Manaslu, Lake Tilicho and back – second blog today, hooray

Back into rapping already.

So…..which is a rubbish thing that people say today to start the answer to a question or make a statement. So……good album by Peter Gabriel, used to have it on cassette. So….where am I going?

I’m in the capital of Nepal, Kathmandu. A legendary bolt hole for hippies in the past and still a very cool place to be if you like awful roads, massive traffic, incredible noise, being hassled by sellers, stalked by chancers and targeted by drug dealers. I was sorely tempted by the opium seller but I think it might be a bit more debilitating than the opioids I thought were rather good in hospital when I broke my head. Anyway he’d comatose me and nick my dosh. But it is wonderful here really, I love it so much for two days.

Tomorrow I’m up early for a bus at 7.30 to Pokhara, a lovely, peaceful place. The journey is 8 hours, not 5 hours 32 minutes as google suggests, and the road is poor but not too dodgy.

There I’m meeting the guide company, getting my trekking permits and meeting my new guide. On Friday we set off hopefully in a jeep for the start of the Manaslu Circuit trek. The drive should take 7 hours and the trek will take 14 days. More likely they’ll provide an old car or put us on local buses that take a long time to navigate the dirt tracks. With it being monsoon season the roads are difficult to pass in some areas. If you look at the map below in the bottom right you’ll see Arughat, where we’ll start walking. The trek follows the track north along the valley and round on the yellow footpath, up to the top left where we cross over Larkya La pass at 17,000 feet. Then down to join the Annapurna Circuit.

If you look at the map down below there is a thin green line that comes in to the Annapurna Circuit halfway down the map, on the right hand side between Tal and Chame. I’m coming down there at the end of the Manaslu Circuit, dropping off my guide and carrying on solo anti-clockwise, taking three days to reach Manang. There I’m going on that track to the left, almost due west for two days up to Tilicho Lake. I would love to continue westwards to Jomsom, which would take another two days, but sadly, on my own it’s too dangerous. However, I’m going to turn around and go back the way I came for 5 or 6 days to Besisahar in the south of the map. I’ll be able to vary the route, taking in some relatively remote Buddhist temples and villages.

That’s the plan kids. Let’s see how I get on. One footstep at a time. People here keep telling me that the Manaslu Circuit is tough. Let’s see if I wet my sleeping bag, bottle it and spend a month eating curry.

Night night.