Tagne 2001

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Dan's Diary

Day 26 - Monday 23rd July 2001

Alan's trousers prove insufficient to the task

I managed to wait until the tea came at 8am before getting up to empty my bladder. It was overcast and the wind whipped up the valley. Not seeing the point in going back to sleep I joined Alan and Steve in the mess tent before having a wash.

Breakfast was at 9am. Andy came to the entrance of the mess tent. He stopped and said "Chilly" before continuing on his way to the toilet tent.

"No it's India," someone shouted after him.

Alan fought with the one metal plate that popped back up, throwing food in his face, every time he depressed the centre of the plate by cutting with his knife - just like the safety buttons on jam jars. I experienced the daily struggle of trying to get butter from my knife onto rotis. The butter would much rather stick to my knife than to the rotis. Steve complained at having run out of things to Araldite. Alan recommended that he glued his fingers to his toes. We discussed the various implications this would have especially for crossing the scree slope. Alan read parts of the Delhi guidebook, pointing out places we should visit, restaurants we should eat at and things we should see on our way back.

I finished sewing together Tagne Teddy's shorts. They were bright red with trendy black stitches, and a draw cord. I put them on Teddy. They turned out to be a rather tight fit and looked more like hot pants. Afterwards I played cards with Alan and Steve. We played a few rounds and soon got bored. I retreated to my tent with stomach cramps and lay down. I tried to do some crosswords but I couldn't think straight and soon drifted off into sleep.

It was 1:20pm when I awoke. I found I still had the pen in my hand, which I had used to do the crosswords. I had scribbled all over my arm in my sleep and dribbled all over my fleece. I thought I had missed lunch, but Jon who was also lying down reading his book said it hadn't been served yet. I lay on my sleeping bag and waited.

The "Tagne Teddy"'s new trousers

At 1:30pm the call came from Alan that lunch had arrived. I made my way to the mess tent to find a large platter of spaghetti and vegetable mix, and another filled with a rice and crunchy vegetable mix. I managed to eat a fair amount and then had a cup of tea to warm me up. The cook had served us lunch and cleared up afterwards, not Sonam. This seemed strange as Sonam had done it every day before. Was this to explain why lunch was late? Normally they were accurate to the minute with their meal serving. Where was Sonam? Was he all right? These questions were asked but remained unanswered. The chef didn't speak much English, so we didn't bother trying to ask him. Jon, Andy and I played cards. Narinder joined us a bit later and we asked him if Sonam was all right. He said Sonam had gone to find the porter who had gone for more supplies several days ago and was due to arrive back that day. The porter had taken no coat or trousers and it was cold and wet, so Sonam had gone to help him and see where he had got to.

I returned to my tent and rested as my stomach cramps came and went.

Tea and samosas were served (late again) at 4:30pm, by the cook, in the mess tent. The samosas were instantly smothered with ketchup and soon devoured. Alan returned to stitching up the holes in his trousers. Jon, Andy and Steve discussed the various attributes of mapping and ended up arguing over the consequences on triangulation of the differences between grid and magnetic north. The debate soon turned into a mechanical engineering discussion.

At 5pm I went to my tent and sorted out the gear I needed to take to Advanced Base Camp and the items of group equipment that we would need.

Soup was served dead on 6pm and - yes you guessed it - Sonam was back. He told us that the porter would arrive tomorrow with the supplies. After eating the green-grey soup and passing on the peppered papadums, I set about finishing packing.

We ate rice, dhal, mushrooms and salty aubergine for our dinner. Apples in custard were eaten for pudding. After dinner Steve attempted to mend his platypus with seamgrip.

"This expedition is becoming a race against time to see if I can get up any mountains before my gear wears out," Steve exclaimed. Andy sharpened his ice screw with my file and I cut some pieces of cord to take up to ABC. Sonam came and borrowed Alan's watch so that he would wake up in the morning. I drank my tea and retreated to my tent at 8:30pm.