Helambu Region:
Wilderness Trek to the Jugal Panch Pokhari and the Bakong Gompa
By dint of being first in the queue at 0500am my sirdar Ang Jangbu Sherpa managed to obtain reserved seats on the overcrowded public bus from Kathmandu to the roadhead at Chautara - the starting point for our 17 day trek around the Helambu region.
Our two assistants, Lalu Limbu and Mingma Tamang, rode on the roofrack to ensure that none of our baggage was "accidentally" unloaded at the wrong stop. This was to be my fourth trek with Ang Jangbu. Lalu had also been with me on my treks the previous year.
For two hours after leaving the metalled main road at Dolaghat the bus ground its way in low gear up the hairpin bends of the unsurfaced mountain road through the lush sub-tropical vegetation of the Himalayan foothills before reaching the roadhead village of Chautara at a height of over 6,000ft.
Camp was made on the edge of the local playing field and Dormi Sherpa, our cook, was watched by a crowd of entrigued spectators as he prepared the evening meal on his open wood fire. Although this area is relatively close to and easily accessible from Kathmandu trekkers are still infrequent visitors.
My trekking crew was completed next morning by the recruitment of Ratner Bahadur Tamang, one of the local porters. Loads were made up, dokos (wickerwork baskets) hoisted on to namros (headstraps) and the trek commenced.
For the next four days we climbed northwards up and along, a forested ridge top, one false summit after another. The monsoon had not yet finished and although mornings were bright, clear and sunny the afternoons were dull, cloudy and wet. However splendid panoramic views of the snow-capped peaks of the Ganesh Himal and Langtang Himal to the West and also of the eastern Himalayan ranges obtained from vantage points on the ridge most mornings and evenings.
Usually the valleys were obscured by a sea of clouds but occasional glimpses were gained of the white waters of the Indrawati river far below and of high terraced hillsides with scattered dwellings. The last village had been passed on the first morning of the trek and only rude wickerwork huts of abandoned summer grazing encampments were now encountered.
A few unkempt, bare-foot, bare-legged herdsmen ("yetis" said Lalu) were met returning with final loads to their villages down in the valleys for the winter. Nearing the top of the ridge the forests gave way to alpine meadows covered in yellow flowers and a crescendo of insect life.
On the fifth day after leaving Chautara we climbed steeply up (ukaalo) a narrow rocky path above the tree-line through brightly coloured scrub in vivid autumn shades to reach our highest camp-site at Panch Pokhari at an altitude of some 15,000ft (4600m). This is a set of five corrie lochans set amidst a high rocky cirque and is a place of pilgrimage for thousands of Buddhists and Hindus during August.
Early the following morning Ang Jangbu and I climbed by torchlight under a black sky filled with a myriad of stars to gain the summit of the reigning peak, Dasyang Tsheru (about 16,000ft), just as dawn was breaking. The sun rose above the long ridge of the eastern Himalaya to shine on a splendid panorama of snow clad peaks surrounding us: the Ganesh Himal to the West, the Ganja La Himal to the North and the 23,000ft summit of Dorje Lakpa in the adjacent Jugal Himal.
During the next two days we descended steeply (oraalo) by stone stairways, firstly through mixed rhododendron, conifer and bamboo forests, fording several streams in spate, then through terraced rice and millet fields to the Indrawati river. A ramshackle suspension footbridge was crossed and camp made beside a hamlet on the river bank. The altitude lost was regained the following day in a gruelling six hours climb to the walled Bakong gompa (a Buddhist monastery) in a remote, secluded situation high on a wooded mountainside.
An interesting rest day was spent here inspecting the intricate, brightly coloured wall tankas (Buddhist religious paintings), grotesque idols, an enormous prayer wheel (some 10ft high and 6ft diameter) and the other strange and elaborate furnishings of the different rooms of the gompa.
From the gompa we descended through a damp, gloomy forest along a little-used, narrow, slippery, leech-infested path to the river. On the far side a ridge was crossed to reach the compact village of Tarkye Gyang with its flagstoned alleyways and timber-roofed, stone-walled houses each with its own white prayer-flag.
Here the local equivalent of Harvest Thanksgiving was being celebrated. In the afternoon a service took place in the local gompa to an accompaniment of cymbals, gongs, drums and long Tibetan 'alpine' horns. In the evening traditional Sherpa dancing and singing lasted long into the night. Chang and rakshi flowed freely.
We were now into the Helambu region. The route led south along a ridge, sometimes forested, sometimes with terraced fields of rice, millet, maize or buckwheat, and through more villages now with thatched roofed houses. Many mani walls, chorten and stupas (Buddhist shrines) were to be seen along the way.
A final descent back down to the Indrawati river and a level walk alongside its broad flood-plain under a searing sun brought us to the roadhead at Shiva Ghat and the end of the trek. One which had encompassed an unpopulated wilderness area and also the Helambu region with its traditional farming communities and cultures.
