apologies

Sorry I haven't been able to update this; there is rarely enough power in Nepal, and when there is, we always seem to be out visiting family, friends, orphanages, etc. We are now in Thailand, but are on vacation this week!! I will update this when I can, perhaps in less than a week from now. Here is a photo of our family in Pokhara, just over a week ago. I'll get back to the Tsum in the next entry!!

Day 5 Salleri to Lokhpa, where the Lower Tsum sort of officially starts!

Here are some photos of this day= a long one, with lots of elevation gain.

Brian, fortunately, had lots of energy to cook supper, cuz I sure didn't! (but the next day it was the reverse, so fortunately we don't all break down at the same time!)
Lunch break at Phillim (dal bhat and rubs)- this is where that photo of us on the suspension bridge with the mountains in the background goes too- see blog from one of the first days).

Day 4: Dobhan to Salleri

Well, it was inevitable: one of us got sick last night for the first time! Poor Chultim got some kind of gastro-intestinal bug and we had to give her some (natural) medicine and help her up the mountain today; actually she did really well, considering. We entered the Manaslu Conservation Area today, a day earlier than our permit start date, and definitely gained altitude, though we had lunch down at the bottom of a widening canyon (still on the Bhuri Gandaki River) at Yaru "sandbank restaurant" in the middle of nowhere (but at the centre of everything, right Larry Z??!) Sometimes I just love run-on sentences. Let's see how the photos load, here...

Day 3 of our trek: Macha Khola to Dhoban

Wow, that took long to load.....Jan, here's a photo of our donkeys for you! That's me with Chultim too. Day 3 of our trek, and still three days to go to get to the beginning of the Tsum Valley. I'll try to put a photo on here of some water pipes going up to the Tsum on porters' backs. Everything gets up there on someone or something's back! You wouldn't believe some of the stuff that goes up these hills, or rather up and down cuz there's an awful lot of that! You are going from point A to point B, but not in any kind of direct way, because of the incredible topography, for every km you go up, you go down another, but somehow by the end of the day, you've gained altitude. If you look at the map, it appears you've only gone maybe 10 km horizontal distance, but really it's more like 20!!

I put a photo of Tatopani on here, which ended up as the first one. They load in reverse order onto here! We stopped here for lunch and a hot springs shower- holy cow, did that feel good!!!!

On the way back down, we "hauled donkey" that day to get here by late afternoon, just so we could have a hot shower and camp here next to the hillside that dripped warm water- delightful!

a few more photos of the second day of the trek

Nauli Khola, a village we passed through on the way to Macha Khola, and some school kids in a classroom. Macha Khola is where we ended up on the second night of our trek, which is apparently farther than most trekkers get, but not nearly as far as the Tsumbas (people of the Tsum) get when they "fly" up here! Oops power out...

day 2 of the actual trek; March 1)

So, if the bus or other vehicle ride from Kathmandu doesn't give you a heart attack, and you have handled a few suspension bridges and climbing some tough trails in the heat, and the cliffsides don't scare the living daylights out of you, you are doing well!!!

EVERY step you take has to be a focused one, especially around the cliffs, and even more when there are loose rocks along the cliffs and the wind is gusting!!! You pray there won't be a donkey train coming the other way!!!
After a whole bunch of these, you become a bit blase about it all, believe it or not!

a bit more on first days Feb 27 and 28 2010

First day of the trek- Holi clebration in Soti Khola; this woman was relentless about "painting" our faces with red powder, and having WAY too much fun!!!!
Other photo is of helpers carrying some of our stuff from where the jeep let us off, over the suspension bridge to the other side of the river to where we stayed the first night (Feb 27) before the actual trek. I have to go in and out of this blog to upload photos toit- give it alittle break!! Might not get too far at this rate........