EVEREST TREK : DAY 6

Day 6. Bupsa to Surke.

Friday 15 March

Another beautiful day and a good night on the best mattress since arriving in Nepal. After the usual breakfast it was on to the trail and more climbing. The German woman who decided to carry on from Kharikhola stayed at the same lodge and left before us. Her name is Margaret and we didn't catch up with her again until our tea break 2.5 hours up the trail at Khari La pass. We didn't see David and Julie and aren't sure if they actually stayed at Bupsa.

Snowy peaks on the horizon

The profile to Khari La was up but not relentless. There were short steep climbs interspersed with easy flat sections that allowed us to recover. We took it easy appreciating the different colours of the rhododendrons, deep red, pink and sparkling white and the various birds nesting in the bushes. Really high peaks glistening with snow were now appearing on the horizon.

At a lodge halfway up the hill there was a woman with six month old twins. Brin said one was suffering with diarrhoea. Moira gave the woman Imodium pills to take, hopefully this will help the baby through her milk. She had to fly from Lukla to Kathmandu to the hospital there for a Caesarian delivery. The two babies were chubby and looked very healthy. 

The tea house with the view to die for

 Our tea break was at Khari La pass, in a tea house on the edge of a hill with the most magnificent panorama of mountains before us and right at the foot of the valley were the waters of Dodh Kosi. We watched the regular planes coming in and leaving from Lukla through the valley. I said to Moira if there had been a motorway and a Tesco close by this property would be worth millions.

Having my tea break there

After leaving Khari La there was another climb before the trail turned into a side valley of the Paiya Khola. Brin indicated the village of Paiya on the other side but we had a long walk to the head of the valley before dropping to this village. The trail kept mainly to the contour but undulated with some short steep ups and downs. The drawback was the underfoot conditions, thick mud. Fortunately the mud was fairly firm with plenty of rocks to jump on, it wasn't squelchy marsh that we encounter in Scotland. The mud was mainly caused by mule trains and the dense covering of trees preventing the sun drying out the ground. The forest scenery was wonderful with rhododendron growing all down the hillsides and different native birds. One unfortunate thing on this section was that we picked up a character who offered his services as porter and wanted to carry my daypack. He wouldn't stop talking and eventually we had to stop and wave him through, he took the hint and went. Brin said that he drank too much.

For lunch in Paiya

At Paiya we joined Margaret who was seated at a lovely tea house, where she was waiting for her lunch. We had potato soup for a change but wished we had ordered the veggie noodle Margaret was having, it was huge with plenty of vegetables, a meal on its own. Margaret is now nearing the end of her trek, she is only going to Lukla and flies from there to Kathmandu on Sunday. 

Margaret and her porter/guide left before us but we caught and passed them within 5 minutes. The track more or less followed the contours down this side of the valley until just before joining the Dudh Kosi again  there was a very steep ascent to the Chutok La pass. From this high point we could see Lukla sitting on a shelf at the top of the valley but our destination, Surke, was down on the Surka Khola a tributary to the Duhd Kosi. It was a long way down with lots of irregular stepping stones that jarred the knees. It is good to see where you are going but can be frustrating when you never seem to get there. High above the village we could see a few lodges and when Brin said only two minutes to go we assumed we would stop at one of these. When we got there he changed his mind saying that they weren't very good places to stay, so it was another 20 minutes of exhausting downhill to the river and the village proper. Fortunately it was the first lodge in Surke that we stopped at and the room was OK, they gave me an extra mattress for my bed. 

A cave on today's route.

After relaxing for half an hour to recover from the taxing descent we showered. Once we changed into warmer clothes it was down to the dining room for a pot of tea and place our order for dinner at 7 pm. It was fried noodles and vegetables with an omelette on top. Margaret who had arrived while we were washing joined us and had the fried noodles as well. She didn't have them all, it was too much for her and I got half, so I was well fed tonight with an apple pie to follow. While we were waiting for dinner I played cards with Brin and Margaret's porter. They taught me a Nepali game, very similar to rummy.

We went to bed after dinner, it is difficult to get comfortable on the benches in the dining room. We lay on our beds in sleeping bags and read for an hour or so. It was a bit milder tonight and we had gone to sleep all wrapped up as usual but had to strip a layer off durning the night.