Weather Extremes

Remember our last post and how sunny it was and how blue the sky? Well it lasted a bit longer - and much of that period we were relaxing in a lodge enjoying tea and biscuits while our passports and permits were checked at a military checkpoint, then we had a cloudburst. Just before the heavens opened, we took this picture ...

... which showed the path we'd come down into the valley bottom (where the checkpoint was) only to climb up and out the other side. You can see the cloud coming in that brought the rain. We shouldn't have been ill prepared, but we were. It wasn't a problem for us, with our all weather fur, but our minders were soaked before they'd got full waterproofs on.

Fortunately, within a mile, we'd reached our lunch stop and it was an indoor one. Our group, plus another trekking party, crammed into a small tea house. We were all rather cold from our wet clothes but fortunately hot soup, chapattis and vegetable dishes were served to help warm us up.

It took about 2 hours for the rain to stop. It had got to the stage where we were going to have to leave anyway, when the skies brightened and the rain eased off. We had about an hour and a half's walk to our camp and it was a lovely walk. About 30 minutes from the camp we were met by one of the cook boys who had come to meet us with a big kettle of hot orange juice.

Just 5 minutes from our camp was this beautiful lake with prayer flags and a small stupa. This was Kala Pokhari, literally black lake. It was simply beautiful in the afternoon sun. We admired it from all sides. Gio's picture shows the black lake aspect, while we looked back alone the path we'd come and it looked very different.   

While this was a tranquil spot we had campsite wars ahead of us. Find out more next time.

Lots of love, George, Yorkie and Gio xxx