30 years ago:16 May 1982, another day in Kathmandu

Sunday 16th May 1982:  Kathmandu, Nepal

I was up early (watch still not working) and walked to the Blue Mountain Lodge to find it was only 05:30!  I had a very easy day, went to the Post Office where collected a couple of letters, booked bus tickets to Trisuli and wandered back via Stylist Pie Shop and a few bookshops.  I bought a knife to replace one I’d lost and the largest pair of plimsolls I could find (although they were still a size too small).  I decided to slit the toes of the plimsolls to make them wearable but sliced open my finger quite deeply in the process.  It bled like mad for a while and only stopped when Nick tied a bandage on it very tightly.  This stopped the blood flowing back, an amazing sensation but fortunately it held.  My shoes have properly dried out and are more comfortable but still not perfect.  Despite the extra weight I will have to carry the slit-toed plimsoles on the trek for backup.  I ate in Aunt Jane’s and Stylist.  Richard Grimmett et al are doing the full Langtang trek including the Gopte area and Colin has decided to join them.  It is very disappointing to be splitting up from Colin after four months away, although it doesn’t seem quite so abrupt as I have been on my own for the last month.  Dave, Nick and I will be less ambitious and not visit Gopte which is more like an expedition than a trek.  There are no lodges at or anywhere near Gopte so a visit requires taking a tent, which we haven’t got, and carrying food for the time spent there, which we’d prefer to avoid.  As much of a factor in our decision was that Dave and Nick hadn’t seen Gould’s Shortwing, the main target there, when they had visited the area the previous year.  With luck we will meet Colin on the Langtang Trek as they should be going up the valley, having been to Gopte, when we are coming down.  Loads of mosquitoes in room at night.  Very few birds seen, again.  Looking back only two of the last ten days have involved any significant/productive birding.  Perhaps it is an inevitable consequence of being away for four months and ‘recovering’ from a rather intensive Everest Trek, or the lack of potential new birds still to see in the immediate area?  Hopefully normal service will soon be resumed.