Pokhara, Nepal / Ben Brown / 2nd year abroad, Asia bound. / 'Nepali Flat' for 319km.

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Ben Brown

2nd year abroad, Asia bound. separator

'Nepali Flat' for 319km.

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Pokhara, Nepal
28° 14' N 83° 58' E
Sep 05, 2007 14:55
Distance 144km

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'Nepali Flat' for 319km.

Text written in: English

I hooked up with the guide early in the morning. We got a taxi from Thamel to the public bus station to begin our 6 and ahalf hour bus journey to the start of the trekk.

Day1 Kathmandu to Bhulbhule 840m. 0730-1500. The bus stopped at Besisahar (Besi-bank, sahar-river.) where we started our first days walk only 1 and ahalf hours to the first hotel. It was a lot better than I was expecting and so were the rest on the trip.

Day2 Bhulbhule to Bharhundanda 1310m. 0830-1130. (Bhule-spring.) The start of the trekk was through rice paddies and jungle.

Day3 Bharhundanda to Chamje 1430m. 0815-1415. (Bharha-high cast, danda-hill.) We were to follow the Marsyandi for the first few days, today the river changed from an easy-ish grade4+ big volume river to a hard grade 5-6 gorge.

Day4 Chamje to Bargarchap 2160m. 0815-1500. (Barga- landslide, chap-memories.)

Day5 Bargarchap to Chame 2670m. 0845-1300. Chame is the provintial town of the Manang district and was the first dry day that we had had since we left Kathmandu. The mountains looked more alpine with Pine forrested slopes, instead of jungle, they looked like proper mountains.

Day6 Chame to Lower Pisang 3200m. 0830-1400. We saw the first snow covered mountain, the clouds disappeared long enough to see the top.

Day7 Lower Pisang to Manang 3540m. 0830-1330.

Day8 Rest and acclimatisation day. Manang was a fairly big town with very nice hotels and even a few cinemas, internet cafes and a medical bay in the high season. We trekked up the side of a near by mountain to see a glacier and the view from the top, as well as to gain some alltitude during the day.

Day9 Manang to Yak Kharka 4018m. 0800-1130. (Yak-like a cow but wollier, Kharka-sleeping) Today we left the Marsyandi, a nice river that I will have to come back and paddle again at some point, especially the upper section.

Day10 Yak Kharka to Thourong Phedi 4450m. 0800-1100. (Phedi-bottom, Thourong-the high pass the following day.)

Day11 Thoroung Phedi to Muktinath 3800m. 0545-11-15. We started out early for the Throng La Pass, one of the worlds highest passes without having to climb, at 5416m, high. Even after a few steps at this height you are out of breath. The going up was a 1000m and 3hrs hard work, and the going down was 2 and ahalf hours harder work. We ran down the 1500m.I cant beleave that you can walk for 10 and ahalf days up hill, but we did. Most people take around 7-12 hours to get over the pass so we broke the guides record for the pass.

Day12 Muktinath to Marpha 2670m. 0900-1600. (Mukti-freedom, nath-name of a god.) Muktinath was a completely different world from the last 11 days. It looks more like the news pictures from Northern Iraq/Afganistan, dry barron landscapes with hardly any growth apart from a few shrubs. Pretty. This was the lower end of Mustang. To get to Upper Mustang you need another permit that costs around $700US, some day when I retire, as well as Bhutan and the Antartic. It looks like an amazing part of the world but expensive to get to. Their is a Hindu/Bhudist temple at the top end of Muktinath as you enter the town from the pass. Before we had breakfast we headed out for the temple to see an eternal flame. Leaking natural gas from under ground causes an ever lasting flame to appear from a rock and through the water. They were hidden away under cages, so it was difficult to see them, and they weren't that impressive, you would have expected it to be a gas jet under pressure, as it was from underground but it was just a trickle of gas. Still it was intresting to see. We left at 9am descending down towards Marpha. On the way we passed a Japanesse film crew, in the distance, and then came across the Army, Army Police and Police, throwing rocks into a river that had just suddenly started flooding. May be a lake burst through its dam, but the water started to rise as we waited. We decided to help out and started chucking rocks in to the river, along with other locals and tourists, after an hour they had 2 huge piles of rocks either side of the river, and then they started to build them into 2 squarer piles and place some large planks that had been carried up stream to make a bridge. Whilst this was happening the owner of the Bob Marley Hotel in Muktinath got impatient and decided to try and drive his motorbike across. I had watched two horse walk across half an hour before when it was lower and were almost washed away, thats why I decided to wait. The pictures, when they are uploaded, will speak for them selves. When he fell of all hundred and fifty people that had gathered at the river, cheered and the 2 tourists that we filming, caught everything on video. When I get the web sites of where they have put it, I will let you know. After the cheering hard calmed down, everybody rushed into the river, to help the man, as he was still trapped under the bike, and it was under water. They managed to pull him out and the bike, and whilst the army finished the bridge, one of them helped the guy try and fix his bike. Possibly the funniest event I have seen in 2007, so far. This river joined the Kali Gandaki, which we would follow for the next few days.

Day13 Marpha to Kalopani 2530m. 0800-1400. (Marpha-Tibetan for Apple.) Strong Apple brandy, home brewed. You could still taste it 10mins later.

I went back to sleep. We left at half past 8 in the morning in pouring rain, but at least it was cooler. The sun came out once we had descended, and after lunch it was sweltering heat and high humidity again. We eventually got to the end at 3pm where we jumped in a taxi for the last 40km. The Annapurna circuit trekk is a few civilised trekk with tea houses every few hours, a mid morning tea at 10, and if you are still trekking in the afternoon, then afternoon teas as well. In another 5-10 years there won't be any trekks around the Annapurnas, as the road building that is happening at the moment will have all joined together and you will be able to get there by vicehel, may be mountain biking would be an option. After 16days walking here are a few things I forgot to mention:- 1. The best bacon butty I have had in 8 months was in Lhasa, Tibet, at the Dunya (Dunya meaning the world in 10 languages.) resturant, in fact the only bacon butty i've hard in 8months. 2. What would you expect the Himalays to be made of, some nice Yorkshire Granite, or may be Nepali Granite, or of mud stone, and may be more Mud than Stone. You've guessed it, Mudstone, the Tibetan plateu was the same, landslides and rock falls every where, they must have been alot higher a few hundred years ago or million. 3. All along the Tibetan pleatu along the route from the boarder to Lhasa, every where is a building site. The Chinese government has paid grants to every body living along the road to redesign the fronts of their houses with double glazzing and brightly coloured patterns, this means lots of building going on. Porkahara was the same as the last time that I was here, quite, no or little hassle and air you can breath. I checked into the same hotel as last time and went for a long hot shower and some thing to eat. My feet were very glad to stop walking. So to day I went to renew my visa and was told that I wasn't givern a 30day visa but only a 3day visathe last time I came into the country, it ran out a long time ago, so I have to head back to Kathmandu ealier than planned to go and sort it out, a fine and another visa, nothing to majour, but a lot of hassle. I walked up to the World Peace Pagoda today to see Porkhara from above and tomorrow, may be leave early to see the Annapurna ranges from the top of Sarangkot, a high peak near to Porkhara and paddle the Upper Seti before heading back to Kathmandu by bus the next day. So I woke up early and it was still pouring with rain from the night before. I went back to sleep again to wait for my kayaking trip later on in the day. When we got to the start of the river the guide was saying that it looked big and he wasn't wrong. The water was probably pushing at 40km plus and huge waves and holes that you couldn't miss. The grades may have been a bit higher than the 4+ that the guide books say. Any way I ended up hitting a hole that we decided that we both really didn't want to end up in, and swam at least a km of grade 5 ish (don't tell the Insurance compnay!) water. I eventually struggled to the side and started breathing again. The boat and guide now where to be seen. The guide was chasing me but got caught in a stopper and caught up with me after a while but the boat was now where to be seen. After looking for a long time we gave up and returned to the shop to explain the days events to the owner. I have found my limit and don't want to go near that again. The next river is the Sun Kosi, but not such continuous rapids, so should be a bit easier. May be I will be on the raft for most of the time. The bus leaves at 0730 tomorrwow so I must stop writing and go to bed.