ourselves and rejuvenated our overworked muscles . To lay back in hot mineral charged water where the outside temperature was 4 degrees Celsius and look up at the towering mountains surrounding you is certainly an experience . The sheer plunging mountainsides that culminated in the narrow gully are an imposing reminder of being in an earthquake prone country .
We left as a group with the next destination of Jomsom on our minds , the road again was often more Buffalo / Goat track than a tourist road , and the surface could rapidly change from hard and rocky to thick but soft and treacherous sandy dust in the blink of an eye , the significant uphill sections when covered in this ‘ bulldust ’ was a real exhausting and mind focussing effort , bear in mind that most of the road is only 1 vehicle width , but the buses , trucks and 4x4 ’ s just keep coming at you . Never a dull moment ! The occasional stop for a picture opportunity was a welcome relief .
While most of the rivers and streams are crossed via bridges of varying designs , due to construction or monsoon damage some water crossings needed to be made , while they were usually uneventful as the frequent vehicles keep them in reasonable motorable condition , the depth could suddenly vary , or a large rock could cause you to deviate significantly from your intended path , the occasional foot plunge into icy water caused some minor ‘ traffic jams ’ around the night time fireside , as boots and socks were aired and dried . The road was being worked on by construction crews for most of the way due to the damage caused by the recent monsoon season and this also threw up the challenges of heavy vehicles and errant road workers whose ages varied from what appeared to be 14 to 80 , both
TRAVERSE 59