“Argh! It bit me…”

The seemingly friendly street dog following along beside me randomly decided to bite me on the calf as I wouldn’t give him potato chips. Then the drama started. Tired after a 30km and 1000m gain day, we had to work out what to do. Thanks to Kristy (who knew I needed a rabies shot to remove any risk of that), and thanks to Mingma (who communicated with the helpful Gamgadhi hospital doctors). One shot on the spot, one in 3 days’ time and one in Simikot, 7 days walk from Gamgadhi. To top it off, I dropped my phone on the way back to our hotel and it bricked, so I can’t access photos, journal or trail notes since Muktinath (our last blog). Luckily being in a large village I could get a new phone.

We are hence forced to take an extra zero / rest day today. Lucky for you reader! Now you get an extra blog post to read!

Let’s cast back to before the grievances of Gamgadhi…

Last we wrote was in Muktinath, in the comfort of MuktiVilla AirBnB. From there we lost all our elevation down to Kagbeni where we had a long awaited lunch at Yac Donald’s. Then something not unusual happened, but with a difference. A dog started to follow us out of town (par for the course) but it kept slinking along behind us despite our best attempts to shoo it away. 7km later it was still with us and camped overnight with us. Fortunately for us the dog barked all night at a golden jackal, which we only identified later online thanks to its hideous yowls we heard at 9pm and again at 3am.

Then the next day the dog followed us again. And then another day. By this point he was “our dog” and we started to feed him precious second servings from our meals as he was travelling huge distances each day and buring serious calories, chasing marmots and birds along the way. We called him Slinky Sausage (Sausage for short), as each morning he would slink along behind us as he knew it was wrong and he was a bit of a silly sausage for following us all that way. At one point just above Dho Tarap we lost Sausage and waited and called out for him but he didn’t appear. Then an hour later he reappeared, legging it down the road towards us with a bloody ear, apparently having been in a kerfuffle passing a herdsmen camp with another dog.

Sausage ended up following us all the way to Ringmo, our next resupply point, achieving 150km over several 5000m+ passes. He leapt over surging creeks on slippery rocks and even followed us across rivers. And waited patiently as excavators did strange things in remote Nepal!

Our next resupply in Ringmo was delivered (after two days on buses and jeeps and two days walking) by Pasang, our awesome high altitude porter from the mountaineering sections). Pasang fed Sausage some biscuits and took him down the hill about 20km. Pasang called and said Sausage had found a new home at a chicken farm. A fitting end to Sausage’s Great Himalaya Trail adventure.

Or was it…?

The next morning we woke up to walk on through Phoksundo National Park and who should be lying on the front porch of the hotel? None other than Sausage, having completed a 40km round trip back to Ringmo! Somehow after breakfast we gave him the slip*, which was lucky because the next section was far too difficult, and remote with not many villages, to take a doggo along.

After the gorgeous Phoksundo Lake, the difficulty, steepness, altitude and distance really ramped up.

We crossed several 4800m passes to reach Shey Gompa, a remote monastry and tent village of Tibetan herdsmen. Then on to Bhijer, which was 1800m+ elevation gain, only to lose it all again down a huge dry hill to a muddy river (1500m loss), then up a steep and seemingly impossible cliff trail (up 700m+) with no fresh water. Our thirsty selves arrived in Pho to find the best Ama (mother) in Nepal. She made us awesome Dahl Bat in her clean kitchen and looked after us very well.

The following three days we covered a 5000+ metre pass each day, which was strenuous. One day had 6km above 5000m with crosswinds and cloud and rain – it was a slog to say the least. We also connected a section of trail that was doubtful. We had three gpx trails to follow: one was plain wrong (no trail where it showed one), one was good but we couldn’t cross the river due to high water from rain and the third ended in a cliff and dangerous no fall rock climb. The dangerous cliff option was the easiest so we followed that, until the cliff which was not even an option, so we backtracked and managed to find a steep but doable “ramp” that took us safely up to a better trail. Problem solved with some patience, Mingma’s calm approach, and good navigation!

After solving the trail riddle we were immediately rewarded with one of the steepest climbs of the GHT (about 700m gain in 2km – yes it’s possible to walk up a trail that steep) that led us to a short rock scramble and an exposed traverse up and over a range, that ended in a turbulent flooding river that we crossed by balancing over a single log bridge. Big day. Epic day.

This last section ended in the 30km day down to Gamgadhi, completing 9000m elevation for the week over 126km. Big week. We saw an excavator in the raging surging flooded Nyandi Nadi. This one was not doing any work like the previous one in the river! Lower Dolpo, Upper Dolpo and Mugu were not letting anyone pass through easily.

And now, as we approach the end of the GHT, with a hopefully easier 165km and ~8500m elevation over 10 days, it’s a strange feeling to know this adventure of a lifetime will soon be over. In some ways it’s great, as aches and pains and rashes and immune system reactions are starting to add up, and in other ways we will miss being on the trail and outside every day and the consistent challenges we face and overcome. It will be important not to look too far ahead to the end, or start reflecting too early, so we can make the most of appreciating each remaining day as it comes.

Our next update will be after we cross the checkered flag in Hilsa on the Nepal/China border… We also aim to create proper videos and a website about the journey in the coming months. Thanks for all the messages via various mediums, please keep them coming – it’s been encouraging and inspiring to connect with different people on this journey!

* Mingma, Mike and Kristy all miss Sausage and wish him the happiest of doggo life with dherai meaty yak bones.