Nicholas Rice: Manaslu Dispatch

2009 Solo Manaslu Expedition

Dispatch Four: March 27th, 2009

Day Four: Trek Day 1: Arughat to Khursani Bari

Today, we woke up at 5:30am to a cool clear morning, perfect for trekking. We had a quick breakfast, tore down camp and got underway. We strolled at a relaxed pace through sleepy hillside villages, bathed in a warm orange glow. The way was scented with aromatic incense, a stark contrast to the noisy polluted streets of Kathmandu. A few hours later, we arrived at our lunch spot. We waited quite some time for the porters to arrive with the cooking equipment and food and then had lunch. Our cook brought to our attention the fact that the porters with the rest of our trekking gear had still not arrived, so we elected to wait before continuing onto Khursani Bari. Three hours later, we finally left only to find that what the cook had estimated to be one and a half to two hours more, for us, turned out to take only 30 minutes. We arrived, shocked at how short a day it had been, a severe contrast to the typical trekking day in Pakistan. We again waited hours for our loads to arrive. We were surprised to learn that only some of our bags were being hauled by porters—the rest came on the backs of mules. We set up our tents relaxed for a bit, then had dinner and settled in for the night.