Trekking day 2

We get up early hoping to get a good view of the mountains before the clouds gather. We can see 2 of the peaks in the Annapurna range amongst the clouds – Annapurna 1 at 7200m and the Fish Tail mountain at 6940m. The Fish tail mountain is considered holy in the Hindu religion because of the shape of its peak and because it stands alone. It is forbidden to summit this peak.

Annapurna 1

Fish Tail mountain

The tea house terrace has great views of the peak and we sit outside for breakfast, drinking in the view and the Nepali tea. Beside the house a wide marijuana bush is growing.

Tea house, mountains and marijuana

We start walking; this time steeply down steps and again we stop to rest from time to time at small shops or restaurants. At one place a man is sharpening the individual teeth of a saw with a file, watched intently by his daughter. I guess there is no popping out to B and Q here when your saw is dull.

Man sharpening a saw

Occasionally mule trains pass us in both directions and people carrying goods in baskets on their backs. One man has a huge cardboard box of pepsi bottles and one with a crate of live chickens.

 Mule train

We are heading for a hot spring, but somehow I get momentarily separated from the group and never make it there. I opt to wait at the lunch restaurant with a few of the porters and am glad to have the rest. I lie on a stone bench in the sun, snoozing. One of the porters comes to talk to me and he asks about my family.  I show him pictures on my camera. I ask him about his family and whether he has children. He tells me he is not married yet and he is only 25. He looks about 40. When the others come back from the hot spring hey say they enjoyed the experience, but they are exhausted from the additional climb down and back up and from sitting in the hot water on a hot day.

After lunch our walk takes us back along the river bank and we cross the river again on the longest bridge so far. In the middle the bridge swings and tilts wildly.

River crossing

The terrain becomes more gentle and looks rather like  a walk at home through woods and beside a river, except that the river is much wilder and the hills steeper. We walk through a small farmyard where sweetcorn is drying stacked on a frame in front of the house; chicken peck and some sheep's wool is laid out to dry – a story book farmyard.

Sweetcorn drying

In a shed on the other side of the yard an old women of 80 is sitting on a mat on the ground, weaving cloth on a loom that lies in front of her feet. She looks remarkably sprightly and gives a toothy grin. Not bad going in a country where the life expectancy is about 60.

Woman weaving

Waterfall

We are all very pleased when we arrive at tonight's tea house. It has a great view up the valley we have just come along and we can look back to where we were on the other side of the valley at lunch time.

Tea house at Landruck

Me