Nepal (October 2017): Simikot to Kolti via Mount Saipal
7. Lampato to Yuna along the Kawadi Khola
Return to main Nepal 2017 webpage
We continued following Kawadi Khola, which was now flowing north to south. The region along this river remains sparsely populated, with few small settlements before reaching the villages of Baudi and Yuna. During that section of the trek, two of our mules lost balance and felt on a bridge (the one crossing Chhimdi Khola). This event could have ended dramatically, but fortunately, in large part thanks to the assistance of local people present on the scene, only one of our mules got injured.
Map: The itinerary of this section of the trek is shown in red dotted line in the topographic map below. Consecutive blue vertical and horizontal lines are spaced by 1km.
(Reminder: These 50K topographic maps are available in their entirety at https://jemecasseausoleil.blogspot.fr/2017/07/cartes-du-nepal.html.)
Below Lampato, camp of people returning home from their monsoon pasture.
Two children at this camp.
Encounter with another caravan of goats further down along the river.
|
|
|
Kawadi Khola.
|
|
|
View of Kawadi Khola just before reaching Chhimdi Kola.
Cows crossing Chhimdi Khola downstream of the bridge, with Kawadi Khola visible behind the black cows on the right. Our mules should have done the same, rather than using the bridge!
The situation on the bridge over Chhimdi Khola soon after two of our mules tumbled. The bridge deck was made of two parallel wood beams with a space between them (see photo below). One shoe of the first mule felt into this space causing her leg to get jammed between the two beams. The following mule then lost balance and felt, but stopped (temporarily) the fall into the river by ″grabbing″ one beam with her front legs. The muleteer first tried to help the second mule, but realized that this was hopeless and switched to help the first mule. Honey hunters, who were taking a break near the bridge, immediately came to help (on the left of the photos). On the right Dawa#1 and Dawa#2 try to prevent two other mules from advancing further on the bridge and making the situation even worse.
Left: Three honey hunters delicately increasing the gap between to two beams to free the first mule′s leg. Right: View of the gap between the beams. After unloading the first mule and pulling her out of the gap, she eventually reached the other side of the river unharmed.
|
|
|
Meanwhile, the second mule had to let it go (after hanging for more than 5 minutes!). She felt into the river, fortunately at a place where the water was relatively deep, and got out of the river by herself. Miraculously she did not suffer any broken bone, only some injury above her front left shoe. She was expected to recover.
|
|
|
|
Following this tense incident, the muleteer (under shock) decided to return to Simikot with his four unharmed mules and leave the injured mule in a nearby settlement (Gumba) until she recovers. The honey hunters, who were all from the village of Yuna, offered to help us to carry our bags to Yuna and to arrange a smaller group of porters from Yuna to Kolti.
A section of the valley with tall trees...
...followed by another section bordered by high cliffs.
Other views of Kawadi Khola.
Man carrying an antique rifle.
Trail soon before reaching Neti Khola.
Herd of cows fording Neti Khola.
Shepherds and sheep about to cross Neti Khola (on a bridge).
Houses of Baudi.
Women in Baudi.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Between Baudi and Yuna.
The village of Yuna is built on a slope about 150m above Kawadi Khola. We set a camp near the river, below the village. The friendly honey hunters who had accompanied us since the Chhimdi Khola bridge incident returned to their homes. One of them arranged a team of three porters to help us to complete our trek to Kolti.
