Namrung to Sama – He’s Never Early, He’s Always Late

Thanks Lou.

I’m a bit too old for the Himalayas. I would need to have a porter and walk without any load if I were to do it again. There are rough signposts pointing to the next village and indicating how long it will take to get there. I’m never early. There are lots of challenging walks in Europe. Nepal is just so different and really love it. Hey ho.

We are heading up to high altitude, around 12,000 feet today, and the monsoon doesn’t know when to stop. This is the view from my shed.

This is the view from my shed looking straight out of the door up the valley.

After a great breakfast and many thanks we pushed off up the left bank on the photo above, ignoring the suspension bridge. It was a steep day today. Cooling off a bit more but still sweaty for the fat lad. The Buddhist influence is growing and the religious sites are increasing. These are called gumbas.

Villages were becoming fewer so it was a bit of an occasion when we happened on one. Like this one coming up…

After this village a deep valley cut into our river from the left and we had to follow the new valley for a long uphill slog until it was narrow enough for the locals to have erected a suspension bridge. Once over we came back along the other side of the valley until we could see the village that we passed an hour ago.

This constant uphill battle with a rucksack on your back burns the calories and I’m still on a potato diet. Chipped, mashed or roasted. With cheese. Corrr blimey! The village that we were aiming for as our luncheon destination decided to turn up.

With the usual religious Gumba as you enter.

We found somewhere to eat and I set up a makeshift clothes line in the garden with my parachute cord – best thing ever invented – took off my sweaty clobber and dangled it in the sun and breeze. A sensational drying combination according to my old lass. By the way I put some other clothes on. I didn’t eat lunch with Jenny Taylor hanging out and the Plumber’s crack out back. I do have some decorum.

After lunch we pushed off through the village, which was spread around a hilltop monastery. An imposing structure.

The section after lunch is difficult until it’s properly digested but we don’t have time to wait. We just slogged, very slowly with tiny steps up steep hills and with a little more bounce on the level parts.

After hours of hard work we crossed a suspension bridge over another side valley and crossed over a brow. There was Sama in the distance, with two grey glaciers in the hanging valleys behind it.

Seeing your destination on a trek usually gives you a real lift. This did. It didn’t turn us into spring lambs but we got our heads down and cracked on like a pair of feisty ewes. Within half an hour we were knocking on the door, figuratively.

And entering the village the eyes have it.

We were here for two nights to acclimatise to high altitude. This is the first!

Night night.