Nepal IV: First night in the mountains

These are pictures from the first day of our actual hike. We landed in Kathmandu, slept one night in the city and then left the next day to drive up to our starting point. After a night there, we set out in the mountains with Bishnu (guide) and Subindra (porter); the going we good - the sky was clear, it was warm and comforting in the sun, but the air was parched of oxygen. Tough to breathe, only to get tougher. We made it to our destination the first night with a thirst for tea and a desire for a chance to stop moving up! We we early enough to rest by the river and drink in both our tea and the nature that cloaked us. It was a stunningly beautiful place - and we had yet to see the white caps of the traditional Himalayan peaks that adorn myriad (if not all) Nepalese images in ones mind. The next day we were in the midst of the giant peaks, the draggy points of rocks, jutted up through millions of years of constant geological pulses. But for today, it was the valley and the river that caught our minds and our (non-theist) spirits in a gleaming embrace.

These are, unfortunately, out of order and I dispel any thoughts of rearranging them. My words will clarify their meaning.

This is actually at the end of our first day hiking. This is the view that welcomed us as we set down our bodies on the river bank and drank tea and mused about just exactly where we were and exactly what we were doing. Nothing could have been further from our minds than the truth to come of Maoists, bombs, excruciating hikes and civil uprising. For now, our minds and bodies were at peace.

This is the alternate view of the one above. This is the village where we stayed that first night in the mountains; just around the corner of the valley would grant us the first real views of mountains worthy of Himalayan nomenclature. The snow can be seen in the distance, but not the mountains themselves. A close up will reveal a beautiful and sedate rock construction of all the houses....quite remarkable.

A view of a river crossing early in our trip. The bridges are of bamboo, strung together by thatch. The apparent bankful flow is higher than the bridge height; not sure of the reality of spring floods but I am sure that the bridges would be obsolete during a surge.

Crystal taking a ponderous moment in the rocky valley bed. This view is up valley, the direction we were hiking.

Crystal again, this time crossing an impromptu bridge across some water. This material is relatively new, brought here by a landslide the last season - so, to ford any waterways, new bridges had to be formed.

Me taking a moments rest in a shard of sunlight as we passed through the shadowed side of the mountains during the afternoon. Tea, rest and nothing else. A moment of beauty and peace.

Macaque. Mountainside. Sun. Together.