Nicholas Rice: Manaslu Dispatch

2009 Solo Manaslu Expedition

Dispatch Three: March 26th, 2009

Day Three: Bus Ride from Kathmandu to Arughat

Today, we woke up at 5am, packed our bags, had a quick breakfast, and loaded our gear onto a bus. We left the hotel around 6:30am and went about 30 minutes out of town only to unload our things and wait on another bus. This time, we loaded three busses with our gear plus the base camp setup/food and hired enough porters to fill up the other two. We finally got underway around 8am. The road was dusty and bumpy as we climbed high up the cliffside of one gorge only to drop back down into another. Around 4pm, we finally rumbled to a stop in a flat peaceful dusty village and set up camp. We reorganized our duffels so that the porters could go on ahead to base camp with all but one of our bags (this one would have out trekking gear in it). Once this was done, we relaxed next to the river as the sun set behind the terraced smoky hills in the distance. We had our first dinner in the mess tent together then got some e much needed sleep.