reached the river this morning, it had the typical metal suspension bridge, 50-75 yards long, high over the rushing water.  My legs were shaking from the descent, and boarding the wobbly, swaying bridge was scary.  I had to breath deeply, like a meditation, and not look at the water boiling below, but look straight ahead at the end of the bridge.



 

Then we ascended the 200m plus about 500 more to reach this village.  At the lunch place a tiny lamb

was tied in a place where it could not see anyone.  The Frenchman tired of the bleating and went down and untied it and brought it up and tied it to the table where we were waiting for lunch.  It liked being petted and wagged its tail when I scratched the right part of its back.  Two tiny nubbins of horns were sprouting from the top of his head. 

 

Watching the French couple, I have to admit, I wish I were not doing this alone.  She slathers sunblock on him, he guides her patiently up or down the trail, and the two of them exchange observations or fatigue comments, or whatever, even hugging...all in French so no one but their guide can understand, if he's within earshot.