Up about 6:15. Hot again in the sleeping bag.
Had tea/coffee and breakfast, and left about 8:15.
More and more downhill today, and reached the Tamur river about 11:45. There is quite a little town, called Dhoban, where we started rafting. There are lots of pedestrian suspension bridges in Nepal, to get across the deep gorges and the raging rivers.
As we were trekking, Mani bought some fresh fish from a local, who had caught them in the Tamur river. He tells me they are just called white fish, but I didn't recognize them.
We had lunch on the beach and lounged all afternoon. We were certainly the center of attention for all the locals. They were all standing (or sitting) on the suspension bridge, peering down on us. Some of the local kids would come down to the beach and play around on the rafts.
The rest of teh guys did some laundry, and laid it out to dry on the rocks, as did the guides.
We setup a shelter and the tents, using the bamboo rods. It's not pretty, the bamboo sticks aren't the correct size, and the tents don't work too well. For the shelter, the guides put one of the rafts on it's edge, and used two paddles underneath it to provide a partial shelter. Then they used a tarp, one end tied to the raft, the other to the ground to make a kind of tent/shelter.
About 5:15, a HUGE wind came roaring down the valley. The tents collapsed, the shelter came crashing down, and clothes and everything not tied down started blowing away. Steph was under the shelter at the time, and it came crashing down on her, a paddle hit her in the head, and she was stuck under the raft (they are heavy!) She was alright, but got a good bump on the head.
I remembered everyone else was racing around, trying to catch clothes and whatever that was blowing away. I gabbed someones underwear and two socks, among other things.
We waited for the wind to die down, then setup the shelter again, and the guides had to restart the cooking process because sand and leaves got into everything. Mani and the guides rebuilt the shelter and made it extra strong this time. We didn't bother with the tents after that episode.
After the windstorm, lightning and thunder surrounded us, and they had to move the kitchen into another quickly erected shelter (two paddles stuck into the sand, a rope tied between the two, and a tarp strung over it, either end tied to teh ground. What a storm it was, huge hail, some the size of nickels. It was amazing.
The storm only lasted 20 or 30 minutes, then we ate supper outside under the moon and stars. Supper was deep fried fish. Tasty, but the fish was like jackfish, too many bones to navigate to make it enjoyable.
Beautiful evening. Will and I hjad a drink (vodka and coke), listened to music, then the rafting boys (guides) went to bed around 9:00 so Will and I did too. Shaun and Steph where in bed early.
No comments:
Post a Comment