Nunthala to Kharikhola

 Thursday,  May 17th

Departed at 0830 in a light rain.  We waited as long as we dared hoping for the rain to stop but finally gave up and headed out.

We passed the mule train staging area.

 This is an archway celebrating the marriage of the oldest girl of the family. Ramesh spoke to another girl splitting wood off to the right of this arch. She said she would be getting married next.

We struggled down the steep trail about 2200 feet to cross the Dudhkoshi river.

This suspension bridge measured about 375 feet long, according to Mike, who paced it off. I was too busy trying to stabilize my camera amidst all the bouncing to try estimating the length.

 Many of the older buildings had slate roofs. This one also had shakes covering the veranda.  In the shade of the main roof, orchids grew all along the drip edge of the shakes.

We stopped for lunch at Juving, a small place 500 feet up the trail from the river. We cooled off sitting in plastic chairs on the front porch. When I stood up to go in for lunch, this leech dropped off me.

I had leaned against rocks from time to time on the way up. Guess the leech found me then and dropped off after drinking his fill. Gidi, the tall porter, took it across the road and smacked it, leaving a big splotch of blood on the stone.

The trail was just as steep going up as down earlier.

We continued up to the summit (6,764 feet) where there was a monastery 143 steps up from the trail.

Tired as we were we trudged up the extra steps to the top. We could hear the monks chanting so gathered around the door to observe and listen.  Before long a young monk come out and invited us in. We didn't want to take off our boots so thanked him and stayed watching and listening for awhile.

 This new stupa drew our attention, then back down the steps, we headed down to Kharikhola, arriving at 1730 at 6,464 feet.

No cell or WiFi so more memo writing.  Hope to catch up in a couple days when we get to Namche Bazaar and good internet connections.