We began our day at 5:30. Coffee did not arrive but the dawn did and it was glorious. Several of us watched its arrival while brushing our teeth as the sink is on the roof top terrace from where we watched one of nature’s wonders. A Himalayan dawn lighting up snow covered peaks. As the sun rises the turn from cold grey to a dazzling gold.
Once underway, our trek today was a hard one. We climbed to over 3000 metres then down and down to about 2000 metres then up to about 2600 metres. I’m too tired to check details so might be off in these figures by a couple hundred metres but you get my point! Today we either walked steeply up or steeply down and we did a whole bunch of both.
This evening we are in Tatapani at a rustic little guesthouse with tin walled rooms. Yes the interior walls of our rooms are white tin. Brenda, MJ and I have a reasonable sized room with about 18 inches between our beds. The others are in wee box like rooms. The toilet is across a courtyard. This is our first stop where we’ll have to go outside to do our nightly deeds. It’s cold but not raining.
Brenda and I have enjoyed a 2012 bottle of an Australian Chardonnay. We bought it last night and Brenda’s porter carried it deep within the confines of her pack all day. Brenda felt so guilty about giving him this extra weight that she carried some other gear herself. This was not an easy day to be carrying extra weight! The wine however was very good.
I’ve been trying to send pictures but the internet is too slow. Will send some as soon as I can. Meantime, good night from a very sleepy Didi in Tatapani.