early morning light

We first met Shree Ram when we were on our honeymoon in 2004. He was a part time waiter and trekking guide then. He’s now a full time guide and does gigs in Nepal, India and Switzerland.  Just your normal vertical strolls in the park whilst carrying ridiculous amounts of baggage.  When someone like this suggests that a walk is “easy” you could be forgiven for running screaming, for the hills…except the “hills” here are humungously steep behemoths.

He’s escorting us to Nargakot  again this time. Apart from the clear view straight to the mountains the lasting memory of Nargakot was that it is a) very steep and b) frighteningly cold. Still steep but the cold must have been relative last time. (We came from India where the temperature in Rajastahn was in the mid 40’s celcius during the day and then cooling to a mild 36 degrees at night.) This time we had jumpers, coats, more rugs and thick woolly socks. Survived the night to wake up early to see the sunrise over the Himalaya’s. I do wish the sun got up later. Our rooms had a 180 degree view of the mountains. At first just darkness morphing, slowly, to outlines and glimpses of snow covered tips as the sun started to peek through. Eventually the orange ball (yep…it’s smoky in the mountains too) peeked over the ranges. There was a spectacular change of colour in the clouds and the mountains as the sun drifted higher.