Got a good early start this morning (6:45am) and made it to Yak Kharka (Yak Attack on many of the signs pointing the way) easily. Nice gentle up hill the whole way.
We saw a small avalanche high in the mountains (off Annapurna 3 maybe?). Didn’t get the camera pointed at it quick enough but you can still see some of the snow in the air.
Just before Yak Kharka we stop to look in a little tea house with a vicious Year-moo I’ll let Liz explain.
We also saw Brad in Yak Kharka and had a little tea with him before heading on for another hour up to Churi Letdar. Staying at the last hotel in Letdar “Hotel Churi Lattar.”
There are at current count at least 5 ways to spell this town:
Lader
Ledar
Leder
Letdar
Lattar
All of which have appeared on “official” looking signs.
Liz’s 3 Things:
-Yearr-moo attack
(year-moo is like a ferret type thing, and this one was stuffed) I asked the owner of the little shop if I could take a picture with it. He didn’t speak English, but through charades and pointing, and the kind owner obliged… then he wanted to be in the picture with me… and as I’m smiling for the camera, he makes what I can only guess is a yearr-moo sound and has it jump at me. I was surprised and jumped and so we have the picture. He seemed quite pleased with my reaction to his little joke.
– Fresh yak meat
– Gorgeous views
Best Part of Liz’s Day:
Getting in early to our tea house. At such a high altitude, our daily mileage was pretty short, we only hiked for 3-4 hours and were at the next village. There were a couple reasons for this. First, now that we were higher up into the mountains the villages were few and far between, no longer were there little stops all in between. We really went from one village until the next that was our stop for the night. So you either hiked 3-4 hours or you hiked for 8 hours. And because there were fewer villages, it was harder to get a room… we didn’t have our pick of a bunch of places, there would be just 2 tea houses in a village, and if you wanted a room with a bed, you had to get there early! So you didn’t want to try to make it to the next village and arrive late in the afternoon (it gets dark at 4:30-5pm) and not get a room. And the second, main reason for hiking only a few hours a day, is acclimatization. We are climbing in altitude very quickly! Basically constantly walking uphill at a pretty steep grade. And we are being very careful not to climb too quickly for fear of getting altitude sickness – a VERY real concern here. We’re at or above 14,000 feet now, and the precautions are to gain only 500 feet per day, a maximum of 750 feet in a day. We are taking Diamox now twice a day to help with breathing and more than anything to help with sleeping. Your body doest’ get used to the lack of oxegen.
Worst part of today: It was a great day!
Memory verse:
Assurance of forgiveness ( 1 John 1:9)
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
