Khari Khola to Puiyan
Cool & Cloudy
It was really cold when I woke up and depressingly the sky was cloudy. It was hard to get out of bed, but we eventually managed and had a good breakfast of porridge and an omelette. We are all eating huge amounts and double portions as our bodied cry out for calories, and we are glad the prices for food are so cheap.
Steve & Deland, the English/Hong Kong couple set off with their porter Telat long before us and we were rather ashamed that it was 9:15am before we finally got under-way.
There were some cute kids playing hop-scotch and negar (where the person who is "it" has to hit you below the knee with a ball).
We descended the 60m to the river at 2,010m and then it was an agonisingly long and steep climb of 300m altitude to the town of Bupsa. We stopped here only for a rest, although we needed quite a long one. There were some kids around and Robin entertained them (and us) with his stick trying to perform tricks (he'll never make it in the circus) and Damian performed on the didgeridoo.
The agony was far from over as there was another 600m vertically to climb. The trail was occasionally less steep, but it was heart pounding stuff. With the damp weather and views mostly obscured by the forest, it was hard to enjoy this day as much as we had the others. The temperature varied from warm & humid to cold & windy and it was never particularly pleasant.
At long last around 2pm we had reached the top of the hardest hill so far and rounded a ridge to give a view of Puiyan, our destination for the day, on the other side of the valley. The trail was now much more pleasant and the trees were picturesque in their autumn colours of yellows and browns. Even the evergreen firs were colourful as they had ferns and other plants growing out of their moss covered trunks which were dying back for the impending winter months.
We stopped by a little steam and Paul got out his stove and Robin his freeze dried hikers' food and we did a bit of cooking. It was a nice change and the noodles and pasta in a cheesy sauce tasted great.
The fog rolled in and made it chilly, so we decided to have tea when we got to Puiyan and it wasn't too long before we arrived.
After looking around Damian decided on the Yellow Cafe for us to stay which looked snug and homely, which indeed it turned out to be. The five of us had become quite a close team and we all ordered the same of hot lemon water, garlic soup, fried rice with veg and egg and then shared a banana cake and an apple cake, which were delicious. Still craving food we had chocolate bars to finish off with.
We were amazed that the lady could prepare all this under the light of one small candle with only the occasional beam of her torch to see what she was doing. She was very friendly and her little son, who we names "namaste" as this was all he said over and over again, was cute, but seemed a bit spoilt by his mum.
We didn't stay up too late as it seemed we were keeping them from going to bed, though this may have been mistaken as the kid was still making a racket an hour later.
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