10/29/08 - Day 8 - Manang to Yak Kharka

Yak Kharka Elevation: 13, 140 ft

Manang Elevation: 11,614 ft

Daily Distance Walked: 5.6 miles

Total Distance Walked: 61.5 miles

Starting Time: 8:45AM

Ending Time: 1:30PM

We have a few relatively short days ahead of us as we build up to the pass at Thorung La.  We again said a temporary good bye to our Canadian friends.  They still had their acclimatization day in Manang before they departed for Ledar and then on to High Camp.  Laurence and I really wanted to go over the pass with them, so we added an extra day on our trek to the pass.  We would go to Yak Kharka today, stop in Thorung Phedi for a night, and then rejoin our friends at High Camp the day before going over the pass.

Terri, Pashupadi, John, Rick, and Brian in the bakery at our lodge (The Tilicho Hotel) in Manang.  That's a marijuana plant behind them - it was quite literally everywhere.

We came upon a caravan of mules as we headed out of Manang.  Laurence and I both stopped in the road to take photos of them.  Unintentionally, we caused a bit of an ordeal for the mule driver.  Because we were standing in their path, they decided to change direction.  You can see the one in front turning off to our right, but most of them turned to our left and headed back around the all of the prayer wheels to where they had come from.

Upon exiting Manang, we came across a brilliantly turquoise lake.  Khangsar Kang is the mountain on the right.

The river got narrower and narrower as we gained elevation.  Gangapurna is in the background.

We encounter a group of mountain goats along our way along with several other critters, including wild blue sheep, a weasel, some quail-like birds, and a little rodent that looked a bit like a guinea pig.

We also found some pretty flowers.

The trail heading towards Yak Kharka.

We stopped  for a break in the village of Ghyanchang.  Instead of having tea as we usually did, we decided to try seabuckthorn juice.  We had been seeing these bushes along the trek but weren't sure what they were until their juice started appearing on menus.  It was pretty tasty, but I can't think of anything else that I've had that they taste like.

We arrived in Yak Kharka fairly early in the day, but still had less than two hours before we lost the sun behind the mountains.  We took the opportunity to sit outside while we ate our lunch.  The Dutch women we had met in Chamje were staying at the same lodge, so we were able to catch up with them while we ate.