To Hispaw - day 2

The old woman whose house we slept in.

Here they make tea. The women get up, say the prayers and make the dedications, prepare a large breakfast, put the tea out to dry for the day on bamboo mats, and are out the door by 6.30am. They spend 12 hours picking off the new leaves, revisiting each bush every 2 weeks, and are allowed home at 6.30pm. Then they steam the tea, break it up, and start drying it; then they make supper. Not surprising so many opt for paid work elsewhere.

The walk is stunning. Along ridges and up and down steep jungled valleys. It's very very long - 10 hours in total. I am broken by the end. Not entirely surprising after 2 months of feebleness. We both cough hollowly.

It's another village full of horses, tea, women with baskets on their backs and idle men. Ul tells me I look at everything with a feminist lens: I think I'm objective. I'm also very glad, despite the hacking, that we've done this.