Proximity to civilization here is felt not only in clothes. In remote villages, locals wake up in the morning with roosters and prayers. Here, immediately after the sound of the first roosters, the TV turns on, and very loudly.

 

It rained all night and only intensified in the morning. Accordingly, leeches reappeared. We went out on the trail in the rain and by lunchtime we were already soaked through. It seems to be the longest rain in all 100 days of travel. The raincoat did not help, apparently it had already stopped raining for more than an hour. The only good news is that the height is small and the rain is relatively warm. But I think with horror that it has been snowing all this time higher in the mountains and we will have to storm the next high pass through huge snowdrifts. And it's the middle of October. The climate is definitely changing for the worse in Nepal. A few years ago, spring became noticeably less predictable, but in autumn the weather remained more or less stable.

 

Three hours of walking through the wet forest collected a carload of leeches. They still can't bite through RANDY SUN socks, but when we stopped for lunch, I took off about 50 of these creatures from my socks. The guide stopped every five to ten minutes to remove a dozen new leeches from their feet.

 

Since the rain did not stop by the evening, we decided to spend the night in a hotel in order to dry out at least a little. Tomorrow we begin to rapidly climb to the highest section of the Great Himalayan Trail.

 

And we were joined by our high-altitude guide Kami, who at the same time brought the necessary climbing equipment. On some passes we will need crampons, ice axes, harnesses and much more warm clothes than we have carried with us so far.

 

Hundreds of days of travel. And I want to go back to the issue of equipment.

 

Salomon sneakers are completely dead. I hope to hold out in them to the next high-altitude section and then I will go further in boots.

 

I have not used warm clothes yet: I dressed in the evenings in a thick Rab fleece and sometimes in a thin RedFox puff. But already in the next high-mountainous area, you will have to warm up more, because in the evenings at a height it becomes really cold.

 

Waterproof membrane socks RANDY SUN is definitely a necessary thing in Nepal. I already demolished one pair to holes after 5 months, the turn of a warmer option will soon come up. They perfectly save from leeches (where it is warm and damp) and perfectly keep warm (where it is damp and cold).

 

Now I'm walking with a Baltoro 75 backpack from Gregory. Excellent, well designed bag. The back is rigid, you can pack a backpack without much thought. There are many nice little things like a pocket for a bottle or various rubber bands, for which you can hook sunglasses or a panama hat when they are not needed along the way.

 

The North Face Cat's meow sleeping bag is still more suitable for warm weather. At +5, it is no longer very comfortable in it, because cold air begins to blow in due to the thin half. Well, or you need to sleep only on your back, then everything is ok. Let me remind you that this sleeping bag has warm only one side - from above. Because of this, it is much lighter than its counterparts, but if you toss and turn from side to side at night, then you need to constantly remember that the sleeping bag always remains the warm side at the top.

 

The inflatable mat helps a lot. I took a fairly thick Mountain Equipment. It's soft and warm on it. In many ways, the mat eliminates the shortcomings of the sleeping bag. But just in case, I always put the usual Therm-A-Rest pad under the inflatable mat as protection against possible punctures.

 

The seat from Active Buttons is exactly what you need, you can sit down to rest on wet and cold stones without hesitation. Well, in the evening the seat becomes a table in the tent.

 

The Big Agnes tent is already starting to show signs of wear. But the day before yesterday's thunderstorm and rain all night withstood perfectly. I hope the tent will hold out for the remaining 50 days.

 

Sealed Aquapac bags: a large bag is still not very suitable for long mountain hikes. But it lasted two months and only then began to creep at the seams. Well, they punched a few holes on sharp stones when they made their way through landslides. Hermetic bags for things show themselves perfectly - light and durable. Waterproof cases for the phone and documents also work great - a sealed clasp allows you to quickly climb into them without fear of getting the contents wet.

 

Repharm creams work great. I haven't tried the high-mountain version yet, but all other creams perform their functions perfectly - sun protection, moisturizing, and muscle pain.

 

The Zhyiun Crane-M2 stabilizer is a great thing, it really helps to shoot high-quality video. But it is heavy (in fact, any normal stabilizer is heavy), so I use it only for filming in parking lots. It is not very convenient for me to grab the stabilizer on the go because of the really sporty travel mode.

 

A spare used iPhone from iSupport holds a charge perfectly and perfectly performs its function as a spare phone and a phone for a local SIM card.

 

And another important detail of the wardrobe is a buff. I bought some random relatively warm fleece buff in Kathmandu. It would have been much more difficult to walk without him.

 

All camera shots were taken with Hoya filters. There is always a UV filter, sometimes I also put a polarizing one.