Nepal (October 2017): Simikot to Kolti via Mount Saipal
6. Ranikharka to Lampato along the Kawadi Khola
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Despite its relatively low elevation, this portion of the trek traverses a region that is almost void of human settlements. There are only a few houses (4 or 5 in total) in both Chyachaur and Lampato combined. Nevertheless, the trail gets some traffic and we met a number of interesting groups: goat/sheep caravans, mushroom hunters, traders, and even dancers. Surprisingly, there is a small shop in Lampato for such travelers. In addition, the Kawadi Khola valley is quite pretty.
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.)
Last view of Saipal after leaving Ranikharka.
Views along Kawadi Khola.
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Encounter with a group of mushroom hunters coming from a village located further south.
These hunters were spending days in the wild searching for the type of mushroom shown below. The mushroom, which they called ″ratochayu″, is apparently in high demand in Asia for its medicinal properties. I believe that it is not specific to Nepal and actually better known as reishi (in Japanese) and lingzhi (in Chinese), and often referred to as the ″mushroom of immortality″. See here for more detail.
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Greener landscape further down along the trail.
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Midday we met another caravan of goats and sheep loaded with bags. The caravan was moving up toward Ranikharka, and beyond toward Chala and the Humla Karnaki Nadi valley.
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The whole caravan had started moving very early in the morning. Their drivers decided to stop here to let the animals eat and rest. Their plan was to resume moving at 4am on the next morning and cross Sakya Lagna during the same day (a very long day).
It quickly became clear that the animals needed much rest. I had never seen so many goats and sheep sleeping in the sun.
Further down we met another group of people. These were porters, all carrying the same large white bags. But they were not dressed and looking like professional Nepali porters. They were coming from the Kolti area (our destination), each carrying 30kg of the kind of mushroom harvested by the five people that we had previously met. They were going to Hilsa (on the Nepal-Tibet border), where the mushrooms are then sold for the Chinese market. Note that several of these porters hike for days with a heavy load on rocky trails with mere flip-flops!
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Forest with tall trees further down near Lampato.
Kawadi Khola.
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Reaching Lampato, where Kawadi Khola makes a sharp turn toward the south.
When we arrived in Lampato, where there are only 2 or 3 houses (including a small shop!), we were surprised to hear music and see dancers. These were young people from a village further south who were taking advantage of the forthcoming Diwali festival, the Hindu festival of light, to raise some money for buying music instruments, by dancing in various settlements along Kawadi Khola. Incidentally, this reminded us that we were switching from a predominantly Buddhist region of Nepal to a predominantly Hindu region.
There were few spectators, who seemed moderately interested in the dances.
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We set a camp below Lampato′s houses, near this beautiful waterfall.
