From Salleri to Jiri
(thomas;2010-Jul-15)
From Salleri to Jiri (7 days, 15 Apr 2010 to 21 Apr 2010)
15 April: Daytrip around Salleri: Phaplu, Chyalsa
16 April: Salleri to Sisha Khola
17 April: Sisha Khola to Bulbule
18 April: Bulbule to Goli Gompa
19 April: Goli Gompa to Bhandar
20 April: Bhandar to Shivalaya
See also:
- the panorama shots for the walk-out
- and the topographic map (based on Google Maps) for the second part of the walk-out
15 April: Daytrip around Salleri: Phaplu, Chyalsa
A daytrip around Salleri: first to Phaplu (there's an airfield there) and then to Chyalsa, a rather bleak and unwelcoming Tibetan refugee camp.
| The array of prayer flags at the Chyalsa monastery. |  |
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Painting inside the gompa: a big wheel of life. |
| On the way back to Salleri, an unexpected view towards the northern mountain chains. |  |
16 April: Salleri to Sisha Khola
From Salleri to the small village of Sisha Khola, the first leg of the long trek up to the summit of Pike Peak, a 4070m high mountain with reportedly incredible views towards the snow giants in the north. Alas, the weather has turned overcast and although it doesn't rain, things aren't looking too good. After so many days without significant weather trouble, we may now be in for spell of less than perfect conditions.
| Kids are everywhere in Nepal. |  |
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No, really. |
17 April: Sisha Khola to Bulbule
From Sisha Khola to Bulbule, second leg. Bulbule is a single, extremely basic lodge high on the immense southern ridge leading up to the summit Pike of. The weather is pretty bad: cloudy and, as we reach the ridge, foggy. No nice views to the left or right, only this damp, cold greyness that envelops everything. We have no idea where the Bulbule lodge is and with that awful fog all around us, it's not obvious that we will find it. Luckily we do, helped by a few cows and their bells.
| Kids at a small village along the way, shortly before reaching the main ridge. |  |
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Later on: a stupa in the Pike fog. Alas, the whole walk up to Bulbule along the ridge looked like that. But supposedly, the views are great;-) |
18 April: Bulbule to Goli Gompa
From Bulbule to Goli Gompa. In theory, today is the great day: we should climb to the top of Pike Peak. However, despite a clear and cold morning, the skies cloud over rather quickly and at 8am, we're back at square one in the fog. Well, bad luck. Supposedly, there's a lodge slightly below the summit but nobody knows whether it's open.
We arrive there still in that dense fog, more with luck than by design. The lodge is indeed open but it's filled to capacity with a chattering group of Kiwis. We're debating for a while whether we should stay (hoping for good weather tomorrow) or continue down the western ridge to Goli Gompa. In the end, we don't trust the weather to get better and so continue, another three hours down to Goli Gompa, a small village with a well-known gompa.
Finding the houses of Goli Gompa turns out to be impossible: they are hidden somewhere in the fog. We do hear people in the distance but we're totally unable to identify where the voices are coming from. To round things up, it starts to pour down. After a while we decide to return to the gompa: though it seemed empty when we passed it, this is the only building we have seen so far. To our great delight, there's now a single monk who welcomes us and says that of course, we can stay with him. He even does a very good dal bhat later in the evening, while the deluge, now turned into a violent thunderstorm, continues.
| Huge rhododendron plants along the trail. |  |
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Our saviour: the monk of Goli Gompa, preparing tea and dinner. |
| Vero writing her diary in all comfort while a heavy thunderstorm lashes the gompa. |  |
19 April: Goli Gompa to Bhandar
Goli Gompa to Bhandar: much better weather in the west, where we are heading, though the summit of Pike, behind us, is already disappearing in the clouds. Probably good that we didn't wait. In Bhandar we again meet the main trail coming down from Kenja and Junbesi. We stay in the same lodge as on the way in: same friendly welcome, same tasty dal bhat.
| A nice fresh morning at Goli Gompa. |  |
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Views westwards, towards the plain of Bhandar. |
| Inside the gompa of Bhandar, a Buddhist altar with many offerings. |  |
20 April: Bhandar to Shivalaya
Bhandar to Shivalaya, mostly along the same route we took on the walk-in. A small detour to the oldest cheese factory in all of Nepal (founded with Swiss help in 1959 and still functioning).
| Jangmu Lama, our Bhandar landlady: ever smiling, ever friendly. Her youngest son has somehow sneaked into the picture. |  |
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Terraces on the other side of the valley, on the way down to Shivalaya. |
| A view down to the village and bridge of Shivalaya. |  |
21 April: Shivalaya to Jiri
Shivalaya to Jiri, last day of walking: just a few hours but rather hot and sweaty. No rain, though.
| A last shot of the middle hills of Nepal, less than an hour above Jiri. The end is in sight;-) |  |
Go back to From Namche Bazaar to Salleri or up to Everest Trek.
$updated from: Everest Trek.htxt Mon 04 Mar 2024 16:04:46 trvl2 (By Vero and Thomas Lauer)$