Kharikhola to Pulya

Friday, May 18th

Had breakfast at 0630 so we could get an early start on the trail. Cloudy skies but the weather seems to be improving.

Departed 6,464 at 0735.

This is the advertised western toilet in some teahouses. Note the cutout seat in the plastic chair.

I find it interesting how different plants grow at the different elevations. Here at almost 8,000 feet we see bananas bearing fruit.

Beauganvillia also flourishes here.

Many animal shelters have roofs of thatched bamboo strips. The reason I took this shot is the guy in the tree.  Ramesh told me the cows like the leaves of this tree so people (more agile than I) climb the trees and prune the limbs so the cows can have a treat. You'll notice the truncated trees in other shots since they are all along the trail.

Foggy, or should I say cloudy, going this morning. We went downhill to reach the little river between these two hills then a long tough stretch up switchbacks, negotiating our way up what I estimated to be a 60 degree hillside.

We passed a road crew repairing the trail. One man was chipping rocks to make them fit where he wanted them, two more guys were chipping out a rock that blocked part of the trail and another was carrying rocks from a stockpile. All working with hand tools. Further along the newly restored trail we found a tarp stretched over a small fire where the cook was making tea.

The newly rebuilt trail was quite nice as far as it lasted.

When I took off my boots this afternoon, I noticed this dried blood just above the top of my wool sock.

Suspected another leech and sure enough when I washed of the blood there was the telltale bitemark.

Guess it crawled up my pantleg and had a feast. 

When i took off my neck buff a little later I discovered the location of yesterday's bite on the back of my neck. No pain associated with the bites but, since nobody else has gotten one, I'm feeling picked on.

We had rain from 1000-1130 then the sun came out for a few minutes. After lunch we walked in the clouds until we made a breakout and saw some mountains.

Arrived Pulyan at 1830 and 8,921 feet.