Jims Travel and Life or Lifeless Blog: 2017 April 6th - 8th: Nayapul, Poon Hill and Beyond, Chuile, Himalaya, Nepal 👍

Dateline: April 8th 2017, Chuile, Himalaya, Nepal

April 6th: Poon Hill and Beyond

Up early, 6:00

I steal the hotel supplied flip flops for "fording streams" HAH! What did I know?

Well, thats certainly a take on the wild blue yonder

None of us enjoy an appalling breakfast, which was mostly left on the plate by everyone.

Welcome indeed. We're up for it

Taxi on time, 7:15, and we're away

The Missus and spare bags are dropped off at the hotel. Kayla & I continue to Naya Pol, about 20km, amazing as it sounds, an hour and half away. More even worse appalling roads. Frightening driving. We're getting used to it. Our driver looks ancient, he's 54 and earns 31,000 rupees a month. About $Cad400. It starts to rain, hail, snow?

We are put down nowhere. A lump of mud. I check Google mapping, yep, this is it. It checks out. We walk to the tiny village of Nayapul and then cros the bridge to the check in office

We're on our way

And we're checked in and off on an adventure - note large belly (on central figure)

Arrived at gate, Birethanti, check in at post 9:00 alt 1070m

The early ones are safe
and well maintained

We head north and follow the check
Taxi's take people another 6Kms

Several taxi's pass us.
Kayla is pointing to where we are

Tikhedhunnga - the Actual real start of the stone steps

About 8Km from our start, no idea of vertical
One of many rest stops for the ubiquitous porters

Walk, walk, walk

Uphill, uphill

Walk walk walk

The first real lodges at Ulleri

After about 2 hours, maybe 6 Kms, we come to the end of the navigable road, and reach what I assume is "The Stone Steps". Oft whispered as to the sheer scale of effort required. 3500 of them, non stop

But I was hopelessly wrong. Another 1.5 hours later we started the real part of today's trek.

We've been trekking nearly 3+ hours and we are just starting the real first stage......

The "stone steps" don't start until after the wire bridge, rats.

From here, its 900 metres up

Grueling.

We keep passing an Australian group, families, Germans Japanese

Ozzie's group have several large folks, one is way obese. She has no problem keeping my pace, maybe I have no (little, alright, some) problem keeping up with her pace. This is really hard work

Chilli Chicken -

I'm certain that it was running

around when we arrived.

We won't starve

These folks did come by 4 x 4 as far as the road went, then just did the steps, about 4 kms less than us. Do I note some bitterness here?
Of course, these folks follow their guides advice and take very slow steps, constantly. I prefer a power walk, gasp then a long refresh period. It works either way.

Not to bore you with the details, another 3 hours and we make it to Ulleri.
Thunder, rain about 3, finally got to the top, the first lodge actually at altitude. Have lunch here, hill top, top of the village the last lodge. Alt 2020 Metres

Thank God! A real selection on the menu

Stunning and still dry

I see a guy in the kitchen chopping lumps of red stuff and we indulge in a huge "spring roll", ginger tea

I didn't notice I was hungry

We indulge in Chili Chicken. it's incredibly overdone, but absolutely delicious. Really but really overcooked, but still better than last nights disaster. I thought it was only Dal Bat up here, Dahl and Rice, but things are looking up as that appears to be just a cheap option, not the sole cuisine

We nearly stay here, but the weather clears and we head to Ban Thanti, about another km, another hour or so.

Its 5pm when we arrive. Our legs feeling like jelly. Alt 2210. About 1140 metres vertical, maybe 7km horizontal.

Not bad eh?

We are both soaked and not from the rain, my t shirt is totally wet

Well, we can feel suitably pleased with ourselves

The rooms are pretty bare bones, but serviceable as a trekkers. $US5 room for 2, shower, $1 each. Pleasantly surprised, very clean and comfortable

I asked for a room with a view, are you kidding me? They all have views, mountains everywhere

Showers, are "not cold" which adequately described it, tea, ok, but not as good as before

We wash our gear as best we can, and hang it by the fire, an old oil drum, fueled by local logs, covered with some compound; very effective for drying and warming. It's quite chilly here after all

EVERY room has a view!

Surprise! This menu is the same as the first one in our lunch cafe. We can eat something more than dahl and rice. Things are really looking up

Huge plate of rice $4.00, bland, but filling
we decide that we will head up as long as I have money, I brought about $US400, then head down once that's gone on Kayla's $200 stash

Moon is out, so few stars. Amazing lights down the valley. If anyone missed it, the valley is now a very long way below us

Bed at 8:30

Surprisingly comfortable. Blankets supplied

About 25000 steps according to my Google Fit

Breakfast with a view - Ban Thanti, about 2100 M

7th:

"Mustang Coffee", local booze with Yak butter or
similar body fluid
Absolutely awful

Had a "Mustang coffee" to try it with breakfast. Probably what yaks piss with pig fat tastes like. Apparently, it's also got local wine in it. Looks like rice swirling around the bottom. the chef d' cuisine gave me a funny look when I ordered it

En route to Ghorepani. A lovely easy hike

About 7:30, we head out. I'm positively leaping from step to step, and my shorts keep slipping down

Eventually, this becomes
totally normal

This is a fantastic walk, not very steep or demanding, a veritable walk in the mountains.

What was to become my "resting" mode.
Note excess stamina

There were no more tea shops after lodges, oops, that's what a guide is for, so we nearly run out of water. Luckily, it's only about 4 hours to get to Ghorepani at 2780 metres

It's a much easier walk from up here as it mainly a gentle incline with occasional lumps of steps.
We arrive just after 12:00. It's beginning to rain, so we head into the first serviceable lodge. Then it starts to pour down which lasts till about 2:00AM.

We stop for lunch: "Dhal Bat"
Lentils and rice. Note all the backpacks

We are not quite in the middle of town, actually, as we later discover, its the outskirts in the lower section, but right on the exit to tomorrow's direction

Here we have an "en suite" bog and shower, for the princely sum of $2.00

Mo mos, chilli chicken, again. We snack on one dish at a time now

Stamina appears great, we are suitably impressed with ourselves

Welcome to Ghorepani,
Gateway to Poon Hill

It continues to piss down for many more hours, bedraggled trampers trickle in, a seemingly endless stream of progressively more bedraggled hikers arrive through the day. I think i see the extra large Australian lady shuffle in around 4

it actually stops raining about 5:30. Too late to hike up another 300 metres to see a pile of cloud shrouded mountains

We're safe inside, We actually go to bed and relax and see lots of others, from our bedroom window.
there's even another group that arrives at 8:30 with flashlights, not so relaxing. it's
been dark since 6,

Pre dawn
It took a lot to convince Kayla to get up
And then, nearly an hour of uphill trekking
Here we pay our entrance fee
I guess that's Annapurna just over the next rise

We stay in bed, but get up for dinner.

Play crib. Lots of ginger lemon honey tea, a HUGE flask of it which turns out to cost $US13.00. Ooops. Plus of course, I'm up all night

7th, Ghorepani, 2860 M

Rain and high winds punctuate some of the night. It's a really comfortable sensation in a warm bed.

Just congratulating myself on perfect packing, but found I left my eye vitamins in the generic bag back in town. Oh well. Kayla will just need to help me tap my way down.

Neither of us are too keen, but we are up at 4:30. It's one hell of a hike up to Poon Hill, about another 300 metres, and REALLY hard work; cold too, but arrive just before dawn, a hot ginger tea stall. Oh bliss!

Dawn over the Himalaya's on Poon Hill. It was a close run thing, but I eventually convinced Kayla to get her arse out of bed about 4AM. Well worth it. She agreed

It's a brilliant day, about 500 - 600 folks have made it. Lots of cheering and photo ops all round

Have we bonded yet?

Well, we found it stunning, the ginger tea helped

Suns Up! One impossible
thing before breakfast
God! We are both so smug

It's an even longer walk down to the bottom for breakfast, a few other body functions on these strange Asian squat toilets. I know, you didn't need to know that

This was the bestest bit
A ginger honey tea at the top

Been there, done that!

On the way back
Note lots of sunshine

We discuss. This was after all our destination. We are both feeling really capable and exalted with the stunning views all around us.

It's an esasy descision to head out hoping to make ABC

Back on the trail, heading to Deurali, towards Tadapani. Again the down side of lodges at the bottom of the valley. Up 300 metres again, on the other side of Poon Hill this time

Just another day on the trek

A walk in the conservation area

We have amazingly perfect views from the top of the trail above Ghorepani: amazingly perfect weather.

It's much further than the map shows it to be

Mainly rock here, not much dirt track after the first lodges.

We have started thinking in terms of "friendly steps", "non judgemental steps". Etc. Kayla actually counts them. My Google fit will do that for me. Basically, anything to not think of the uphill battles ahead.

Really hard work, up and down, streams, sides of mountains

We find the map is wrong, looks like 5 km, at about 1 Km / hour, with no tea houses, between Deurali and Ban Thanti, but that turns into 1.5 hours
This one is a really hard route, up and down all day, streams, ledges, mountain paths. Incredible exhausting up to Tada Pani, arriving about 3:30

Just perfect, once you're at the top anyway

A shared Mars bar, what bliss!

Me, modelling some of the Himalayan Range, morning
Note snow line, that's last nights rain

And you carry this 8 - 10 hours a day?
Plus, hiking with only flip flops

We stop at a porters rest, a ledge by the path where the porters can relax for a bit between their up and down labours. There is one porter there, shorter than Kayla. I ask if we can try on his pack. Jesus! Its at least 25Kg,s, and totally out of balance with all the weight (typically, porters carry 3 treckers backpacks. I can just manage to stand up with it, Kayla somehow walks a bit. Programming sounds good right now.

This was about 20/ 25Kgs
Jesus!

You had better get used to these.
They get much more dangerous

The path from Tadapani is at 2630 metres, down from 3630 M at Ban Thanti. It's a beautiful walk in the evening, gentle downward slope, forests and lots of birds and leaf cover to Chuile. On the way down, we meet a long term hiker who tells us the next lodge at Chuile has one of the best views in the mountains, but usually, its totally booked up

I head off ahead of Kayla to beat the rush.

Dinner with and unsurpassed view
Chuile

After aimlessly wandering through gardens and back fields, I find the lodge. Yes, its totally booked with 2 tour groups filling all the beds (totally obnoxious Germans)

I plead, look lost, whatever works and, because we are not encumbered with a guide or porter, score a porters room. Lucked out. Just 2 beds, small window, not luxurious like the groups but perfect for us

We celebrate with a beer overlooking the valley.

Wash myself and gear, hair, rinse t shirt, dry on the line What a view, and a beer too.