Syabru

More rain fell in the night, but a strong breeze woke us and it seemed to blow the clouds away, at least briefly. We walked down to the restaurant in Rimche for a breakfast of Tibetan bread and cheese, and set off from there at 8.00 am, heading for Syabru. The mist lifted enough to reveal snow-covered peaks high above us. It was downhill most of the morning, very pleasant. At breakfast we had seen a wealth of birds, and a new species in the river which was raging down over the rocks.

We stopped at Bamboo for early morning tea, and I photographed kids playing on a huge rock right on the water’s edge. We saw a deer up on the far bank, and another species of monkey, a brown one. More pleasant walking although the muddy slippery track kept us on our toes, so to speak.

We stopped at a restaurant called Landslide, run by 4 delightful girls. Our lunch was huge. Other people there were talking about the weather which is apparently bad all over the mountain areas. Some were cutting short their trip, but not us - we are still heading upwards. And after lunch it was just that for a couple of hours, interrupted by one downhill to a huge bridge across the river.

We had a bottle of sprite at a lonely little villa at the top of the first major uphill haul. The rain started again after lunch and was reasonably persistent. We continued up a gradual slope, then up many steps through the pretty village of Syabru until we reached Hotel Bluestar. Don’t you just love these names? We had a nice room which would have provided us with a lovely view had it not been so misty. Also a cold shower –we made the most of the ability to at least have a decent wash – first one for days. We enjoyed a good hot cup of tea in the dining room – only 2 other tourists and very quiet in town – but there was a pleasant group of children in the hotel. Our hotelier spoke good English and was a great cook. We bought a book called Easy Trek, The lower Langtang to support the local school. Outside, a couple of guys tried to sell our hotelier a myriad of jewellery and other items they kept producing from plastic bags.

We dragged ourselves away from the warm fire and walked up to the top of the village and visited the beautiful and very old monastery. Some village children ran up there with us and showed us in. In the village we watched two men using a handsaw to cut through a huge log, and Mithu helped a lady fix her door. We saw some very old women with bare feet carrying huge loads, and running around were a few dogs and loads of skinny chickens.

Aite, Rob and I spent ages doing an easy Sudoku which we didn’t finish until after our excellent dal bhat dinner – served with steamed vegetable and potato momo. At 8.00 pm there were stars in the sky – a hopeful sign.