Yesterday evening, we around 20:30 h at our final destination for today: Karte, just south of Dharapani, the starting point of our trek.
Yesterday morning at 6:30 h Wongmu, Namgya, Pemba, and Kazi – a friend of Pemba who will be our porter. Wongmu took some stuff like my PC with her to keep it at home. We left Kathmandu around 7 h with a 4WD that proved quite essential as the road was pretty bad after the monsoon. It took us 7 hours to reach Besi Sahar, a distance of ~ 180 km. Halfway we had lunch in a small village. We changed car in Besi Sahar since beyond this point you can only use local drivers for economic reasons. Namgya went back and I stepped in the 4WD pick-up truck with Pemba and Kazi, and some other guy stepped also in the car. After a while a whole bunch of people climbed in the back apart from a lady with a baby who squeezed herself in the car. Subsequently, we had the wildest ride I have ever made, scarier than any ride in any attraction park. The only difference being that this one lasted 6 h to cover about 50 km. The road was actually more a dirt track that was washed away in many places. Small landslides were kind of fixed but at the big ones, with huge rocks on the way, we had to walk with our luggage through the mud to another car at the other side of the blocked part. In a kind of estafette we reached Dharapani, driving in the dark during the last 2 h which made it especially exciting…
This morning, I got up at 5:30 h to pack my stuff for today. Having noodles with eggs for breakfast and lots of coffee. Soon we will hike to Gowa, about 800 m higher than Karte.
