Jharkot and Eklabhatti and Disaster Strikes
Trip Start
Jan 28, 2007
1
16
29
Trip End
Mar 31, 2007
Jharkot,
Nepal
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
Then disaster strikes .... I know many (most of you) were worried about Rob trekking up hill and down dale in the himalayan mountains..... trekking is the least of Robs problems.! ....??? We're all set to go and Im in the loo and I hear Rob swearing - what's the problem you wonder...? Rob had picked up the heavy quilt supplied by the GHouse to supplement our
-15 degree sleeping bags (did I remember to say how coldddddd it is?)...
Anyway... back to Rob... Rob decided to fold the quilt and wait for it... yep he's back went!! Can you believe it??!!! And the trek for today to Jharkot was all uphill - big problem!~ So Rob popped a couple of our India magic pills (that we originally found in Greece) and we took off very slowly with Rob using both my trekking poles
01 On the way to Jarkhot Cooking with Solar!
.Jharkot is supposed to be amazing so we will stay there a couple of days if Rob doesnt come good - poor thing... He's so cross. He woke up so excited... It sure was up hill. Rob soldiered on he's eyes red rimmed how they get when he's cracking up... but he refused to stay in Kabeni so up we go, slowly slowly, zig zag by zig zag. After a couple of hours we reach a little village called Kingo and stopped for 1 and half hours for lunch (staving as we hadnt eaten our uneatable potatoe pancake at breakfast) and to give Rob a rest.
Seemed like a good idea at the time. We had spent the morning walking thru cold but beautiful blue sky weather with spectacular views. As we prepared to take off again there was a sudden gust of wind. Within 5 minutes the weather had changed and within 10 minutes the snow began to fall.... poor Rob... On we trudged towards my dream place of Jharkot (Ive had a photo of Jharkot as my screen saver at work for 6 months or more) It got pretty grim at the end as the snow was sleeting down, with no more reward of views now as we walked up and up and snow and clouds covered the mountains. As we finally apprached the village of Jharkot Rob (and poor Rame with our pack!) faced the final challenge - the path was a bog mire or 3 inch mud leading into the village
01 Ram waits for us on way up to Jharkot
. We slowly inched our way thru it sliding and trying to pick the best path to finally arrive. This area is remote so they have limited power and rely on solar (which there is none of on days like today) So although the GH signs always say 24 hot water/showers, in reality the water is tepid or just off freezing. Rame was wonderful he ran into the guesthouse and organised a bucket of hot water straight away fro Rob so that he could quickly wash down (he had sweated so much with the pain) and get changed before his body cooled down. Rob then climbed into his sleeping bag with a couple of pain killers. I went in search of the dining room wioth the charcoal fire under the table! - wed made it!
There I found Marco (from Italy) another 3 people who had flown up on the same plane with us to Jomsom. So much for taking after a suitcase full of teabags, milk and sugar - the tea in both India and Nepal is spot on english tea flavour with no stress... makes the whole trip sooo much more relaxing having my cuppu's..hee
The snow stopped for a short time so I has a quick walk around the village. Its medieval and so wonderful. The people originated 100 of years ago from Tibet so the buildings are all tibetan style and most of the tea houses have pictures of Lhasa on their walls
02 Approaching Jharkot
.Rob got up at 6pm saying he felt a lot better. (pain killers will do that for you) We decided that tomorrow Rame and I will walk up to Mukinath while Rob stays at the GH. Mukinath is an ancient pilgrimage site. Visitors to Mukinath are able to gain karma merit in a number of ways. It is a pilgrimage destination for hindus and Budhists. Both the king of Nepal and the Dalai Lama have visited here. There is a whole temple complex and a sacred spring. The altitude there is 3800 metres so its more comfortable to walk up and visit and go back down the same day.
I had a bad night I think due to the altitude with my heart reacing so I was awake until after 2am. We woke early to heavy heavy snow! About 4 inches had fallen during the night. It's the 1st March today - Spring - and youd never know it..hee The Nepalese people cant believe it and it is a major problem for the crops as they will be ruined with the cold weather.
Even so It's great being here in this weather as the place looks wonderful under snow. So stark and Rob said he's happy that its the first time he's ever actually walked in snow. BUT.. during breakfast the majority of people staying at the tea house decided that to walk up to Mukinath would now be very difficult and as visability was only a few feet there would be none of the fantastic views back over Jharkot would be visable
02 Weather starts to come in
. Was it worth the uphill trek thruough the cold and snow to see the temples alone as visability was down to a few feet. 2 of the people staying at the tea house decided to go up and stay there the night (-10 up there) and hope the weather cleared for the views the next day. The rest of us left at various times to start our trek downwards. Rob said he was up for it as it was downhill and popped a couple more magic pills. Rame loaded up (poor thing) and off we went... snow lightly falling and a downhill trek to Eklabhatti where we had stopped for soup 2 days before.
All going well for 1/2 and got a couple of Ok shots of JHharkot as we left but cloud obscured most of the wonderful sights that wed luckily seen on the way up. It then went bad quickly - we were suddenly in a snow blizzard! Hats down over our foreheads, sunglasses on and scarves covering our face up to our glasses to stop the snow burning and hurting our faces - we were walking directly into the oncoming storm. (and Rame told us we were on the "soft" trek" and Everest was the Adventure trek....hehehehe - wait until we get to Eklobahatti and Ill make him eat his words..hee)... this was sure and 'adventure" as mum would say...
We arrived early aboaut 12.30 but it was impossible to go further with the weather
04 Inner Courtyard of our guesthouse
. We took the 'deluxe" room with the attached bathroom for AU$1.75 and it turned out gorgeos. Soft pillows! (usually theyre 2ft high rocks), a towel!, toilet paper!, and a soft fluffy blanket AND a western toilet..heaven. To add to this bliss within 1/2 hour of our arrival they gave us buckets of boiling hot water to bath. I can wash my hair! Now for the rest of the day - sitting under that charcoal heated table eating and drinking tea and catching up on this diary. Rob and Rame entertained themselves all afternoon with a Korean women who stopped for a few hours to get out of the weather on the way to Kabeni. Her name was Young Sue but Rob insisted on calling her Betty which made her hysterical. They played blackjack and shithead and then the games deteriorated into o's and x's, hang the butcher and 2 games from Rames childhood - houses and another one with no name but which Rob managed to cheat continuously with.So now Im sitting here with a torch on my head finishing up todays diary. Its 6.30pm and we're having Dahl Bhat for tea. This is the tradional Nepalese food and tonight will be our first try of it (I guess its the Nepalse version of the Indian Thali) rice with pickle, curry, and lentils. The power just went off but its so dim when its on it almost doesnt make any huge difference hahahaha (hence the head torch). So now we have candles and were sitting around our toasty table. The GH family of course are all sitting under it with us.- mother and 4 daughters - the sons are studding in KTM. Rob just ordered an Apple Brandy to try but they cant find it in the dark..hahaha. I offered them my head torch..ha ..
..so tomorrow onto Marpha (if Rob is up to it) - the apple capital of Nepal and where all the good apple brandy comes from...
