I got up at 7.30 and tried to contact the guy I had planned to accompany me in a boat this morning while I swam across the lake but he did not answer his phone. I got ready and headed to the cafe that rent boats and arranged for the local guy who rents out the boats to come with me. In the water for 8.15 and swan across the lake (1.25 miles) by 9. I have not done much outside swimming over long distances before and I was not sure how I would feel. When doing breast stroke my left knee hurts but my muscles were fine and I did not find it particularly challenging to swim back again. It was good to have the boat there just for saftely though. Miranda was right that it was a sensible thing to do. This is a picture of the lake that I swam across and back (taken from the air later on in the day).
I felt nicely exercised afterward. It is the same distance as the swim for iron man and it was good to gauge how far it is and how I would feel afterward.I raced back to have a quick shower and some muesli and fruit at the local cafe and then rushed into town to get 4 passport photos, money from the ATM and photocopies of my passport and insurance documents so that I could give them to the trekking company to get my Trekking licence. It is expensive. I need a Tims permit ($20 USD) and conservation permit another 2000RS. Total was about 3600RS I think - about £30.
I had forgotten my trainers for the flight and so rushed back to my guest house to pick some up and asked the owners at the same time if I could rent a rucksack. I managed to do so for 40RS per day (about 33p :-)).
When I got back I still had a few mins to wait for the jeep to pick us up to take us to the mountain and so I went and organised the white water rafting trip for the way back to Kathmandu.
The jeep ride up to the top of a mountain took about 30mins, the last 10mins of which was on a dirt road track. I was really excited and not at all nervous as I have no illogical fear of heights and I have been paragliding before. I met my Korean instructor at the top. He has been working here for 7 months, flying for 7 years and he does 3 flights per day. That's enough experience for me!
We took off in literally minutes of us arriving at the top of the mountain. For the first 5 minutes he could not find a thermal and we descended reasonably close to the hill side but then he found one and away we went. It was amazing!
I was expecting great views and to really enjoy it - what I was not expecting was to have eagles flying within about 1 meter of the parachute. They were just having fun and coming to say hello! I was so surprised. We were at just under 2000m and so the eagles could not possibly be hunting from that height. They were enjoying flying past and checking out what we were doing! They are such beautiful creatures. If I am reincarnated please can I return as an Eagle?
Most of the flight was very relaxing and as it was for 1 hour I could really just sit back and get into the experience. We climbed into cloud a couple of times and had to leave as quickly as possible as it is not safe as you can't see other people flying and might bang into them. The views of the mountains were not fantastic today as it was hazy but I could still see for about 60 into the distance.
The instructor has an extension pole attachment for his camera so that he could take great photos and videos of us from a distance during the flight. Unfortunately the company wanted £15 for this (2 days budget) and I had already blown my budget by going on the flight and so I said no. He took the pictures and video anyway and showed me the 10 photos and 1 video. I still said No. I was happy enough to get some great photos of Eagles at 2000m :-)
On the way down he did some tricks which made me feel a bit sick. It is a fast way to descend but essentially puts you at 90 degrees from the ground. I was giggling all the way.....
The whole flight took 1 hour and cost £88. It was a treat that was well worth it. The driver was at the lakes edge to take us back to the office for about 1.30.
When I got back to the office after the flight I picked up my trekking permit and then went shopping for some equipment that I need and do not carry on my bike at the moment. It was pretty cheap to get knock-off equipment. I don't need it to last very long. I bought hiking shoes, hat, gloves, scarf, compass, head torch (another one as backup), water purification tablets, batteries and a cable for my glasses - all cost £20. It took a couple of hours and I got caught out (again) in the thunderstorms.
When I got back to pick up my bike I found that the wheels were buckled (all the spokes were tightened to different tensions) and the gears had not been tuned and were all out. I ended up leaving them too it as I was getting frustrated watching them trying a failing to fix the gears. They seemed to be even worse than I am at it!! Arrgggg. It is so disappointing after it was running so well when the guys in Kathmandu had tuned it all.
I went back to my guest house and picked up my laptop and tried to catch up on my blog at "My Favourite Restaurant". The thunderstorm this afternoon was really impressive. The wind was crazy and water came through the roof.I went to pick up my bike just before 8 and it seemed that the gears were much better and so I paid and left. I seem to be hemorrhaging money right now. However, it was still much cheaper than the UK (£34 for 2 new wheels).
I met Miranda for dinner in town. We had fresh mango juice and coconut on the way to a lovely restaurant all "Olive" (I thing). It was a REAL restaurant and served grown-up food. It was not the sort of food that I could cook myself (as in most of the tourist restaurants I have eaten in recently). I had a lovely Thai meal and then shared a cheesecake thing for desert.
We chatted with another Brit called Mark who was sitting at the table next to us. He has been traveling in a camper van with his girl friend for the last 2 years and had just completed the Annapura circuit on a mountain bike over about 10 days. Cool.They were planning on driving through Tibet and into China but apparently the boarder has just been closed by China and they are not letting anyone through. So I would not have been able to go that way at all even on a tour! Thank goodness I have booked a flight to Kong Hong instead. I feel sorry for the cyclists that I met on the way from Kathmandu that were planning to go the same way I was. Mark now has to rethink his plans too.....
I don't think I was very good company this evening. I was all flustered for most of the evening as I was thinking about all of the things I need to do to get ready to go trekking first thing tomorrow morning and I could not decide whether to go trekking tomorrow or the day after. I am still not feeling 100%. I did not manage to do all of the paper work/email stuff I needed to either this afternoon as the power went off. On the way back to the Guest house I tried riding my bike only to find that the back wheel was flat and the gears were not changing properly. Having run round like a mad thing trying to fit everything in it is frustrating not to go tomorrow morning. It also means that I will not have enough days to make the base camp if I do not go tomorrow morning.
However, the fact that my bike was not ready to go and that there was no electricity so that I could see enough to pack all my things easily and fix my bike made me decide to just stay 1 more day in Pokhara. At least I can spend another day with Miranda and also catch up on my blog etc.
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