October 1997 - The 'Shipton/Tilman' Route - Day 6 - October 16

Thursday 16th October

We have set a routine: tea will be provided at 6:30. We must be packed up by 7:30 - hot washing water having been provided shortly after tea - and breakfast is served at 7:30. This is to be fairly leisurely, as we don't leave camp until 8:30.


                                    A Dog's View from the Mandoli campsite

In fact it is a lovely morning and we sit happily in the sun eating cornflakes, omelettes and other things (chips) and toast and jam / marmalade.

                                                Anil at camp

The campsite at Mandoli

                                   Buildings near Mandoli camp

                                                          Children at Mandoli

                                              Packing up at Mandoli camp

We admire the distant mountains and eventually leave on the 6-hour walk to Wan, at 9am. We have seven ponies, with three/four handlers.

                                                        A view from the trail

Again, we four set off together, but only briefly as the others soon get distracted. 

                                                            Julia takes a break

The path winds gently through forests. There are wonderful mature trees and occasional distant views of Nanda Ghunti.

                                        Pictures from the path to Wan

I walk alone until meeting up with Anil, who provides company through the ongoing woods. There are occasional glimpses of mountains, but this lovely path is more reminiscent of European forests. The trees include cyprus and many more. There are magpie like birds with long tails, jays, tits, creepers and more.

                                                                 En route to Wan

                                    Views from the path between Mandoli and Wan

Lunch, which had been laid out on a sleeping mat at 8am, comprised a boiled egg, a mango fruit juice, a potato (!), a packet of biscuits, a small sort of Mars bar, and a cheese, onion and tomato butty.

The ponies were well ahead. There were numerous more flour mills as Wan was approached. This village has nicely painted houses which I didn't have the nerve to photograph, with residents working outside. 

                                                   Flowers of the Himalaya

                                        Bark (with termites?)

Anil and I decided to have tea before embarking on the roughly 600 foot ascent to the Rest House next to which we were to camp.

                                                      At the foot of the climb

We had already passed fields of cannabis, and those hereabouts certainly appeared to be affected. 

                                                              Cannabis

The tea shop was shut, but we persevered, and the locals arrived to open up. Unfortunately, they were unable to get the primus lit and eventually they resorted to lighting a log by the entrance. This boiled water remarkably quickly and we were soon enduring more sweet milky tea. Onlookers engaged us in conversation. "Say what you like" said Anil "they're all on trips."

Hereabouts the only men who work are those who do portering or other jobs to raise enough cash to buy a field. Once they have achieved this, they set their wife to work the land, do the housework, cooking and all other domestic chores. The men spend all day sitting around, smoking joints and drinking tea. 

There is no alcohol though, and everything seems happy and sedate, several hours away from the nearest roadhead.

The children here were a little stressed today, as a nurse had arrived to give them injections.

                                                   School house near Wan

                                                   Schoolchildren at Wan

Soon we were off to the campsite by the Rest House, with a lovely view down through magnificent tall mature pines to the roofs of Wan below.

                                                      Pony men at Wan

There is a temple near here, apparently worth a visit, but we failed to read Monte Erskine's (last year's leader) notes and missed it. There were affluent Bengalis in the Rest House. Anil likes them not! They are apparently very aggressive and uncaring and try to overload the ponies.

                                                          Villagers at Wan

                                                                     At Wan

Pawan again cooked a lovely meal, Chinese tonight, with chop suey and various other dishes. There followed coffee, Baileys, and for me much diarrhoea and Diocalm, which has ceased to work. Up at 1:00am, the still fullish moon caused nearby trees to cast a shadow on the distant hillside.

My bowels were worse than ever. I finally resorted to taking the two Ciprox antibiotic tablets kindly provided by Sue. I wish I'd taken them a week earlier. They worked immediately and gave me a 55-hour break from the toilet tent, which I (inexplicably as I've used it a lot) failed to mention in yesterday's entry.

Tonight was my turn to sleep alone, luckily for the others, but hopefully the last of the problems, thanks to Ciprox.

[NB I traced the problem back to a prawn/mayo sandwich from M&S on 9 October. It was a nasty infection, and my bowels took over a year to return to normal.]

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