Day 14

As we left Chyamthang, it was evident that our trail was no longer just for trekkers as it was well constructed and punctuated with regular rest points.

These often coincided with a stupa or mani wall, providing platforms for porters to rest their baskets and drink from a pipe with fresh running water. We contoured high on the north bank of the Arun River passing through several villages all set among terraces of millet, the seeds of which are mainly used for alcoholic drinks such as chang and rachshi.


Women were out in the fields cutting the head off each plant, tossing it into their head basket at great speed while chatting in hysterics- so maybe they had sampled the fruits of their harvest!

All these villages had uniform blue corrugated roofing which in the last four years has replaced the less resilient bamboo.

Some new houses were being constructed with perfect walls of dry stone and seeing them topped with wood frames, we pondered what impact chainsaw would have to reduce waste as we saw in Bhutan. The temperature continued to rise with the humidity and the forests were alive with birdsong. Passing through small villages of the Chepuwa district we noticed a gradual change of inhabitants to a mix of Rai with Bhotia. At Linggam there was a large secondary school with boarding facilities which explained the small groups of children we later saw coming up the hill in readiness for their first day back after a holiday.


The afternoon's walk was relatively easy along a good trail to Hatiya (1570m), just as we neared the village, the great scar of a new road appeared. These constructions are a very long term project, the initial bulldozing was done about four years ago, it is left for about ten years to settle and in about 20 years it will be drivable. There is a mix of Bhotia and Gurung people in Hatiya, it has a hospital which resembles a poorly maintained prison and we set up camp in the grounds of a primary school which lay abandoned in spite of us encountering dozens of children of eligible age. This was the longest day of the whole trek and some porters didn’t arrive until after dark. It may have been our tiredness and the threat of rain, but we felt rather unwelcome on arrival and this was where we were due to present the photographs from the Germans we met in Olangchung Gola. We were a little apprehensive as to how well they would be received so we decided that it would be a job for the morning.
Distance 19km 9hrs

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