And here is what the mirror on the wall said: “You’re bright red and peeling!”
When we finally reached a wifi-enabled hotel in the small airport town of Jomsom, after 4 hours of downhill slipping, sliding and other knee-torturing motion, I just had to laugh when I saw my face in the bathroom mirror. I look like some sort of lunatic mountain hermit who has just come down from his altitude folly for the day! Maybe that’s not altogether far from the truth…
Last night, I crawled out from my tent in my sleeping bag (picture a blue caterpillar in motion) to look at the stars. They seemed so bright and close – like I could almost touch them. I suppose that being several kilometres higher than my usual London perspective on them does make a big difference. The air was chilly (hence not wanting to get out of my sleeping bag!) but I stayed there, on my knees with my head skywards for ages, drinking in the starlight.
After I had my fill, I crawled back inside again and realised that the yaks, whose field I was camped in, were returning to their night-time pasture. It was like a whole orchestra of yak bells outside my tent! There was also a fair amount of yak grunting and other noises that Dorchi is very good at imitating. It struck me that the yaks might try to lean on my tent, and it would be a bit difficult to explain to my medical insurance company just how I managed to get squashed under 400kg of yak if the tent caved in! However, the yaks must have good night vision and found better leaning posts, as I awoke in my usual 3D form this morning instead of as a flat yak pancake…
Then, at breakfast, Dorchi bought something that looked like half a string and half a worm from the yak herders, and told me it is one of around 400 natural medicines (or “magicians” as he pronounces it) that are found in the Nepalese Himalayas. Apparently one kilo of these string-worm things cost over £10,000, as they are in high demand! He squeezed off a tiny end of it and invited me to try it, as it apparently gives good energy levels. It didn’t really taste of anything, but I had to not think about what I had just put in my mouth! He likes to mix it in with his tea, and says they start to taste like blood when you have eaten them a few times. Lovely.
On the way down, I consolidated my tactic for getting across really slippery slopes, be they avalanche-prone slate, muddy red rock or ice and snow combos. It is very simple: I constantly remind myself “110% attention on my feet”… I know that’s a mathematical impossibility, but the intention is to keep myself very firmly focussed on what my feet are feeling, how they are responding to that and what movement is required next. If my mind starts to wander, there is a very real risk in some of these landscapes that I would fall and injure myself severely. It’s a bit like an enforced walking meditation.
Full attention on feet – quiet mind – survive.
The second unusual thing that I ate today was a yak steak. It’s very similar to beef from a cow, except that I suppose there is a lot more fur to be removed in the process… I had a bizarre sense of caveman-like pleasure: “You almost squash me at night, I eat you now!” (my apologies to all vegetarians reading this!)
Tomorrow morning we will be walking the 10 metres from the hotel front door to Jomsom airport landing strip and heading for Pokhari, saving us another long journey by bus. The planes can only land here till around 10am as it gets too windy after that. Such is the temperament of the mountain-weather gods. Having survived them, I am heading down to lower altitudes to encounter the potentially even more dangerous souvenir-shopping gods next!
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Note from May 14
A tragic accident happened the day after we flew out of Jomsom: the same plane that we were aboard on May 13 crashed 24 hours later and all onboard were killed apart from two Danish trekkers. Strong gusts of wind made the pilots lose control. It feels like a very close call for me, and I thank the mountain and wind gods for granting us safe passage. My heart goes out to the families of those who died in Jomsom that day. The danger in these landscapes is very real indeed, and Jomsom is considered the most perilous airport on Earth to land in or take off from.
