Ending Time: 5:00PM
Laurence and I got a slightly later start today. It is now very cold in the morning, so waiting a bit longer to let the sun get close to cresting the mountain tops before getting started makes a rather large difference temperature-wise. We took some group photos with our Canadian friends before departing.
My friends - Laurence, Terry, Rick, John, Brian, and Martin
The path started out relatively flat and remained that way for an hour. Right before our trek turned into an hour long ascent, we encountered this structure full of mani stones.
The upside of our hour long climb was that it was no longer on steps and the grade of the hill, while steep, was manageable. The downside was that we were climbing at over 3000 m for the first time, so it wasn't easy either. I got to see my first yaks along the way!
By the time we reached the top, my legs were quite tired, and I was rather out of breath, but the view we received as a reward was well worth the effort. Today's trek also had a high pass and a low pass to choose from. The lower pass would have gotten us to Manang in a little over 4 hours since it was flatter, but we would have missed out on spectacular views.
The village of Ghyaru was located at the top of our ascent. I took a 360 video of the view from the top. The resolution isn't that great, but the primary peaks that are visible are Annapurna III, Gangapurna, Pisang Peak, Manaslu, Annapurna II, and Annapurna IV.
A close up of Pisang Peak. If you look really closely, you can just make out a path and a couple of specks in the snow. A couple of climbers were making their summit attempt.
Me with Manaslu (far left and looking rather tiny at this point) and Annapurnas II and IV behind me.
A close up of the snow between the summits of Annapurna II and Annapurna IV. Looks like an avalanche waiting to happen to me.
Annapurna II and Annapurna IV
Ghyaru
A woman in Ghyaru. It almost look slike she saw me taking her photo, but I was quite far away and using my telephoto lens, so I doubt she is really pointing at me.
Laurence and I stayed in Ghyaru for about an hour. While we were there, our Canadian friends reached the village as well. Rick sat down to rest in a rather unfortunate place :-) We said a temporary goodbye to our friends. They were only going as far as Ngawal today, whereas Laurence and I were planning to go all the way to Manang. We would see them again once they arrived in Manang the following day.
We came across several little boys along the trek playing with their "horses." This one was on the outskirts of Ghyaru.
A view of Manaslu, Annapurna II, and the valley below.
Ghyaru from afar.
The Paungda Danda rock face and other mountains soaring above Lower Pisang.
Annapurna III and Gangapurna
The walk from Ghyaru to Ngawal was easy compared to what we had encountered earlier in the day. We stopped for lunch here and had vegetable thupke, a Tibetan soup. It was really good (so good I bought a Tibetan cook book with the hopes of replicating it myself. I doubt I'll be able to get the spices right, but I will certainly give it my best shot.
The woman who owned the lodge we had lunch at was interested in having her picture taken. It was a rare treat to have someone willing to pose for a photo.
The walk from Ngawal to Manang tooka bout 2.5 hours, but was mostly flat or down hill so we were moving fairly quickly. We passed some really interesting rock formations and beautiful scenery along the way.
Our arrival in Manang at 5PM made this our longest day yet. My legs were very tired, so I was really happy that tomorrow was to be a rest and acclimitization day. The thought of staying two nights in the same place was incredibly appealing.
We had gotten the name of the lodge our Canadian friends were to be staying in once they reached Manang from their guide Pashupadi, so we headed there to acquire a room as well. We were able to get a very tiny double room (the last one available) with the promise that we could move to a larger room in the morning (it was going to have a private toilet!). We later found out that Sarah, who had arrived much earlier than us, had been turned away from this lodge and that all of the rooms in Manang were filled by 1:30PM. I'm not quite sure how Laurence came to acquire this room. I think traveling as a pair was certainly helping (the lodges make the majority of their money from the food they sell, not the rooms, so filling all of the beds in their rooms is to their benefit), but I think we had a bit of luck on our side as well.
For dinner, we tried a couple of traditional Manang dishes: Kepra Kea (mashed buckwheat with vegetable curry) and Khoo (Manang stew - yak meat, potatoes, and rice soup). They were both good, but I really liked the Khoo. Yak meat is pretty good (even though the pieces were really tiny). It tastes like chicken, just kidding, it really tastes a lot like beef - surprise, surprise. There is an airport near Manang (in the village of Humde on the lower pass just before it meets back up witht he upper pass), so the variety of food, including vegetables, is far greater than what we had encountered over the last few days. There were are several bakeries in Manang, so we indulged on apple crumble, apple pie, cinnamon rolls, apple danishes, and other pastries during our time there. I don't think we took tea or ate a meal without having something from the bakery. It was such a nice treat.
Sarah and a New Zealander named Anthony joined us after dinner. We had a nice chat and then had the treat of a musical performance. A couple of the porters from one of the trekking groups played guitar and sang western and Nepali pop music. Laurence and stayed up listening to them until after 11PM. We were so lucky to be there that evening because they were leaving Manang the next morning.
1 comment:
Day 6, I'm debating now... should I read the rest of what's up today or save for tomorrow... ? That picture of the Nepali woman, is beautiful. It was nice to see a PERSON in all of that beautiful scenery you were passing.
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