10 April - Arya

We continued up the side valley to a tiny place called Arya. The valley has become drier and bleaker as as we progressed. It has it’s own harsh beauty, with dry stone walls and tiny stone-built shacks, and the dusty earth peppered with rocks and th odd mani stone. We seem to be the only trekkers in the valley – people only come to go over the Renjo La pass like us, and they are few, hence the accommodation becoming more and more basic. We’ll be in tents tomorrow. Yesterday we wandered further up the valley towards the Cho la pass into Tibet as a bit of acclimatization. This is well off the beaten track as it is past the turn-off for the renjo La, and the only company we had were yaks nibbling at the thin short vegetation and a solitary trader making his way back down from Tibet, heavy load on his back, and in his hand dangling a spool; spinning wool as he walked. Today we have another aclimatization day, and tomorrow we will be moving up to camp just below the Renjo La pass to give us a good slieeping altitude gain, befor e going over the pass the next day and dropping down into Gokyo with it’s lakes and teahouses.