Manaslu Circuit Trek ｜ Larkey Pass to Samagaun via Samdo ｜ High Altitude Adventure.

We've also been at Altitude for quite a long time now. It's a snooker club. Baby yak, monkeys, a baby mule. This is proof that you can take the boy out of Scotland. But you cannae take Scotland out the boy. Definitely would have again, but not tonight. Good morning from Larky Peak Base Camp. What a glorious morning it is here. Absolutely stunning. And definitely different from the night that we had where we were battled by wind and snow. But that's just made this place utterly magical this morning. Yeah, I'm just having a cup of tea. We're getting packed up. The portals are ready to deconstruct the camp. And then we're going to get on our way down to Sam Doe, which is a good thousand metres below where we are right now. And I think everyone will appreciate the extra bit of oxygen that will come with that. And the extra bit of rest that will also come with sleeping at lower elevations. But yeah, I think today's going to be a good one. That's us on the trail to Sam Doe. And the trail is a bit undulating and rocky underfoot, but quite pleasant. But the most appealing aspect of this part of the trail are the views. Because with weather like we have today, you really get to appreciate just how massive this landscape is and how huge some of these mountains are. Yeah, I think it's just going to be a head down kind of day. Get off of this high altitude moraine and then down to lower elevations. As we left Larkey Peak Base Camp behind, the valley opened into an amphitheatre-like landscape with six and seven thousand metre peaks on either side of you. And in the middle, a glacial lake, still and calm. Today was a real highlight of the trip and despite the physical exhaustion of the previous day, we made good time and spirits were really high. Underfoot was pleasant and the terrain shifted from alpine desert to greener pastures as we lowered in altitude. This is us coming into Dharam Asala, is how I think it's pronounced. And I believe we're going to stop here for tea, maybe lunch? Unsure. Poor brother would say that lunch isn't far away. So I wonder if this is the spot he is referring to. That's a cute wee place. You can kind of tell it's been built up at the moment but it seems to be the general vibe of a lot of the small villages and tea houses that we're stopping at. They seem to be doing quite a lot of work post-monsoon, ready for the upcoming trekking and climbing season. Anyway, let's see what we're doing and hopefully there's a cup of tea waiting on us. Whoa! Fueled by rice and tea, we headed off again. And other than a few locals and mules, we didn't see anyone else on the trail. We were very early in the post-monsoon season and the majority of Manaslu circuit hikers actually come from about mid-September onwards. It was a real privilege to be able to walk in relative isolation. You feel like the entirety of your surroundings was just for you. Every distant peak and every river bend was deliberately placed so that you and you alone could experience it. Just got our first glimpse of Samdo, our destination for today. And it looks a little bit built up. I feel like I've been out on the sticks for the past week. The actual buildings, I forgot what they are. But yeah, it'll be so nice to roll into Samdo and have somewhere, you know, hopefully comfortable to sleep this evening. Because yeah, sleeping in a tent at 5,000 meters for two nights is hard going. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise, that's a hard shift. But yeah, maybe, I don't know, half hour, 40 minutes and we should be where we want to be. So, after a few hard days, the relief of having a good tea house with some actual beds, which I'll show you, and an actual room with an actual island is going to be very, very welcomed. But yeah, we are going to take it really easy today, try and rest, recuperate from a hard couple of days. And I think the plan is to drink plenty of cups of tea, maybe a Coca-Cola and eat some good food. Today started with a tip exchange because this would be our final day with our current portals. Because once they dropped the kit and Sam a gown, they were heading back to Kathmandu. We wanted to make sure that they were well compensated for all their work and effort over the past few days. Hello, hello. Good morning from another day in paradise. We are leaving our lovely little village of Samdo and heading, not actually down in too much elevation, more along a beautiful valley to another village, quite a substantial village from my understanding, called Samagaon. And Samagaon is the staging post for Manaslu expeditions. It's where people would normally helicopter into, but it's where we are going to trek to and enjoy, I think, a couple of days of like proper rest, which will be really, really nice. But the trail has just opened up in front of me. I can see right down the valley. It looks absolutely spectacular and we've got about a two hour walk, so not a big day at all, just enough to get the lungs going and the legs going. The extra oxygen at this altitude was clearly going to some people's heads because Alan and Danny were in joyous moods. It helps having this kind of energy in the group because you can't help but smile and laugh and from time to time you need a little pick me up. Made my morning. It's the simple things. We've also been at altitude for quite a long time now and we've got a lot longer to go as well. I think you're actually supposed to stay left when you're passing these things. I think it's like, oh, I don't want to embarrass myself. It's either Buddhists, might not be Tibetan. Yeah, I think you're supposed to go left around stuff like that. Left for good luck. I believe that's a thing. Your back will just be all like shell, like they'll be all like the hexagons and that. It's turned a wee bit Scottish actually because underfoot is remarkably boggy. It's getting slightly more humid and you've got lovely vegetation along with protruding mountains. You could be forgiven for thinking this was some kind of forestry trail going through Glencoe but it's not. We're at 3,800 meters in the jungle of Nepal. Yeah, it's a very lovely walk this and we're just taking our time, having a bit of banter. Danny's the butt of the jokes, unfortunately. But yeah, we're having a good time, just enjoying this lovely wee stroll. Don't be scared. I'm just as scared as you. You've got no friends. So we're just walking through like a herd of yak and there's a couple of little babies and they're absolutely adorable. They are so cute. This guy or lady doesn't appear to be particularly happy that we're so close though so we won't stay too long but the babies are utterly beautiful. Just tiny little fluff balls. They are gorgeous. Oh, you could just like pick them up and put them in your pocket. So cute. And that's what my wife would do if she were here and that's probably one of the good reasons why she's not because we would be coming home with baby yak, monkeys, a baby mule. Oh, she would try everything she could to take home some animals. So this is where the path splits and you can either go to Samdo which is where we've just came from or you can go to Manaslu Base Camp which is that way or you can go this way which is down to Samargaon which is where we're going and we can just see the tops of the houses in Samargaon now. But this is a super exciting point to reach because in a few days time we'll be coming back here, won't we Al? Yep, back here and we'll be taking this path and the 1300 meter climb up to Base Camp. So it's only a wee Ben Nevis we've got from here up to Base Camp. There's nothing. Well, here we are arriving into Samargaon. This is way more built up than I thought it was going to be. This is cracking. You can see there's still quite a lot of building work going on. Just seems to be like a never-ending cycle of constant improvement here in Nepal which is amazing. And as long as people like us, namaste, as long as people like us keep coming and keep putting money into the local economies then they'll be able to continue improving and I think that's really important. But yeah, oh that says the Pema Cafe and Bakery. Alan, the Pema Cafe and Bakery, do you think that's an actual cafe? I'm interested, definitely interested. Namaste. There we have another one, Karma Cafe, let's turn around. Karma Cafe. So it feels like this little village is definitely way more populated and slightly more infrastructured than the ones that we've been in previously. And here is the Manaslu Conservation Area project. Ah, checkpoint, okay. That's a government building. Yeah, prayer wheels that you can spin. Yeah, what a cool wee village. I guess we need to find where we are staying. That's a snooker club. The Snooker and Pool House Restaurant. Right, we should try that. Namaste. Main Street Cafe. Whoa, good coffee? Yeah, okay, I'll see you later. Namaste. So we've got quite a few cafes. A snooker club apparently. Oh wow, you don't expect this at three and a half thousand meters. Local yak cheese available. Oh my god, we're going to have an amazing couple of rest days here. The challenge will be to try and fit it all in. Very cool. Oh, here's the team. Hello. Namaste, good Shiva, how are you? Here we go. The Tashi Delek Guesthouse and Lodge. Cool. Time for tea? Oh yeah. So we settled into our tea house here in Samagaon. The conversation quickly turns to important issues like how VAR is ruining football. Yo, I don't agree with that. No. I'm talking about like some of the, um, like the goals and that. Yeah. Like they can clearly like identify if it's a goal or not. The offsides are like taking it down to like a tool like that. Yeah, I like that. Yeah? Yeah. That's so stupid. Why? However, the interruption of dinner was a welcomed relief from this riveting conversation. We tucked into some delicious pizza and a sweet treat with a distinct homely feel. Thank you. Shiva, that looks good. Thank you, Shiva. This is proof that you can take the boy out of Scotland. But you cannae take Scotland out the boy because this is a Nepali deep fried marsupial. We saw it in the menu and just thought we're gonna have to try it. So, how is it? By the way, that's magic. Oh, definitely would have again, but not tonight. Namaste, donkeys. We've refilled all our water bottles. We have some food hydrating. Yeah, what a place. This is amazing. That's so beautiful.