Ghorepani to Pokhara

After spending a dry night in Ghorepani, we greeted the next day with our second Alpine Start, in order to walk up Poon Hill and watch the sunrise over all the peaks, which line the Annapurna range. I had started developing the first symptoms of what looked like a potential nose-cold, so it was a tough, rasping climb to the peak. As described in all guide books, the peak was packed with fellow trekkers and tourists all waiting to catch the first glimpse of sun beams over Annapurna. Unfortunately, this was not to be, as sky was heavily overcast, though the clouds silhouetted by sunlight still looked spectacular. I think we were one of the last to leave, having waited a couple of hours, watching some of the clouds slowly disappearing, revealing snow covered mountain peaks. Returning to our tea house in Ghorepani, we had a quick breakfast and started making our way down towards Ulleri (2070m).

The path down from Ghorepani towards Ulleri was thankfully a lot less steeper, than the one we came up and along the way we stopped to watch some people busy distilling a local spirit called "Rakshi". The process in itself is actually very simple and the results are potent. Though I have to admit warm Rakshi tastes a lot better than the Apple Brandy we tried at Larjung.

One thing, which is very noticeable on the trek are kids. There are hundreds of the little buggers running around and it's quite easy to judge which trekking routes receive the most trekkers by the vocabulary and insistence of these kids. For example, when we started the trek at Besisahar, a few of the kids there would say "Hello, School Pen". the closer we go to Manang, we still had a few "Hello, School Pen" as well as a few "Hello, Sweet". Once we got over the pass and hit Muktinath / Jomson, it just got bad from then onwards, which each kid saying ether, "Hello, School Pen", "Hello, Sweet" or "Hello, One Rupee" and quickly went from cute to just damn annoying.

Reaching Ulleri we stopped for lunch, looked down at the famous "3421 stone steps", leading up from Tikhdunga (1515m), looking over an amazing view of the valley below & looking up at rain clouds rolling in for the afternoon shower. I did not count the steps going down, but 3000+ steps is not as easy as it sounds, the descent is pretty stiff. Though I did feel a bit sorry for the poor buggers who were coming up.

As predicted, it started dripping as we were reaching the bottom and by the time we reached the outskirts of Tikhdunga it had turned into light rain. So we quickly found shelter in the first guest house. Just as well, because the it started pouring and we sat and drank tea, while watching some wet and clearly disgruntled trekkers trudging down the remaining steps into Tikhdunga and beyond. By the time the rain had stopped we had settled ourselves and decided that we would walk the last couple of Km to Nayapul the next day (the really hot shower also helped speed our decision to stay).

Next morning the weather was clear and we made our way down towards Nayapul , stopping a few times along the way to swim in the ice cool river. Our final stop for lunch was made at Birethanti (1025m), where we ate an excellent Daal Baht before almost running the last km to the bus stop in Nayapul to catch the bus to Pokhara, where we had arranged to meet the rest of our party.

20 Days of trekking ... it was definitely worth while.