Party Time

The Lodge had a fine dining room which we'd discovered when we went there on arrival for tea and biscuits. We were especially impressed by 2 lots of framed words from the Dalai Llama that were on the walls - how's this for an example - are you inspired or not?

One moment we were planning to eat our final trek meal in the dining room, then the next moment we weren't. What had changed? Dilip had discovered that we would be sharing the dining room with the the other trekking group, the 'hoorays'. This didn't meet with Dilip's approval at all, and the next thing we knew, the dining tent - which we thought had been put well away, not to be seen by us again - was coming out and being erected on the main lawn ...

We all thought this was great, as the dining tent was so familiar and it was where we'd enjoyed every other trek dinner.  Being in the dining tent that evening was even better than on the trek, as there was a crate of Sikkimi beer (pretty strong at 8%) to enjoy (pacing ourself at that strength of course!).

As always the meal was tasty and filling and for pudding we had a special treat. Manilau, the cook, had baked a special Singalila Trek cake - served an a silver salver no less. We had to take a photo quickly as it didn't hang around - it was cut and consumed pretty quickly.

After dinner came the serious business of final speeches and tips and thank you's to the trekking crew, who had done such a fine job of looking after us ...

Then came singing and dancing: first a Nepali song, then a western one, and so it went on, alternating, for a while. As we went outside for the Hokey Cokey (what else?) everyone was having a great time and we were mixing well across our respective cultures. We looked across to the dining room where the Hoorays didn't look to be having anything like as much fun.

And after the entertainment there was a proper bed and a bathroom to look forward to - what more could anyone want?

Lots of love George, Yorkie and Gio xxx

The Nearest Thing to 5 Star Luxury

It's now time to tell you about the final day of our Indian trek ('about time' we hear you say!).

We were on our way back to civilisation; indeed we were even due to end the day in a small town. Before the town though, came lots of small settlements; we were still in lovely countryside but we were passing schools, smallholdings, houses and even a tea shop ...

... we stopped for delicious ginger tea which was served in these beautifully patterned and colourful mugs with their own lids. Roasted sweet corn was passed round for us to nibble on - very scrummy and a lot healthier than our usual snack of crisps or chocolate.

We knew the tea was fresh and local when we turned round and saw tea drying in the sun ...

... it was very grey and made me think of Earl Grey, it was hard to imagine that this might have been the ginger flavoured tea we were drinking as it didn't look gingery.

Just before lunch we did our final downhill and forded a river, as the bridge over it was apparently unsafe. We were now down at the bottom of the valley even though we were still quite high (2,286m)  by British standards.

Our final 2.5 miles was along road - part dirt track and part tarmaced. It was strange to have to get out the way of an occasional car. It was an easy, mostly flat walk with lots of interesting things to see along the way. There was this lovely clump of bamboo, which was a lot more colourful in reality than it looks ...

... there were also colourful roadside shrines and temples. 

All too soon we reached the small town / large village of Rimbik. We'd been told we would be staying at a basic lodge where we would be sharing 2 showers. As this would be our first shower for nearly a week, we were planning a rota with strict time allocations. As we arrived we were pleasantly surprised by how nice the lodge looked and how beautiful the gardens. The best surprise, however, came when Dilip told us that most of us would be getting private verandah rooms with, wait for it, an ensuite bathroom.

We got one and it was lovely - front door as below ...

... we sat outside, as you can see, relaxing and enjoying the gardens, so as to let our minders shower first; bears are generous like that. 

The real icing on the cake though, was to learn that our rival trekking group (the hooray Henrys introduced in our Camp Wars post) were also staying at the lodge and they had not got ensuite rooms so were having to queue for a shower. This really was one up to Dilip and Exodus and we couldn't help but secretly chuckle and count our blessings.

The men in our party went off for a shave and head massage at the local barbers, then it was time for our farewell meal with our trekking crew. We had an interesting venue for this - find out where, next time.

Love George, Yorkie and Gio xxx

A Life of Brian

After a last scenic visit to the toilet tents, we were on our way again, for what turned out to be the best day's walking of the trek.

First we were heading for the high point of Phalut, which is a small settlement on the Singalila ridge and marks the point from which we would start our descent to lower altitudes (good news for those suffering altitude headaches).

The path to Phalut started off as a lovely ridge walk, with a steep 1 km ascent at the end. Rather confusingly Gio is not looking in the direction of the trail; had he turned his back to the camera (which he thought would be rude) he would have be pointing in the right direction. Our path was basically along the left hand edge of the picture, then to a white blob on the right hand side of the distant mound, this being Phalut. Although Phalut appeared on kilometre marker stones, giving the impression of being almost a town, it was only about 2 houses in size which is why it doesn't show up in the picture.

We were first to the top, and while we relaxed waiting for the rest of the party to arrive, we looked back along the trail - and spotted our male minder half way up - look carefully and you should see a stick figure standing in a grassy area just to the left of the path - that's him!

We also took some time to get better acquainted with Ratoo who was ambulance horse for the duration of the trek. He mostly carried one of the party who was not at all well, but, for a short while he had a different passenger following a fall resulting in a banged knee.

We felt a bit sorry for Ratoo as he had to travel with the trekking party which meant he got separated from his fellow ponies in the baggage train and had a longer working day. As he lacked equine company we thought bear company might be the next best thing.

Talking of company, we had some great company of our own when we got introduced to Brian the Lion from Wales. We'd heard rumours that there was a fellow cuddly on the trip, but as we hadn't met him, he was either very quiet and shy or, he didn't exist.

We were very pleased to find a) that he did exist and b) that he was a most friendly and charming seasoned traveller. In no time at all we were getting on like a house on fire and we found we had lots in common. We were introduced at the lunch break and we had so much to talk about we were in danger of not doing the delicious lunch dishes justice. Fortunately Yorkie realised we were neglecting lunch in time, and rounded up some dishes before going into scary piranha mode.

We hope this wasn't going to put Brian off us. 

Lots of love, George, Gio and Yorkie xxx

Well Sited Toilet Tents

Oh dear, shame on us, no post for over a month, that's really bad ... but we have been off travelling again! News in a while.

Back in India ... there was no further rain overnight and thanks to our early night it was no hardship to get up at 5.00 a.m. for the wonderful mountain views.

Gio was rather taken with the sight of the first rays of the sun lighting up Kanchenjunga. You can see why the range is described as the sleeping Buddha, although sorry, we slightly chopped off the top of his head to the extreme left, an easy mistake given that we were still half asleep (well Yorkie and I were - Gio as usual was as bright as a button).

The walking that day was rather special. As we had left the jeep track behind, it was all off road walking, either across lovely green pastures - such as this one, where our rule train overtook us -

or dirt tracks which were easy to walk on.

As it was a shortish walking day, it wasn't worth having lunch on the way, but as it was going to be a late lunch by the time we'd reached camp, we had a soup stop en route. It was lovely hot soup with a choice of flavours and lovely japattis to go with it. We didn't really need our lunch proper after that!

We had free time at the camp after lunch so we went for a bit of an explore which was good to do as we were at a place where several paths converged and we could only leave on one the next day. The afternoon started off fine and sunny with blue skies, as you can see from our next picture ... Gio was pleased to find another collection of prayer flags on poles ...

... but the sunshine didn't last and quite early in the afternoon it got very cold and windy and a lot of mist rolled in. For the second day running we snuggled up in our tents to keep warm. The visibility got so bad that you almost needed a compass to find your tent again after venturing out for a visit to the dining tent or the toilet tents, and it was quite funny when one lady went into the wrong tent and gave it's occupant a bit of a fright.

The next morning the wind had gone and the mist had cleared. The sun was out again and the sky was blue. What's more, there was a treat in store going to the toilet tents - they were toilet tents with a great mountain view.

Lots of love Gio, George and Yorkie xxx

Flowers and a Flood

And now back to India, where we'd just reported on camp wars with the hooray Henries.

Now the good thing about being on a no frills tour was that we could get off a lot quicker in the morning: after all we had no showering and shaving to do and no cafetieres of coffee to linger over, (although we always had a perfectly fine breakfast). Probably the most important thing was that we had no hangovers to nurse!

We left camp feeling bright and chipper, unlike the hoorays, and looking forward to the day's walk. It was only to be a short walk as we were climbing up to the highest point on the trek and we needed to acclimatise.

It was nice to have the time to linger to look at the flowers ...

... talk to the locals ...

... and take lots of time to admire the views ...

As we climbed, we found ourselves occasionally above the clouds; it was a very long way down. The walking was very much Gio style i.e. plod, plod, plod which is the perfect way to walk. Part way through the morning we were overtaken by the hoorays, charging along at top speed and making quite a racket. We completely disapproved - what was the point of their trek!

The high point of Sandakhphu at 3,636 m was reached before lunchtime. There was very little there apart from a few tea houses. We borrowed one to brew a cup of tea. Sandakhpu is at the end of the jeep track, so it where most Indian tourists finish their trip, as they're not walking. Things were about to get a lot quieter.

As we left the settlement we were now on a walking path rather than a driving path (not that we'd have driven the driving path!) We walked for another 30 minutes or so then got to our campsite. As it was a wild camp we had it all to ourselves. The tents were up and waiting for us, so we grabbed one in the front row, dumped our gear then went to the dining tent for lunch.

While we were having lunch it rained hard. In fact it rained all afternoon, so we were all holed up in our tents, snuggled in our sleeping bags. We emerged from time to time for a quick sprint over to the dining tent for such delights as tea and the most delicious pakoras. The tent entrances got quite flooded and we had a damp floor. Our spirits remained high though and we enjoyed reading our booksand watching t.v. programmes on our iPads. 

We were early to bed in view of the weather and so as to to be ready for the call to 'mountain view' at 5.00 a.m. the next morning. We'd been promised a good one. 

Lots of love, George, Yorkie and Gio xxx

Camp Wars

So, when we left you last time, we were just about to arrive at our campsite, not far from that lovely lake adorned with prayer flags. We passed a friendly yak on the way ...

We couldn't see the lake from our tents but it was a lovely spot nonetheless. The official camping ground was the far side of the dirt track in the middle of our first picture ...

.... but we were't there. Yes, you can see tents, but they weren't ours. We had been beaten to the camping ground by another trekking group and while there could have been room for us all, if they had pitched their camp sensibly, and thoughtfully, they didn't, and placed their dining tent in the middle of our half, effectively shutting our group out.

Our crew decided that these were people we didn't want to squish in with, so set up our camp on the grazing slopes the other side of the track. It was fine, and mini terraces meant we weren't going to slide down the hill during the night. The only downside was that we did have to navigate round a fair bit of animal spoor every time we stepped outside the tent.

Our picture was taken from the entrance to our tent, so we had pole position for getting to the dining tent in front of us, but the furthest walk to the toilet tents.

We did some great people watching from our tent entrance, and we're referring to observing the antics of the other trekking group. It was clearly luxury trekking for the rich and pampered. We watched cafetieres of coffee being taken round the tents, with aperitifs served from a silver salver a bit later. They also had shower tents with mirrors set up on easels outside and when they sat down to dine (we've no idea what delicacies they were served) they had directors chairs rather than camp stools.

We had none of this, but we weren't jealous as we had absolutely everything we needed and we were being extremely well looked after. We were also having a far more authentic camping experience; after all we were away from it all in the mountains, not staying in town in a posh hotel.

What's more, first impressions of the members of the group weren't good; they were very loud and to put it simply, a bunch of hoorays. We were especially unimpressed when they played loud music after 10.00 p.m. when we were trying to sleep. Believe us 10.00 p.m. is very late on a holiday like this and even the military post alongside us had switched off their generators and turned out their lights.

But we had the last laugh ... during the night our crew opened the gate to the camping ground and sent our ponies in to cause a bit of disruption, and they did this not once, but twice.

Serves them right we say.

Lots of love, George, Yorkie and Gio xxx

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

Reminders of Home

Sorry readers, we forgot to blog ... but we're back now!

Back in India ... we didn't go to bed, however, without viewing the marvellous sunset (o.k. that was at tea-time) and saying goodnight to our mule friends.

Strangely enough we also said good morning to the mules when we went to breakfast the next day. They were ready with their saddles on long before us. As you can see in our picture it was a lovely sunny morning; it wasn't this warm at 5.15 a.m. though, when we climbed the small rise to the rear of this same picture, for our second 'mountain view'. Kanchenjunga was already creeping noticeably closer.

We were trekking along the old military road built by the British so it was a pretty good path, although quite eroded in places. As a result the only wheeled vehicles that could use it were old British series 1 (possibly 2) Landrovers, older than us, and older even than our minders.

We were trekking along the border between India and Nepal, so we were regularly changing countries. We soon came to our first Nepali village with the indigenous Land Rovers ....

... no sooner were we out of the village and we came across our first local monkeys ...

... we weren't carrying any food though, so they were out of luck.

It was a beautiful day to be out trekking and our minders were busy with their sun tan lotion. We had stops for a military checkpoint and also to enter the Singalila National Park proper. Here we are at the entrance.

It had been an exciting morning and we hadn't even got to lunchtime yet, so there's more to come. 

Lots of love, Gio, George and Yorkie xxx

Our Trek Gets Underway

As we arrived in Dhodrey our Jeeps were unloaded with their contents going two ways: humans and bears, plus daysacks, to a village house for lunch, and yellow Exodus bags to our luggage carrying mule train.

Although it was only 11:30 a.m. packed lunches were produced, prepared by or trek chef Manilal. We were all given a cardboard box and it was exciting to open them up and see what was inside. It was quite a feast: a potato, a hardboiled egg, cheese sandwiches, cake and a chocolate bar. There were also cartons of mango juice which weren't too popular with us, but went down well with the local children.

After lunch we were all raring to go and here some of us are at the starting line ...

... Yorkie was still inside, hoovering up the lunch leftovers and living up to his nickname of the Piranha.

We left the village, admiring some of the mooli crops and crossing the local football pitch before starting an easy ascent through woodland.  We had a fine trekking leader in Kundan who you see in the red jacket. He seemed hardly old enough to have left school but he was very good and looked after us well. Our group leader, Dilip, is crouching down in our picture; he was also an excellent leader and very good company.

It wasn't a hard afternoon's walk and we had plenty of time to enjoy it and the views that started to open up as we climbed. We soon left the trees behind and climbed, on a good path, through scrubby grassland. Our female minder had the claim to fame of being the only member of the group to pick up a leech on her knee. Fortunately it brushed off easily (she later found a second one on her boot, but that was the end of them, as we had climbed too high for for any more leeches).

As we climbed onto a ridge, not any old ridge but the Singalila ridge we were going to follow on our trek, we were almost immediately in the village of Tonglu (3036m) where we were to stay for the night.

Our blue tents were all pitched and ready for us to move in. The cook tent and our dining tent weren't far away.

 
We spent most of the remainder of the day drinking tea and eating, then because it was cold and dark and we'd had lots of fresh air, it was early to bed for us.

Lots of love, George, Yorkie and Gio xxx