Sing Gompa in the sunshine

Yay, we awoke to the most gorgeous view from our room, the sun gleaming on snow capped peaks in the far distance. Stunning. A blue sky, sunny day. It enticed me to buy a lovely woven bag that our hostess Mingma had made.

 After a nice breakfast we did a final pack and set off at 8.00 am into sunshine. Up, up, up, we had to climb 1100 metres today, most of it in the morning on a steady, sometimes zig-zagging path. We saw a few more people today heading up to Sing Gompa.

The track wove through pine and rhododendron forests, really lovely, and we saw lots of birds. Our first real stop was about 9.30 am at a tea shop with a lovely view over the valley and down to Syabru. We had cheese, coconut biscuits and tea, donned packs and set off again. The scenery was fabulous and I loved Mithu’s slow and steady pace, with plenty of breathers. We enjoyed the peace and quiet of the forest and the scented air.

At 3210 metres we had lunch in the sun and a good rest. We chatted to an Australian woman we had seen on previous days, her companion an incredibly fit elderly man. She was interested in birds and we lent her Rob’s book. Packs on again and we headed up through more delightful forest, the grade more gentle now. We saw a green woodpecker on the ground, and further on a large party of maybe 20 Langur monkeys swinging through the trees – an impressive sight.

Mithu decided we were walking more like Nepalis as it took us only 4 ½ hours to reach pretty Sing Gompa. We got a nice room in the Red Panda Hotel, spacious with great views, the late afternoon sun streaming in. We unpacked, had a short rest, saw a 101 year old woman who had cataracts, was deaf and suffered from arthritis, but who seemed to have lots of people looking after her.

Then Mithu took us walking again - he is definitely a sadist, we obviously hadn’t done enough walking that day. We wandered around the village, up and down hillsides for a couple of hours, looking for birds – oh the joy of being a bird-watchers wife! Most normal people were sitting in the sunshine enjoying a cold beer. But not us. We persuaded Mithu to head back rather than climb yet another hill, and we bought a kg of yak cheese back in the village. We both enjoyed the luxury of a warm, almost hot, shower and I even rinsed my hair. Bliss.

There were yaks in the field below, the sun was shining and all was right with the world.