The Start of the Trek (days 1-4)

"It looks like its about to flood" I say to David who nods in agreement.
"Is it about to flood??" I ask our Guide Om (same as Hom in Tibetan chants...meaning good luck, as he continuously tried to persuade us we had) not shading the alarm from my voice.
"Yah, yah" he replied keenly, as he did to 99% of questions asked only once. I frowned from Om, to Dave, to the small hamlet perched right next to the gushing river several hundred feet below us, clearly built on the flood plain. Infact it seemed to me the river in places ran right through the hamlet, creating a small island of guesthouses but it was hard to tell, the rain was heavy enough to make it hazey.

This was our arrival in Tal on the 3rd day of our trek. In Tal it had rained solidly for 5 days and as we sat in the restaurant that night the thundering sound of landslides some in the distance, and some quite close, could be heard as the saturated valley walls gave way. We were concerned for a little while that we had accidently stumbled here in the midsts of the monsoon season, and not the perfect clear skies forecast for Nepal in August. But no, for the Lonely Planet guide to trekking in Nepal confidently stated that a monsoon "was not a continuous downpour" but instead "a considerate rain falling mainly at night." No. We had commenced our trek in something much more formidable than a monsoon.

It was in Tal I also had my first epiphany about life in England. That is that I will nver under-appreciate radiators again. Nor will I take for granted sealed roofs, sealed walls, tumble dryers, warm showers and least of all roads. The first days of our trek involved following the Marsyangdi river up towards its mountain source. The sides of the valley are steep to almost vertical, the path is littered with previous landslides and the path dips and rises steely up and down the valley walls and crossing long swaying bridges from one side to the other in an attempt to find solid enough ground for a trekking trail. Roads here are impossibly out of the question. The villages that litter valley full of farms and guesthouses are supplied by porters and mule trains alone. That means that when we arrived in Tal, following 2 days of heavy rain, we were 3 days walk from anywhere, the electricity was out because of the rain (and anyway supply is far insufficient for the population leading to daily powercuts) and there were no fires because chopping down trees here is a tabboo cause of more landslides (ref. your geography GCSE notes). To compund matters further Tal was full to bursting with trekkers already who had arrived the day before but not been able to move on up because just above Tal a waterfall which crossed the path was too heavy to cross. After much sweet-talking from Om (and of course a little of his good luck) we found a room which dripped on one side and had a fairly wet floor and slightly damp mattress but was otherwise and Ok place to spend a night. From here it was a 5 minute sprint across some mud to a restaurant where we spent our night drinking tea, playing cards, ordering excessive volumes of Dahl Bhat and hoping for the rain stop. The Ukrainians opposite us suggested we also order whisky, I am pretty confident it would have been vodka had that been in stock.

Rather astoundingly, and perhaps also due to the presence of our Om, the next day that black clouds that had boxed us into our deep-valleyed prison gave way to reveal Tal as really quite a beautiful and peaceful place. Breathing many sighs of relief (in part because it was a very steep climb) we carried on up with the valley. At the end we could see a towering snow covered mountain, but on enquiery were told that it was actually just a peak, standing a mere 3500m or so in height. What we had experienced as rain those further up the trail had experienced as snow, and Thorung La, the high point of our trek had become completely impassable, steeped in over a metre of snow. As we made our way onwards we knew that the weather must improve or we would not be able to get through and would instead have to turn and walk for a week back down the way we came. In the mean time though the rain had made the waterfalls and even more impressive sight and here is a picture of just one of the many that we crossed that day on the way from Tal to Tamang. If you peer closely you should be able to just about make out people queuing up to cross.