Dear
Friends.
Today one of Life’s Great Questions was
answered on the trail just a bit below Ghandruk.
The
Annapurna Hotel’s fifth floor roof made an excellent perch for the dozen or so
photographer-trekkers who emerged at dawn to record the sunrise over two of the
five noble Annapurnas and the sacred, unclimbed Machapuchare. Although I made
some photos with more sun on these massive mountains, this one captures more of
the magic, if not the chill, of the peaks as they emerge from the darkness.
As we took pictures and made video, the villagers in the homes north of the hotel began their days. The early morning sun illuminated the south sides of their homes so that we could easily see the corn drying under the second story eaves, neat stacks of firewood, and the occasional man splashing his sleepy face with cold water.
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| Dawn brightens the Himalayas East of Ghandruk |
As we took pictures and made video, the villagers in the homes north of the hotel began their days. The early morning sun illuminated the south sides of their homes so that we could easily see the corn drying under the second story eaves, neat stacks of firewood, and the occasional man splashing his sleepy face with cold water.
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| Early morning sunlight warms homes next to our hotel in Ghandruk |
After packing up our gear and eating
breakfast, we presented out gifts and tips to Jawane, our porters, and our
helpers. Jawane later told us that they
were quite happy, and their extra attentiveness on these last two days seemed
to verify his report. Below – in a
candid shot -- the group stands around after the “ceremony” bracketed by Karma
on the left in his blue down sweater and Donna on the right in her black one,
Maisie also in blue is next to Karma, Jawane sports his Ferrari cap, next to
him his son . . . well, you know what he is up to. He’s 16 and has a cell phone :-) AND reception now.
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| Some of our group before we departed from Ghandruk |
Near
Ghandruk the stone-paved trails are wide and well maintained, a reflection of
the relative prosperity of this village. It was on the trail from Ghandruk to Syauli
Bazaar that I shot the short pony caravan video, the image of the two cute donkeys,
and the little boy watering the horse that you may already have seen in an
earlier email. I thought that the trail
was particularly charming in the shady area in the image below, so I could not
resist including it for you. It was near
this spot in the trail that we encountered a porter shouldering rolls of
corrugated metal roofing. Dick asked
Jawane to find out how much his unwieldy load weighed. The answer, “73 kilos.” According to the scales at the Buddha Air
check-in area of the Kathmandu airport, when we were weighted for the flight to Chitwan, that’s "one Marian Baldy." Poor guy!
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A shady part of the Modi Khola River
trail as it leaves prosperous Ghundruk
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| A porter carries chickens up the Modi Khola trail near Ghandruk |
Of course,
you have guessed, by now, what we saw next after sighting the three chicken-bearing
porters. Yes! It was an egg porter. Clearly, I was so stunned by the revelation
of the answer to a question that I have been pondering, along with “Why did the
chicken cross the road?” which, mercifully, will not be addressed here, that I
failed to record the actual illuminating vision. However, fear not! Your faithful “documentress” of all things
trekking had captured an image of a porter’s egg-carrying rack back in Baise
Kharka while Donna was peeling potatoes [her second trail-side sous chef assignment]. You can see the carrying rack sitting on the slate slab and his walking stick resting to the left. The egg rack's white tumpline dangles from the front side, and the colorful padding for the porter's back. Two recycled
Pepsi boxes of eggs have been removed from the rack and are sitting to the right. Each box contains an
estimated eight layers of egg trays of 30 eggs each. That’s about 240 eggs per
box. This rack could carry four boxes,
so if this porter’s load tumbled, nearly 1,000 eggs could be spilled. We had seen porters carrying these egg racks every day
moving up and down the trails with us and delivering the ingredients for our omelets and
fried rice. One spill could mean 500 less omelets.
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An egg porter’s rack rests while he
negotiates the sale
for his delivery at a hotel in Baise Kharka |
Back to the scene as we made our way downhill
to Syauli Bazaar -- one feature of hill
walking in Nepal that I mentioned earlier was the presence of water buffalo
[baise] on the trail. This has remained
until now photographically undocumented, but this fine specimen was walking in
line with several of her comrades, and I was able to snap her image for
you. As you might imagine, the presence
of several water buffalo serenely plodding uphill as we moved downhill next to
them caused quite a human traffic jam as other startled trekkers worked with
their Canons, Nikon, and mobile phones to capture the moment.
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| A placid bovine shares “our” trail near Syauli Bazaar |
Another sight revealed by our trek
this day was a glimpse into the future of the lives of porters and pack animals
-- and their drivers, breeders, and caretakers -- as well and innkeepers,
cooks, trailside merchants, and school charities in this area. The image below shows the transfer area where
goods are unloaded from trucks and moved onto the backs of porters and pack
animals -- donkeys on this particular occasion.
As with the delivery of electricity – exemplified in this scene by the
power lines visible near the top of this image – changes have arrived with the
road. Here trekkers can hitch a ride in a Land Rover rather than spend the
night in a lodge between this transfer station and where the trail ends in Naya Pul. Not only will transport workers have less work, but so with the local hospitality workers.
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| At the end of the road from Napa Pul, good are offloaded from trucks to porters and pack animals |
Maybe, in the future, the lodges below this transfer
point will be serving only the likes of us:
trekkers reluctant to leave these beautiful mountains and who were happy
to break their 3,300 foot descent along a beautiful rushing river.
Marian Baldy (Chico, CA, 05.28.12)
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