Lumbasumba Trek

Cardamom plants grow well in the Tamur River valley, they seem to be low maintenance and produce about half a kilo per plant then sell for about £12 per kg. They crow in pine cone-like clusters from the ground and are harvested and dried in in ovens. The track continued to shadow a dusty 4x4 road which we lost a couple of times resulting in an unnecessary ascent and descent. Away from the chaos of concrete in the Nepali cities, the wood built houses appear well kept and orderly. Many houses have a large log suspended from wires on the wall, providing an ideal nest for bees. We had a long lunch at Tawa Village (1146m) then crossed a suspension bridge and on to our camp next to a rice terrace outside the small village of Chiruwa (1245m). Distance 14km 7hrs

This is our first visit to the Eastern side of Nepal, the Lumba Sumba pass trek has only been open for a few years and it describes an arc between Kanchenjunga in the east and Makalu in the west. A short flight to Bhadrapur from Kathmandu and a dusty five hour, bone shaking, stomach wrenching drive brought us to Phidim. Along the road the banana trees and teak plantations were smothered with a layer of dust from the road and would probably remain so until the next monsoon. Sign posts to Ilam pointed to one of Nepal’s tea growing areas and as the sun set, dust gave way to tarmac but the lights on our vehicles did not seem to work making our journey even more terrifying. We came to a road blockage where a jeep had gone off the road the previous week, they were gradually winching the car up from the depths of the valley- another sobering sight! Maybe Indian style road warnings such as “its better to be Mr late than late Mr” would help! Our hotel was crummy and, with Dal Bhaat for our ...