The big trek...(part 2)

Day 6 "hello sunshine" Unamed pass to just outside of Ramni.
Spent a top morning at the pass soaking up the rays before descending down to the town of Geri. First part of the descent was great - not too steep, views, lush forests etc. Second part was knee jarring hell - very steep scree (loose rocks) and really hot as we were going down at least 1000 mtrs and stomach still dodgy so not feeling 100%. Anyway finally made it tired and 'over-it' down to the village of Geri. A friendly place with a shop, so we were able to stock up on much needed biscuits, tea and noodles. Also had lunch at the friendly shopkeepers house which went along way to lifiting spirits. After lunch a long dusty and hot hike along a couple of ridges and then after some nav issues, we finally made it to a pretty camping spot near a river.

Unfortunatley for Liran the leeches also enjoyed this campsite and while i had a couple of near 'hits' Liran scored 3 blood suckers. Found out the msg ridden masala stuff in the maggi noodles packets works wonders on leeches. Apart from the blood suckers we had a great warm and dry camp...

Day 7 - Going up! Ramin - Wan
Up early and had a great yoga session and meditation at the local school. Think i freaked out a couple of kids who arrived early only to find some strange foreigner in turtle pose outside their class room! They literally put their bags down for a second then ran.. My left knee was really sore and i could hardly walk on it but it came good after yoga. More acending through stunning forests before the rains hit us again. This time i found my 20 rupee (30cents) poncho makes a great pack cover! We arrived at the pretty village of Cannole where we treated to an amazing homegrown organic lunch of wholemeal chappatis, potato and spinach as well as rice.

We were also reached celebrity status that day and had almost 20 of the town kids and adults come to check us out. Liran did some tackky magic tricks which the kids loved. After lunch it was back on the road and over yet another pass. This one about 2900m...We then camped at yet another great meadow just before the town of Wan. The skies cleared and near full moon was impressive that night.


Day 8 'The Climax' Bendi Bugael 3300ms
We took a short-cut around Wan before passing a gorgeous guest house and then ascending for ages until we came up to the plateu that is Bendi Bugel. Wow what a place. The LP trekking guide claimed this to be 'arguaby one the best himalyan camping spots'. A big claim indeed. Personally Tappovan (see tripping post) was my fav but this place was still damn impressive. Views of some truly great peaks including the mountains surrounding Nandi Devi (Indias highest peak at 7800m).

After a very cool night we woke up to a clear morning and were treated to views that were hidden from us the previous night by the cloud cover. It was truly a breathtaking place and we spent a great morning soaking up the sun and the views before the massive 1700m descent and 500m accent to reach the road and then La Jung, the trail head. This turned out to be a long and tiring day as were walking for over 8 hours. When we eventually arrived at La Jung it was pure bliss to to have a real bed again and a great thali was delivered to our room from the local restauraunt.

Unfortunately our knack for missing buses was still with us as we were told the one bus for the day left at 8am the next morning only to find it had left at 7:30! Seems the local shopkeeper we asked got confused with summer and winter times...Oh well another day of share jeep shuffling and lots of stops in 'interesting' towns.

Spent the night in Karayang, which is meeting place for two major rivers whose names i have forgotton.

Final
It was a truly awesome hike, nothing like which i've ever done before and in some ways was like a personal journey for me as it was very challenging at times and rewarding too. Liran was a excellent and very patient hiking buddy and we walked at a similar fast pace. Though I was the uphill champion and he was the downhill king. Felt really fortunate to be doing this trek. We meet one group of Austrians who had each paid 1000 euro to do almost exactly the same trek. We worked our costs to be about $50 aus each! It was also amusing whenever we passed a tour group and the porters/guides would enviably ask 'what no porters or guide?' to which our standard reply was to point at each other and say 'guide'/'porter'/'cook' - then a look of amazement would come over their faces...