Mustang Valley

Firstly, we must mention that our photos of our 5416m pass are all on slide so as yet there are none to show you here...

The Mustang valley is very different from the first valley. I found the first more interesting with its greenness and little villages and rice paddys on steep hill sides and more load bearing animals to share the trail with. The Mustang is like the Tibetan desert, rocky and devoid of vegetation. And they have built a road all the way up. So pilgrims to Muktinath can be seen hitching on the back of a tractor or motorbike. Kinda sad really. We did long days walking on this horrible rocky roads to get them over and done with, boy were our feet sore!

You can see the road behind Michelle here.

Barren.

Here is a lady making items out of Yak and sheeps wool at 3500m. We bought some Christmas pressies off her!

Muktinath 3800m. The morning after we did the pass.

Just below 3500m Michelle felt the affects of altitude although at the time we thought she just had heat stroke. She felt dizzy and nauseous, and wouldn't eat her lunch. Got up to go to the loo and Dave had to support her then she fully collapsed. She had no appetite and had to force herself to eat for several days.

We stayed a few nights at Manang to acclimatize and did a day trip to 4200m, Dave with a light pack and Michelle with none. Her cough got worse (she had only just recovered from having bronchitis for like 3 months) so she swallowed her kiwi pride and got a porter to carry her pack for a few days to the top of the pass. Now most trekkers had their own guide and porters and therefore carried small packs or no packs. But us being kiwi and all did not need a guide and are used to carrying our own packs. But having lived in the land of flatness for one year our muscles had forgotten what it was like to carry everything on our backs. We should have left non-essentials in a guesthouse as Dave's pack was about 24kgs and Michelles about 16kgs.

Our porter carried Michelle's pack from Manang 3500m. We stayed a night at Yak Kharka 4018m, and Thorung Phedi 4450m. Climbed to Thorung La 5416m. Had a cup of hot lemon and a snickers, chucked her pack back on her and descended to Muktinath 3800m.

Her cough got worse but her breathing was easier (going down usually is on the breathing but hard on the knees).
Next day descended to Jomsom 2710m. Jomsom has an airport and a lot of people end or start their journey here. We didn't really care for Jomsom but enjoyed our hot shower!!!

Next day was the longest walk ever on that horrible road. Got to Lete 2480m and had a rest/sick day the next day. Michelle had really bad bronchitis that was escalating so started on anitbiotics. Dave was feeling pretty rundown too. In NZ when we tramp we would be eating a lot of fat and protein but here in the Nepal hills the staple diet is "Dal baat" (rice and curried potatoes). So we were eating lots of carbs but nothing to replace the energy we were burning. Dave lost 8 kgs on this hike! We tried to eat cheese whenever we could!

Next day we descended to Dana 1400m. Day after we went through Tatopani 1190m (hot pools here but we didn't stop) and had intended on climbing to 2750m. What were we thinking. Because we had lost a lot of elevation is was insanely hot and the heat wiped us so we stopped at 1935m. Most people just do the circuit so they would walk out from Tatopani but we were also going up and into Macchupucchre and Annapurna Base Camp.

Michelle at a police check point. Every few villages there is an ACAP or police checkpoint.