We woke after a cold night to find a rain crisp new day. The mountains seemed larger than the night before and a long day of steady climbing awaited. We had a quick cup of coffee and decided to wait until Meta (3560m) for a meal. The path slowly climbed until shortly before Meta, then it's a very steep climb that nearly did me in, it's a constant zig zag that seems to go on forever. Most of the other signs of altitude sickness had left, but the shortness of breath (oxygen down to 64%) made the climb harder than it should have been. Once at the top of the valley blip, it was a short, easy walk to Meta. From what I can gather, Meta had changed a little since the guide books were written, there are now as couple of teahouses with rooms, one of which is new and clean. Some trekking guide books list this place as the first night's stop, but I think it's too high from Koto to be safe. The place sits on a slight slope, above the gorge and across from the path to Nar and the nearby gompa at Nar Phedi. Behind the new buildings are ruins of the old Meta. There is also a checkpoint here to have your passes stamped. We stopped at the newer teahouse and had breakfast, nice food, great service.
Yaks
Coming into Meta
Not far along the path, the turn off for Nar is announced by an old sign, one way Nar, the other way Phu! Far below the path the Phu river roared, while across the gorge we could see the daunting path that climbed to Nar. The sky was now quite heavy with cloud and the mountains that ringed us were obscured from sight.
Meta ( the guesthouse we stayed at on the way back)
Chorten near the turn off to Nar
All roads lead to Nar or Phu
Ruins near Junam Goth
We met very few people, the occasional local villager, a porter carrying huge loads and every now and then a team of mules or ponies. These teams were usually announced by the jingle jangle of their neck bells. We would step to one side (always the high side to avoid being pushed of the mountain edge) and the beasts of burden would canter by, their huge loads strapped to their sides, things that the people of Nar and Phu could not do without, rice, sugar, noodles, salt and stuff for the few trekkers who venture this way, including those necessities like beer and Coke!
The pathway was now reasonably flat, just a gentle assent as we hugged the hillside, above were the mountains, below a deep gorge. Somewhere above us, hidden by the clouds was Kangguru Himal (6981m), we would not see it until our return back down. On the far side of the gorge the cliffs rose straight into the clouds, somewhere up over 5000m.
After a couple of hours we came to Junam Goth (3690m), a forlorn collection of ruined houses on a windswept saddle. Some of the ruins had locked doors, protecting stock feed for winter. This place is recommend as a camp site, but there are better places. Things had become quite bleak as the cloud got lower and the temperature dropped. We met a couple of older English women, who looked like they had stepped straight out of a 1890s travel journal. One of them had been trekking in Nepal for 30 years. Their guide was one of the famous Three Sisters, an all female guide agency, it's very uncommon to see female guides in Nepal, but I understand they do an amazing job. After exchanging pleasantries and some much needed information on the path to Phu, we parted ways. A half hour later we came to Chyako (3720m), our stop for the night.
Near Junam Goth
Almost at Chyako
Chyako
Next few photos are of the ruins of Chyako, behind the ruins the cliff drops down into the gorge of the Phu river.
Sitting in a shallow bowl, halfway up the mountainside, Chyako has a real mystical charm. Most of the bowl shaped plain is taken up by ancient, long abandoned terraces that reach up the slope until the are stopped by the cliffs. Opposite, on the edge of the gorge, are the ruined remains of a long abandoned town. The age of this place is hard to pinpoint, but I assume it's roughly the same as Phu, 800 years old. It would have been settled by fleeing Tibetan warriors. With a little imagination, you can see fortifications and towers. Just like Junam Goth, some of the more sound buildings are being used for storage.
Between the terraces and the ruins are two new teahouses, neither with accommodation. We wandered the ruins for a while and watched as a line of porters arrived from Phu. They were the supply team for a German mountaineering expedition. The three Germans wandered in shortly afterwards. We managed to convince the owner of one, to let us sleep on the dirt floor of her eating area. We then sat in the kitchen, close to the wood fire and waited for night (and the cold) to decend.
That night, the porters and their headman come to sit by the fire, have Dahl bhat and drink coffee laced with alcohol. They were a tag tag bunch, most were blackened with frostbite on their hands and faces. The treated their headman with great severance. He was the only one who spoke English, and it turned out that he was a mountaineer, who had climbed Everest four times as well as a number of other peaks in Nepal and elsewhere in the Himalayas. He was quite the Nepali superstar, had eight wives and proudly showed us a picture of his latest, a true beauty.
Eventually, they all wandered off to their tents, and we settled down to sleep on the dirt floor, made comfortable by the teahouse owner. She put down layers of tarp, rugs and a doona over our sleeping bags, amazingly warm. Overnight there was an earthtremmor, that woke Jules, I slept through it!
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