11/4/08 - Day 14 - Kokhethanti to Tatopani

Kokhethanti Elevation: 8,320 ft

Tatopani Elevation: 3,904 ft

Daily Distanced Walked: 14.3 miles

Total Distance Walkd: 113.7 miles

Starting Time: 8:00AM

Ending Time: 5:00PM

I think today was our longest day yet, at least distance-wise.  As we walked to the next village, Lete, we discussed our plans for the day.  We decided we would stop in Rukse Chhahara or, if we were feeling good, Dana.  That would ahve made our day about 6-7 hours long.  We also discussed how we thought the people in Lete, about 45 minutes away, were mad for going all the way to Tatopani in one day.  

Images from Kalapani and Lete, neighboring villages.

It's funny how things change.  We reached Ghasa instead of the 4 hours that our maps estimated.  It took us a while to be convinced we were even in Ghasa because some of the signs at the lodges said Ghansa.  Our original plan was to stop here for lunch, but since it was still so early we decided to continue on for a bit more.  Around noon we reached the village of Tal Bagar and stopped for lunch.

Radishes being prepared to be dried.

Free range chicken at the lodge we stopped at for lunch.

The change in the flora and fauna since Jomosom had been incredible.  Jomosom was almost desert-like, even a bit desolate.  By the end of yesterday, we were in a pine forest and as we descended towards Tatopani signs of a tropical climate began to reappear.  We are seeing lots of flowers now ad the butterflies and beginning to return.  

An apiary we passed along the way.  Honey - yum.

While the plant and animal life is becoming more diverse, the trek itself is a bit depressing.  The near completion of the road between Jomosom and Beni and signs that tourism is decreasing along the trek are obvious.  The villages are not as nice as those on the other side of the Thorung La pass even though this is the more "developed" part of the trek.  Many lodges we have passed have been closed and we have seen very few other trekkers since we left Jomosom.  It seems that most trekkers either fly out of Jomosom or take a jeep to Beni.  I'm happy to be walking this segment of the trek because I would have missed so much by flying out of Jomosom.  (I can't say I would have missed the jeeps and motorbikes on the road though, but at least we are only on the road about half of the time.)  I imagine it will not be long before the Jomosom trek ceases to exist.  All of the villages along that have adapted to providing services for the trekkers will have to adapt and their residents will have to find a new way to support themselves and their families.  I'm not entirely convinced that in this case the road is atually progress.

A section of the trek that wasn't on the road.

The village of Kopchepani.

The waterfall in Rukse Chharhara.

We reached Rukse Chharhara around 3:00PM and didn't even consider stopping for the evening.  We were in Dana by 4:00PM and sat down to discuss our options.  We were tired, but pushing on for another hour to Tatopani would reward us with a dip in the hot springs as well as provide us witht the ability to cut and upcoming 1700 m (5500 ft) climb to Ghorepani into 2 days.  We decided to press on to Tatopani.  We laughed at ourselves for thinking the people leavign from Lete were crazy when at the end of the day we walked even longer and farther.

A home in Dana.

Mules transporting chickens.

A river coming down from the mountains (the blue one) meeting up with the river coming from Jomosom (the brown one - the Kali Gandaki).

Once we had our room in Tatopani, we immediately dug out our swimsuits and headed down to the hot springs.  It felt fantastic to soak in the hot water.  (Interesting fact - Tato is the Nepali word for hot and Pani is the Nepali word for water.)  We stayed until 6:00PM and then headed back to our room, whihc is the most "luxurious" room we've hadon the entire trek.  It has its own bathroom, complete with a western toilet and a hot shower!  The shower felt fantastic - much better than the bucket from the night before.  We splurged a bit on dinner and ate chicken and even got "apple strudle" for desert.  What they called apple strudle and what would call apple strudle are two very different things.  What was had was doughy with a few apples in the middle.  The food in Tatopani was only okay.  I think we had much better in Muktinath and even last night in Kokhethanti, and the pastries were much better in Manang.

We are planning to sleep in tomorrow and leave Tatopani around lunch time for Shikha, about a 3 hour walk away according to our maps.  It seems like a lazy day, but we will gain 700 m in elevation.

Today was the first day we've had clouds in the morning, and they remained all day.  It even rained a bit again tonight.  Today should have been our first glimpse of Annapurna I, but the clouds were obscuring the mountains.  I do hope the weather clears tomorrow because we will be turning east and the Annapurnas should come into full view soon.

Another interesting fact - Tatopani was the lowest elevation we reached in the Kali Gandaki gorge, the deepest in the world.  It lies between Dhaulagiri and Annapurna I, both 8,000+ m peaks.