Sandakphu

We passed villages along the way, Jaubari, Gairi Bas and Khatta.  We met a group of trekkers who stayed in a proper guesthouse that fed them nice food and didn't try and over charge them.  They were miffed that they had been told they needed a guide. We were asked if we knew that the way we had just trekked was actually highly dangerous due to the Nepalese border. Jason (the guide) shrugged his shoulders and said that Claire shouldn't worry he had it under control... despite the fact he had for the first time ever forgotten his compass on a trek!

It was a beautiful sunny morning.  We still have lots of clothes on as its only just warming up.

Khangchendzonga is still there though, it normally disappears into the cloud by about late morning.

The locals were all very friendly and very Nepali.

We stopped at the entrance to Singalila National Park where we paid a man to let us in. He seemed to only be able to say 300 rupees when questioned about anything, there was only one thing on his mind.

Claire was keen to know how many bears there were, and what to do when stumbling across one.

We later found out that bored army men shoot anything all the time, and the most anyone has seen is a red panda or deer. We heard this from a bored and drunk army man explaining how he spends his days in the freezing cold.

Jason inspects Nepal, and pretends that his failure to bring the compass is not a problem and he has the route well under control.

Despite the inevitable arrival of television to some of the villagers, the means of changing behaviour is the poster. This one explains the need not to burn a fire all the time as you might have noticed there are no longer any trees anywhere.

Jason was very insistant about regular breaks.  Claire was so off food that she wasn't that bothered about soup and porridge. Still the boy was persistant, and judging by the state we were in by the end of the day it was a good thing.

Early afternoon and the mist starts coming, making an eerie prescence. We find some accommodation in Sandakphu, and prepared ourselves for dinner. It took about three hours to cook and Claire had to sit next to a drunken army bloke who would slur "My heart is thumping...Boom, Boom Boom, I want you in my room" everytime Jason would leave the room. If there wasn't an army base Jason might of considered confronting him. Jason just felt sorry for them. PIcture it: six army men in a shed, during minus 10 degree nights, that regularly runs out of firewood, listening to the Venga Boys all night... I wonder how they keep warm?

We spent the coldest night here (minus 8) we both had all our clothes on and we were both sick all night. We had a relapse of our stomach bug, or we might of had mild altitude sickness. We wouldn't normally get altitude sickness on a trek of this height and profile but we were absolutely shattered by the time we arrived in Sandakphu.

The next morning we woke up to see Everest, Lhotse, Makalau and a bunch of other 8,000m plus peaks in Nepal.

Watching the worlds highest peaks change from grey to pink to white was the next best thing to visiting them from Nepal.

It was very pretty but we were wearing everything we owned and still loosing the battle with the cold. The sleeping bag Claire ingeniously took out with us froze solid from the rooms condensation as we watched the sunrise.

The village where the hard people of Sandakphu live.  There are better places to live and the lodge owners that haven't left for lower elevations leave for December and January leaving only the government lodge staff and the army boys to "Boom, boom, boom" all night to the Venga Boys.

This photo is one of the better ones, but it's not very good. We were so ill that we couldn't even get the camera out. Jason desperately wanted to walk along the ridge to Phalut for a closer view of Khangchendzonga. But, the last 2 days had taken their toll, and we decided to retreat with Mo & Do the Dutch to the safety, warmth and decent food of lower altitude.