Crossing the Dudh Kosi
For the last few days we have been wandering around in the foothills at altitudes of between 3,000 and 4,000m but today we plunged steeply down into the Dudh Kosi valley where the heat and the humidity became oppressive. Luckily the today’s walk was relatively short which was a relief after yesterday’s 10 hour trudge ending in a dusk arrival.
It was a hot climb yesterday but we did earn considerable Kama points when Heather, dripping sweat, ripped off her tee shirt underneath the all seeing eye of the giant Buddha that sat alongside the Taksindo Monastery. Continuing with the same theme Andy, who had decided that 21km, 978m up and 1,421m down wasn’t enough exercise for one day, decided to do some Pilates in the privacy of his own room. For some reason he chose to do this naked and it wasn’t until afterwards that he notice that those same all seeing eyes were pinned to the wall above his bed.
With so many Kama points we were due some luck and that came in the form of an overcast morning which meant that the temperature wasn’t completely unbearable as we threaded our way down towards the foaming, white water of the Dudh Kosi which we crossed using a Swiss built suspension footbridge.
With the raging river behind us we sweated our way up the endless twists and turns of the major mule track to the Hilltop Guesthouse at Kharikhola to end a short day. We are now back at 2,000m and enjoying the cool of the afternoon looking out over a valley of terraces smeared with the afternoon clouds. We are leaving the foothills behind and entering the greater Himalaya en route to Gokyo and the Renjo La.
Mark and Denzil have earned us extra Kama points by trudging up the 147 steps to the Pemanamding Monastery so we should have good luck for tomorrow too.
This trek used to be called the Andrex Trail as it was so popular back in the 80’s and 90’s when facilities were more rudimentary than they are now. I came this way 30 years ago and, by comparison, the trail is deserted. We have seen just 3 other trekkers today. Unlike 30 years ago the mornings are busy with noise of aircraft shuttling the trekker hoards to Lukla to begin their Everest pilgrimage. How lucky we are to be walking in the old fashioned way through the Sherpa heartlands and acquiring Kama points as we go!
