Well we finally left "the top of the world" Tibet and entered Nepal after a three hour wait to go thro' immigrations!!!! What a completetransformation from the barren desert bowl of Tibet and her mountains and into a lush green Alpine environment completewith waterfalls and other flora and fauna....
The border crossing into Nepal was a quick affair much to our relief!!! we then caught a public bus to Kathmandu, a whirlwind journey (of nine hours total!!! The bit they don't ever tell you before you do it) and our travelling companion from Tibet Jean Francois, bobbing about on top of the bus like a big kid!!! We arrived in Kathamandu finally in the evening and our first sighting was a city of lights as we entered civillisation at long last!!!
Left Kathmandu for Pokhora. A beautiful journey throughout the mountains passing by little villages en route. We spent the first evening eating by a beautiful lake and being entertained by traditional dancing girls (which Martin enjoyed very much as you can imagine!!). From here we left for Nayapul and began the first stages of our trek walking alongside the Modi river in a flat part of the valley, a relatively gentle introduction into trekking in Nepal with some ascending later on in the afternoon (phew!).
Day two, a little more hard core as even in the early morning (yes Martin managed to be up and out for 8am!!) the sun is already ablaze and the hills hot with the heat!!! We madeasteep ascent to Gandrung which had breathe taking scenery and was just amazing to observe the villages surrounding from our location on the mountain side. The views of the mountain ranges were just stunning and so majestic even at 1960m height. Our hotel room commanded the best views for morning time looking straight out onto Fishtail mountain, Machapuchre absolutely fantastic to wake up to first thing in the morning!!!
We made a couple of friends Colin and Jeanette whom were great fun and ended going on a mini tour of ther local village witht them and had a go at dressing up in the local Hill Tribe garb, well Jeanette and I did whilst Martin and Colin found it very funny!!! (see photo). We also sampled the local wine made from local home grown produce we cannot remember quite what as it was so potent!!!
From Gandrung we trekked on up to Tadapani, in the right season you are surrounded by Rhodedendron bushes but not for us! We then carried onto see some of the local waterfalls and pools, walking alongside the river and then hitting a high ridge, where we got to see Dhalagirir approx 8000m high. This day we ended up in Gorepani, where we had the most amazing views of the night time skies with many, many stars in the midnight sky against the Annarpurna range, fantastic!!! It was also where we had to pay our supposed fine to the Maoist terrorist people, in our case an average Nepalise kind of guy whom looked jut like all of the Trekking Guides, which was a tad worrying!!! We got discount as Jangbu sorted us out (good guy) Our receipt was signed "Robin" (which we thought quite apt). It is from here that many folk are tricked into getting up a stupid o'clock and trekking in the dark for about 40 minutes uphill to "Poon Hill", where you are pretty cold and hungry, but as the dark turns to light it is the most magical experience and well worth all the pain to watch the light constantly play and change over the mountain range. from "Poon Hill" we trekked downhill into the worlds deepest gorge which falls between Annarpurna South and Dhaulgirir into Tatapani village. Martin was a right girls blouse whinneying about his calves hurting, but it was a killer all the way down I have to say, even for a spring chicken like me!! Our perfect cure for soothing the aches and pains was to soak ourselves in the "Tatapani Hot Springs", complete with bar on the riverside,perfect!!!
You wake up to the smell of wonderful citrus fruits,Tatapani is a real citrus gowing region and we were surrounded by lemons the size of grapefruit I kid you not!! We carried on thro'a number of villages en route to Ghasa via a flat riverbed route. Itwas a surreal experience as we experienced many Hindu Indians, on a Pilgrimmage walk,(all way from India, a helluva long way) carrying very little heading onto the Tibetan border to Mount Kailaash (considered a very holy mountain), where we stayed overnight (the windiest place on earth!!) and met some really nice people, three girls from the UK who were pretty impressive, having carried their own packs all the way en route and "Wes" our cool american weather guy, and really interesting to talk to about stuff and a real nut about Mexico too (thanks for the tips Wes, we will definately go there!!).
On from Ghasa we head onto Larjung where the terrain really does begin to change from the Alpine greens to a more craggy barren like state of scenery. This part of our trek was walking on rocky paths, reaching Tukche, a small Tibetan village with wonderfully carved buildings. Our destination to Marpha which is higher up was a much livelier place in contrast. Here we sought out the Apple Brandy Distillery, surprise, surprise! It is well known for growing apples in the region, it was a really vibrant and buzzing place, the local guys in the distillery were quite entertaining and took us around whilst giving us a sample of the local brew, more like rocket fuel!!! It's a Buddhist village and many people come here for that apsect alone, you also get great views of the valley from the buddhist Temple set up on the hill. The local people are so friendly and like to help (as well as being after making some money from you!). The views of the mountains from here are limited but the colours wonderful, very autumnal. On the way Martin was attacked by a chicken (well rooster with a scraggy neck) I don't know what he had done to upset it but as I rounded the corner I saw Martin hitting it with his camera bag. Latter he explained that the sneaky poultry had jumped him from behind sinking his claws into his leg. Martin had shaken it off but it came back for a second go which was when it received the full force of his camera equipment.An old woman tossing hay on her rooftop nearly fell off with laughter! The next few stops on the trek were non eventful and passed thro' "Kagebeni" which is a very medieval village, from which you can see Nilgiri and Dhalgirir (big big mountain!). This place is full of nooks and crannies and has the biggest collection of both horses and buffalos/cows we have seen on route! as you come out of the village you glide up into a vast canyon which is quite striking to see and from here we headed past "Jarakot" (another medievil village) onto Muktinath a place sacred toHindu's and Buddhists alike. Hindus believe that bathing here gives salvation after death. In the Vishnu Temple there are 108 water spouts shaped as Boars head and a natural gas flame that's eternally lit. Thousands of pilgrims come here,all the way from India including Holy men!!
We made our way down to Johmson where we caught a flight back to Pokhara we had only seen the plane's while in the guest house near Poon hill. We all ducked as the first one came very close and nearly blew our breakfast off the table.
The tiny airport seemed to have more staff than required and once again the Tibetan Yak bone carvings caused problems with customs (yes on an internal flight) sure that Martin was smuggling something in them.
The plane back didn't seem like it had enough puff to get above the mountains so we just flew in between them. The weather was gorgeous as it had been for the whole two weeks.
Back in Pokhara we had a little wait as our guide Jangbu's box of oranges got left in Jomson proving the too many cooks theory. When the second plane turned up without them Jangbu gave a little "it's just Nepal" smile and we headed for our hotel and finally a hot shower (he got his oranges eventually).
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