Tagne 2001

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Dan's Diary

Day 23 - Friday 20th July 2001

see also Alan's Diary for today

Trekkers stranded across the Yongma

I was woken by a bladder that was full to bursting and needed emptying. I lay there for a while thinking. It was light outside. I couldn't find my watch and thus had no way of telling if it was 5am and the sun had just come up or id it was 7:59am and Sonam would arrive any minute with our cups of tea. I kept on waiting, just a bit longer I thought. Sonam would arrive any minute. He never came. It soon became too much and I was forced from my warm sleeping bag to relieve myself. I soon returned to my sleeping bag and fell asleep.

Sonam brought us our tea at 8am. After drinking my tea I got up and took a look at the dam. It was good, but not good enough and I set about planning how it could be improved. Breakfast was taken at 9am in the mess tent. Fresh warm roti were brought for us to eat, along with an omelette and a cup of tea. "Better than porridge any day!" I thought. After breakfast I had a wash and cleaned myself up. I went to shave but my razor was blunt. I tried sharpening it with the metal file I had for my crampons but this only succeeded in removing the plastic casing.

The porter wades across

At around 10:30am two trekkers, one Indian and one pale-skinned were spotted walking up the other side of the river, on top of the fifteen metre river cliff. They were heavily laden with rucksacks and various things tied to the outside, and each carried a five-litre container of kerosene in their hands. They descended to a low point in the cliff and slid down the five metre high rubble bank. Sonam and the chef came out of the cooking tent and joined the porter who washing in the river at the time. The trekkers on the other side put their rucksacks down by the river and shouted something across to Sonam. Sonam came to me and asked if we had a rope. I went and got the 6mm cord and gave it to Sonam. They threw it across the river and the Indian chap tied his end around a large boulder. He then took his shoes and socks off and put his rucksack back on. Sonam, the chef and the porter pulled the rope taught while the Indian guy, fully laden with trousers rolled up, waded out into the river clutching the rope. He slowly made his way across the river feeling with his feet where the boulders were under the murky grey waters. The glacial melt water was thigh deep in the centre and the small porter struggled to keep his balance on the uneven river bottom. He gradually neared the riverbank on our side of the river. The water started to get shallower and he climbed out of the river dumping his load on the riverbank. He took his trousers off and was then straight back in to bring across his client. His client was rather hesitant about crossing and seemed afraid of the water but the porter did a great job of ushering him across the river. Relief could be seen all over the client's face as he exited the water and knew he was safe once again. The porter went back to collect his client rucksack and undid the rope from around the boulder. He held on to the rope and crossed the river for the fifth time. Once across Sonam tried to full the rope across but it got caught on a rock. The chef rolled up his trousers and waded in to retrieve the rope. The client spoke English and Jon spoke to him about what they were doing and where they were going. Apparently the rest of the group had crossed the river downstream, the porter taking each person across. The water had risen quickly and was too high for the porter to take his last client across so they had come up the river. Sonam coiled the rope and we drank cups of tea as the trekkers dried their trousers.

Ram retrieves the rope

Sonam saw me taking my antimalarials and asked me if I had dysentery.

"No" I said, somewhat curious as to why he was asking. "These are for malaria"

"No, No" Sonam paused to think about what he was going to say. "Have you any medicine for my friend who has got dysentery?" I went and got him some Imodium and gave him a dose, for which he thanked me.

Jon helped me build phase four of the dam project. This involved the movement of the downstream groyne upstream to create a double groyne with a space in-between to be filled with small stones. By 12:30pm, after the movement of many rocks, the water started to seep under the groyne. This along with the fact that three rocks had bitten my thumb and two fingers made us retreat to the mess tent for a rest.

Lunch was served shortly afterwards. We tucked into fried crispy flying saucers, with either curried potatoes or with peanut butter smothered on top. They were so scrumptious I kept on having one more until I had eaten far too many and couldn't move. I read my book until 3pm and then, having let my lunch go down, set about collecting rocks for some crazy paving inside the mess tent. However the rock wasn't flat enough so I decided to build a wall to sit on or lean against. I stopped at 4pm for tea and biscuits brought by Sonam. He asked me for the transceiver so they could listen to some music. It took me a moment to understand that he meant our radio. It was up at ABC, and so I explained. He returned to playing cards with the chef and porter in the cooking tent. I continued with finding suitable rocks from the scree slope outside. After each rock had passed my initial inspection for suitability I would take it into the tent and rotate them until they slotted onto the rocks, which had already been laid. Jon helped me in between bouts of cleaning the dirty MSR stove. I finished the wall on the back left hand side of the tent at 5:30pm and called it a day. I had back ache and three very sore fingers.

We ate the green-grey soup we'd become accustomed when it was served at 6pm. I put some more clothes on as both the sun and the temperature dropped. I did some codewords until 7pm when dinner was served. Rice, bean dhal and potato and cabbage mix was followed by fruit and nut cake. After the meal Sonam brought us tea and hot chocolate. We told him that the others should return the following day if all went well. He said that he was sending the porter to Batal to pick up some more supplies. We also mentioned that it was Andy's birthday. Sonam disappeared around the back of the tent and said something to the cook. He was back a minute later.

I had the lid off the hot chocolate and was just about to put a spoonful into my mug when Sonam said "Excuse me sir. Can I have the chocolate powder for Andy's cake".

I emptied the spoonful back in the jar and screwed the lid back on, giving it to Sonam. Deprived of my hot chocolate I had tea instead. Jon attempted to burn some tissues outside but it was too windy. He tried again inside the mess tent but they wouldn't burn. After several attempts Jon ended up covering them in wax from a candle and then setting fire to the wax. They lay there on the grassy floor of the mess tent burning. They kept on burning. Jon wanted to go to sleep but these flames just wouldn't die down. We joked that he might have found a hole in the ground with natural gas coming out of it. In the end we stamped the flames out, extinguished the candles and retreated to our tent.