Day 94 Monday 4 December Ghandruk to Tadapani, Nepal

Intrepid2 decides to stay in Ghandruk with Picasso the porter and take the mule path down the valley the following day while I1, I3 and I4 head up towards Tadapani (meaning ‘far water’) with Binnay and Harry Potter the porter. Tadapani is at 2660m thru a forest reminiscent of that from Lord of the Rings, mainly rhododendron trees covered with moss, with gnarled roots and moss covered rocks. It’s all very spooky in the mist with monkeys in the trees. Today it’s I3’s turn to suffer from too much Dal Baart, the local lentil curry which Binnay and co thrive on at every meal. After a long climb up beside waterfalls we reach Tadapani by mid afternoon just as the cloud descends making it quite cold. However in the lodge, the main table has carpet hanging around the edges and the lodge owner brings a frying pan full of coals which she places in a tin under the table thus keeping our legs incredibly warm. There’s an enormous poster of the gold coast on one wall and we are amused by a group of twitchers from Burnley recording (or making up) their day’s bird sightings. We get very bored playing scabble and retire by 7.30pm to our rooms with no electricity.