Dulne in Dolpa

A while back I went for a nice wander (dulne in Nepali) in Dolpa.  Dolpa is a remote region in Nepal accessed only by a six day walk, four day jeep, or 20 minute flight.  My friends, Nick, Ale, and Tara, and I decided to take the flight and go around a little path called the Lower Dolpa Circuit.  We bussed two days from Kathmandu to Nepalgunj in western Nepal where we got our flight arrangement worked out.  When we asked for receipts the travel agent got quite offended, "Whoa, Hey, listen.  I'm not like that.  I won't rip you off.  I'm a good guy."  We knew something was up.
"Uhhh, we just asked for receipts."
Once again a Nepali travel agent proved himself a sleezeball in the process, but more to come on that later.

We had heard of a delightful restaurant called Candy's or Travelers' Village as it is officially known.  We wanted to take some rickshaws so we asked the drivers if we could just rent the rickshaws for the evening without the drivers... they consented and soon enough we were zooming our way down the busy highway that is currently under construction.  Those things are not that easy to control.  After some good laughs and large amount of ridiculousness we ended up at Candy's.  Candy is this 85% crazy lady who was born in the States, but emigrated to Nepal many years ago.  She has an American-food style restaurant which serves delicious food.  We each ate at least 3 meals each.

The next morning with pretty good stomach aches, we went to the airport and boarded the little plane to Jufal.  The airport is just a little dirt airstrip carved into the side of a mountain, and we landed safely.  After a little meal we worked our way towards Dunai which is about a 3 hour walk from Jufal.

Jufal

Along the road to Dunai

Dunai was a lovely little town with a cobbled street, and a decent hotel which was full.  We found another place to stay, and then early the next morning headed out for Laisicap.  On the way we continued to walk by a brilliant blue river, and Ale started to feel pretty bad.  By the time we stopped for a late lunch in Tarakot he was having lots of egg/sulfur burps and felt completely washed out.  I recognized those symptoms immediately and convinced him to take some giardia medication I had with me.  He pushed on despite feeling terrible, and by the time we reached Laisicap he was feeling quite a lot better.  That night we stayed in the first of several herder tents.

Nick on the way towards Laisicap

Almost to Laisicap

These tents are a big part of the economy in Dolpa, and essential to the life of people further up the valleys.  These are essentially large canvas tents that are well stocked with rice, lentils, potatoes, soda, beer, and other little snack items.  The people that run the tents do so in the summer months. To stay in the tent is free, and a meal of rice and lentils is 300 rupees...for everybody, tourist or local.  The other items are quite a bit pricier.  A Sprite for instance is about $5.  Their main business is not tourists, but yak herders.  The people who live far up the valley in places like Dho Tarap rely on yak teams for essential items like food, soap, and really everything that they can't grow or make themselves.  As we were hiking towards Dho Tarap most of the villages were sending yak teams out for one last shipment before the whole area became snowbound.  We passed dozens of yak teams which usually involved us scurrying up the mountain side to avoid being trampled by a large mammal.  The trip takes up to a week for some of the teams, so the tent/hotels are absolutely necessary for the trip.  There is really nothing in between Laisicap and Dho Tarap, and while we were told the trip was possible coming down in a day, it would be quite a rally... You'd have to jog.

The next day we began the long journey towards Dho Tarap.  We quickly left behind the pine forests and found ourselves in a high desert.  The trail brought up and up along the Tarap River and we were often deep in a canyon with beautiful views of high peaks around us.  The trail went up and down next to the river, and at one point early in the morning of day 3 I decided that it would be much easier to just stay in the canyon bottom...after all there were lots of tracks of people doing the same thing.  Everybody was convinced.  It was a brilliant plan!

After the first bend we had to hop over a branch of the river onto a sandbar, and then very quickly hop back over... This was quite a hop off of and onto rocks covered with ice.  Tara didn't quite make it and ended up calf deep in icy glacial water at 7AM with the ambient temperature at around freezing.  As usual, she didn't complain or swear or anything.  She just looked pretty sad while she removed her soaked boot changed into some dry socks and continued walking.  She had some pretty cold feet for a while, and our little sojourn in the canyon bottom was over.

Leaving Laisicap

Nick and Ale on the road to Dho Tarap

Tara at lunch

That was a long day, and towards sunset we were finally approaching Dho Tarap.  The wind had picked up and the temperature had dropped, and as we were racing the fading light we look over and see a bunch of women hauling huge piles of wood back towards Dho.  They were on the other side of the valley, and to reach the road they had to cross the river which they did by removing their flimsy flip-flops and going barefoot through the icy stream, and just continuing on their way.  I was cold just watching them.

Ale crossing the river in the cold morning hours

Tara just behind Ale.

Taking a break at a little pass.

Ale observing one of the many yak teams.

Some nice scenery.  Notice the dust in the bottom of the valley from the yak teams.

Geology!!

Once in Dho Tarap the only hotel in town immediately made it known that they were unfriendly, so we talked to some local folks and stayed with two separate families in their houses.  Dho Tarap is around 4,100m so we had to stay there for a couple days in order to acclimatize.  I had picked up really nasty cold on the hike up, and this was a great opportunity to get better before trying to get over the passes.  The families were very gracious and very poor.  They had no toilets, so we just walked out into a field to poop as did most of the rest of the village.  We sat around, drank tea, and ate tsampa (a porridge of sorts).  We washed clothes in the river, and wandered up to the monastery.  Many of the people up there are of the Bon religion.  It is one of the few places in the world that the religion is practiced.  Bon is very similar to Buddhism in its teachings, but varies from Buddhism in many of its myths.

Dho Tarap

The gate into the house we stayed at in Dho.

The family we stayed with.  The father had caught TB, and had to take it easy until he finished the course of meds.

We spent one full day in Dho, and then it was time to move on, but not too far.  We headed towards Thaksi which was a pleasant stroll up to 4,300m.  It took us about an hour or so, and we found a great place to stay in Thaksi.  We had the rest of the day there to stroll around, and continue resting.  The next day we had to cross Numala, a pass at 5,200m.  We had finally learned that the pass was in fact open after hearing repeatedly that it was already snowed in during our hike to Dho Tarap.

Nick going under a chorten with the monastery behind on the hill.

Looking back towards Dho Tarap

Part of a really nifty and very successful school.

The next morning we set off just as the sun was touching the high peaks around.  Soon enough we were struggling our way up towards the pass.  It only took us three or four hours to get to the top where we hastily took a few photos in the freezing wind before making a dash out of the wind tunnel onto the sunny slopes below.  On our way down we met a few yak teams with logs strapped onto the teams for construction.  They told us not to show anybody pictures of them when we reached Phoksundo.  I assume it is illegal for them to cut trees in the National Park there, and so they were trying to be quiet about it.  What a journey for construction materials!! A week of walking round trip over two 5,000m passes each way.

Taking a quick break on the way up.

Tara might blow over in the wind.

Dhaulagiri from the north, and other peaks in the Dhaulagiri range.

Visuals

She made it up the pass!!

We were all pretty cold...especially Nick apparently.

The loaded yaks.

The four of us continued on towards a little spot called Danigar at 4,600m which is a campsite at the bottom of Bagala, the next pass.  We rolled in in the evening, and found a group of people leading their yaks out of Upper Dolpa to lower elevation for the winter.  The group is quite nomadic spending several months a year walking to and from their village in Upper Dolpa and the lower elevations they stay at in the winter.  This was the one day that we would have to actually camp.  We decided in order to save weight not to bring a stove.  This was fine, but we were very glad for the yak dung fire the herders had.  We were also glad for the hot water despite it being heated in a pot that had previously cooked yak meat... the water had a lot of fat floating on the top that only got tastier as the next day went on...

Tara approaching Danigar

Nick approaching Danigar

Danigar!!

After a chilly start to the day we soon warmed up as we worked our way up towards Bagala again at 5,200m.  Our group was not quite as spritely and joyful on this pass, and we finally got to the top in some mixed moods.  The walk down into the valley on the other side was breathtaking.  We had quite a lot of ground to cover still, but I could have spent quite a while staring at the beauty around me. 

Up the pass

The top.

Is Nick crying?

Tara hiding from the cold wind.

Holy crap.  Very pretty.

The bottom of the valley.

Tara working towards Phoksundo in the late afternoon.

Towards the bottom of the pass the folks we stayed with the night before caught up to us despite us having a several hour head start and not having to coax stubborn animals along the whole way.  Those people were well conditioned for the elevation and the hardship of the walk compared to us.  Finally, towards sunset, after yet another 10 hour day of walking we made it to Ringmo at edges of Phoksundo Lake.  Phoksundo is a jolly rancher blue, and is basically indescribable.  So here's a bunch of pictures of Phoksundo and the surrounding area.

We spent a full day there resting and exploring a bit around the lake.  Then it was time for the trek out.  It took us two long days to reach Jufal again where the adventure really got going...Remember the strange travel agent?  Well, despite us paying him, he had not managed to get us on a flight, and after spending all day trying finagle a way onto a flight we ended up spending an extra night in Jufal which luckily we had planned for an extra day somewhere along the way, but just did not expect it to be at the last stop.  We combined our cash paid for another ticket through somebody a bit more trustworthy and had a confirmed flight for the next day.  We just did not want anymore rice and potatoes so be bought a chicken, killed it, and asked if we could raid the hotel's store room in order to make a nice chicken pasta.  Delicious!!

Making a fine marinade.

Finally we got on a flight the next day, and found ourselves in Nepalgunj in time for an enormous breakfast/lunch at Candy's.  Nick and Ale wisely flew back to KTM that evening and Tara and I foolishly decided to save a bit of money and take a night bus.  The travel agent finally gave Nick and Ale their cash, and gave me a check about five minutes before the bus was going to leave.  Tara and I had a delightful 14 hour ride to Kathmandu, and showed up just as banks were opening to learn that the check bounced.  Tara had to do some yelling and lecturing on the phone to get the money transferred, but in the end it all worked out, and a week or so later Ale, Tara, and I flew off to Malaysia!!