Day 5. 17 April To Pasang

To Pasang nice day some track some road. We walk very slow on the uphill sections, but I find I speed up naturally on the downhills.

Before we left we found The teahouse I stayed in last time and showed the owner my photos. She recognized people and dragged us up 2 steep flights of stairs to show me the additions they had recently built. The family and staff now lived in the rooms I used last time. She recognized people in the photos, but again I am told that the mothers were dead and their children have moved away.

The steep climb up the stairs first thing in the morning Sent my heart into a real spin. So a few metres along yhe street I was puffing into my syringe and throwing my legs up into the air. This gave my guide and porter a bit of a fright, but the method works to bring my heart rhythm back to normal. We were by a sign that pointed to the Medical Centre so it was close to help if needed. No need for a helicopter ride to hospital this time.

We follow the river through gorges with views of mountains all the way.

This is a forestry area and we see signs of logging some kind of pine trees. There was a large established apple orchard with a quite modern processing plant. This provides employment for locals and a good profit for the owners I expect. We stopped for a coffee and apple donut at the very modern shop and I popped into their Farmstay Lodge to use their toilet. (10 stars)

Jeeps going past full of trekkers who don’t want to walk. They come up and have a look around and go back down again with bad backs and blisters on their bums from the bumpy ride.

The air is cooler but the sun is hot and the pollution haze has nearly disappeared. Each jeep and motorbike that passes us puffs out clouds of black smoke and stirs up the dust, so I presume we will only be clear of the pollution when we get above Manang, where there is no road. We have joined the locals with the sniffing and throat clearing as our body tried to rid us of it all. People die early from lung disease here.