Nepal trek comes to an end

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33775, 22 February 1975, Page 11

Nepal trek comes to an end

Yesterday — our fifteenth day on the trek — we all set off for the monastery at Thyangboche and nunnery at Deboche.

It was a very pleasant walk, down 2000 ft and up 2000 ft again through rhododendron, azalea (come back some March!) juniper from Ift to 20ft — some with black berries — birch with peeling bark and branches bare except for trails of old man’s beard, and a kind of cedar which seems to grow at heights over .12,000 ft and is quite oriental-looking against the mist and the mountain peaks.

The sunrises and sunsets are quite breathtaking and the nights have been moonlit. It was a new experience to get out of a warm sleeping bag at 3 a.m. into frozen boots and down jacket, and have a comfort stop in the snow under a full moon with Ama Dablam and Kangtega looking down. For this part of the trip we have a six-yak caravan, the porters having been paid off when we arrived in Khumjung.

The yak are beautiful animals with big horns and long hair (shorn in summer and woven with sheepswool). They have wooden pack saddles to carry huge loads on eigher side; their woven, coloured collars with bells make delightful musical accompaniment Sometimes they have red woollen tassels in their ears.

The yakherds wore leather trousers yesterday with the wool inside, a down jacket, felt boots and a fur hat — even for the hot climb to Thyangboche. The yak are very docile. You can pass then on the track and photograph them. The owner directs them with cries and an occasional well-aimed stone. He also sings a little tune which must be a traditional yakherd song.

Dav 16

Today we had a very pleasant walk back to Khumjung, the three women just pottering along looking at everything slowly while the two boys raced ahead.

We were joined for part of the way by three small woodgatherers who carried bamboo baskets graded according to the size of the bearer. They were in Forms I to 111 at the Khumjung school and were glad to practise their English on us; but the funniest thing was that when I started to sing “Alouette”

and they, and the two Sherpas, all joined in — in French! ♦ ♦ » Day 20 All day today there has been a shoemaker sitting by the fire mending Ang Sirke’s shoes. He sits

cross-legged and mends all the family’s Shoes, sometimes sewing four or five patches on each. His tools are scissors, knife, needle, string, and a

}>ad on one tinget in lieu of a thimble He eats with the family and is provided with washing-water before eating His is a Tibetan, and several other Tibetans came to the house while the memsahibs were in residence to offer for sale thetr treasures of jewellery, yak bells, and felt boots and brassware. In the meantime the five sahibs and two daughters of our leader had gone on wards and upwards — a six-day journey up to the Gokyo valley and back with the yak caravan They all climbed an 18.000 ft peak at the head of the valley and were re warded by a cloudless morning and magnificent views of the surrounding peaks — Everest. Nuptse. Lhetse. Makalu. Cho Oyu and Gyachung Kang We were happy to see them safely back on the 21st day; and after two rest days we all set off for Lukla airstrip, where we boarded our charter plane for a half-hour flight to Katmandu and hoi baths We looked down with a pang of nostaligia on the foothills we had traversed so laboriously over a period of three weeks We all felt, I think, a special gratitude to our Sherpas whose open hospitality and cheerful help had contributed so much to our enjoyment of the trek (Concluded)