Jomsom April 13, 2001 A lot has happened during the last two days. I woke up early in Muktinath and I worked my way around the valley rim seeing the Hindu temple complex and healing flame on the way (housed in a Bhuddist nunnery). At the Hindu temple two men rolled around its circumfrence. They were covered from head to toe in grime afterwards but looked refreshed and happy. I continued around the rim, saw a complex web of yarn and a goat skull handing on the wall in the maze of hallways entering a nice older lady’s house (I wonder if that is Bon shamanism?) and then struggled up a high cliff face towards a suspected cave I saw from below. Just barreling up the scree and sand slope at the top (I did not realize how steep and exposed it was). Finally I could not make it into the cave mouth (despite the tantalizing waves of light wavying accross the opening's upper lip making me think there was water in there) and just played with the fluffy mineral excretions from the rock before sliding back down. Next I visited the monastary, fine village and crumbling ruined fort of Dzong before plunging down to the gorge bed and up meet Shane and Heather promptly at 12:30 back in Ranipauwa. We then trudged down the glorious and ferociously windy slopes to Kagbeni town set at the T-stop of the Muktinath valley and upper and lower Mustang – its red Gompa, canals, serpentine city passages inside the ruined shell of its old fortress and laughing people set off beautifully against the Indian plate rock cross section of the agitated mountain to its side. An oasis of green garlic plants in the high desert. The next morning I did a sneaky one hour foray into the forbidden Upper Mustang region along the Kali Gandaki riverbed and strolling back into town found a cheap milk tea place for only 7 cents US a cup with a woman and two polite sons in the center of the fortress ruin. The Gompa was filled with naught but dust, objects and paintings in progress. On the roof were still and broken prayer wheels meant to turn on the blasting wind. Shane and Heather and I ate biscuits and no tea (the cheap tea lady was shut) before walking along the riverbed smashing black ammonite stones that yeilded no fossils. I lingered in this activity (got damn good at smashing those rocks) and found Shane and Heather in Eklobatti drinking apple sauce and thoroughly enjoying the begging cows and dog lined up at their table. “I never want to move from this spot” they said warmed by the sun and cooled by the breeze. We were all tired of being cold. Shane said he loved seeing animals wandering around all the time and wants that for his own home some day – Heather suggested creating a permaculture home like one they heard of in Australia. Walking from Eklobatti we took the riverbed route and found ourselves victims of insane wind. It blew my mouth open, threw dust in our faces and made it hard to play the flute as I walked. They got way ahead at one point and when I finally caught up with them we took shelter against a rock and sat chatting and throwing rocks at a boulder in the distance for a fine ‘tzula’! In Jomsom we found the fine Trekkers Home Lodge and Shane and Heather bought their plane tickets, I borrowed $50 US from them and I called my parents. All is well at home but not so simple. I was happy to hear my mom’s foot is healing and sad to hear that Darya’s childbearing efforts are still batting zero. Darya also said she saw all my proposed Kathmandu paper products in the stores in New York already. Shar is getting job offers in warm places so all at home are hushed and waiting to see the outcome. Mike has initiated coverage as a stock analyst and is getting belle of the ball treatment. I asked Darya to read my email and will wait for her to call here again in the morning at 9:30 AM. Today I separate from my beloved Shane and Heather! Last night Shane shares with me his desire to work helping people to grow (as a sort of personal development counselor). After my call with Darya this morning I will walk to Tukuche and they both will continue on by plane tomorrow to Pokhara. The last five days of the trek (big days at average 5 hours each) solo. Hopefully I can see them again in Kathmandu. Sigh. It looks like Shane would partially like to walk out the rest of the trek but does not want to leave Heather alone. She looks thoroughly ready to be done trekking and even last light I could see a huge weight had been lifted. Shane and I saw a great museum here yesterday called the Mustang Eco Museum which revealed the meaning of a lot of what we saw over the last few days: 1) Dzong, Jharkot and Kagbeni were fortresses built by the same Tibetan warlord. 2) The caves in the cliffs are from the Mustang valley’s oldest inhabitants, were minature cities (some with up to seven stories inside) and may date back 3000 years. The museum also appears to have a working traditional Tibetan medicine center in it where once can learn about traditional medicine or just get care on the spot from an expert Tibetan herbologist. I am so sad Shane and Heather and I are being parted. I am also emotionally stirred up because I was introduced last night to a bloke named Matthew who is a crazy climber from the UK and proposed I go with him to try routefinding up a 5900 meter peak near Muktinath. Ice stakes, rope and harness to go up the face freeclimbing. Very dangerous stuff and I am unquiet about the idea. He will return to Kathmandu via plane and contact me at the Butterfly Lodge when I get to Pokhara on the 18th or 17th of April. Next morning. Strange turn of events today: Heather's call didn't go through (the reason they planned to leave on Saturday was built around this call), they both rushed and boarded Cosmic Air's second and third flights. After Heather got on (only one seat available) Shane and I went to have a breakfast of cheesecake and chocolate crumble and he told me of his dream of opening a travel consutlancy service - brilliant idea. He finally boarded after some delay owing to fog. Every one of the passangers on the flight was a Hindu pilgrim returning from Muktinath. Scary airport. I ran to the top of a nearby hotel to watch his plane take off. With a sad heart I packed and hit the trail in the drizzle.