Trek trek trekking

Some details first....

Our trek was 5 days
We carried our own packs (we had no porter!)

Here i am on Day 1. Pack on my back (with sleeping bag attached) and camera bag on my front. Jeans are not usual trekking pants, i know, but it was so very freezing in the morning when we left. I was even trekking with thermal top under my t-shirt.

We went without a guide for the 5 days (it would be very hard to get lost)

We did the Ghorepani (altitude of 2874m), and Poon Hill (3210m) trek and also changed from the 'normal' route and added in a visit to Tatopani (1189m) where we thoroughly enjoyed the hot springs. :)

Here is a misspelled tourist information board which we found along our path before reaching Hile on Day 1. Most signs and menus have at least one spelling error and they can provide a few laughs. This is fairly standard all over asia actually.

The first day of our trek began very early with a taxi ride from Pokhara (915m) to Naya Pul and then we walked a 1/2 hour or so to the real starting point of the trek at Birethani. At Birethani, we had our trekking permits checked and signed into the register of the Park/trekking region.

We then walked for 5 hours, uphill, up the side of the valley, passing Hile and then onto Tikhe Dhunga (1577m). It was here where we had planned on originally stopping for the night and calling it a day. We heard that the steps onward from Tikhe Dhunga (which would have been the start of our day 2) were extemely steep and feeling like we still had energy left and enough sunlight, we decided to continue uphill onto Ulleri and stay there for our first night.

Well, it was unbelievably difficult!!! We were proud of ourselves for accomplishing it, happy that it behind us and wasn't going to be the start of day 2 just after breakfast and............ we were utterly exhausted! The dinner meal we had was completely delicious probablybecause we were so so HUNGRY. Ok..... maybe it was delicious but by this late stage i think cardboard would have tasted fabulous, we were that hungry.

So... more on "the steps".......

From Tikhe Dhunga the trail crosses a stream on a suspension bridge and then ascends a SUPER STEEP, LACTIC ACID INDUCING, KILLER stone staircase (which has about 3300 steps) up to the large village of Ulleri at 2080m.

Donkeys blocking our path just before we embarked on "the steps"

The killer steps took us approx 2 hours and by the end we took the first guesthouse we saw upon reaching Ulleri (as did everyone else who came up the steps after us!)

Day 2 from Ulleri to Ghorepani was actually quite mild (especially when compared to Day 1). We passed through lush rainforest-like paths and waterfalls in addition to small villages throughout the day. We found a room in Ghorepani with fabulous views and got an early night, excited for our sunrise climb the following morning to Poon Hill.

One of the waterfalls along our way (Day2)

And another. If you look closely you can see Do

Just one of the spectacular views we were blessed with on our 2nd day

And another.

This puppy walked with us for most of the day. He's a great poser don't you think?

And another

We woke up on Day 3 at 4.45am, and left at 5am, in orderto make it up the top of Poon Hill in time to see the sunrise. We actually made it up there in under 45 mins, in the dark with our torches and were the first atop the lookout tower that day. The views were breathtaking....

From Poon Hill you can see an unobstructed view of sunrise over the Himalayas.

We were very chiffed even of it was FREEZING up there. We were well rugged up but even so my fingers went numb and my nose went red.

Waitng for Sunrise

Very proud of ourselves and extemely satisfied with the view

After spending 45 mins or so at Poon Hill taking in the views, we descended down again to Ghorepani for breakfast before heading downhill, for the whole day!! Downhill may be less exhausting but these were killer step too which were fairly hard on the knees and ankles. But we made it happily and rested for the night in a small village (forgotten the name) for another day of downhill steps to Tatopani.

Village boy carrying a load of dried grass down some steps. All the porters and mountain people of Nepal carry loads like this.

Another village boy on his way to school. He was smiling before i took the photo. I still wonder why kids in mongola, nepal and india look so serious when you take their picture.

A group of Nepalese school kids who were happy to pose for a photo.

Day 4 was also downhill (huge crazy steps) and we were thankful that we did the trek the way we did because these steps the other way (uphill) would have been a nightmare!

A huge highlight of the trip was reaching Tatopani and soaking ourselves (til our fingers looked like prunes) in the hot springs. The food was also most delicious in Tatopani and it was a fabulous location to spend our last night of the trek.

The view from Tatopani. For reference, 1 euro= 93 Nepalese Rupees. So this was rather pricey fior washing, especially when we paid only 65 rupees per kilo in Pokhara.

Day 5 was almost flat as we made our way back to Beni from Tatopabi where we caught a local bus back to Pokhara and slept soundly at Hotel Angel once again.

This photo was taken out of the bus window ono our way back to Pokhara

Here is a photo of Monica, a delightful girl we befriended in Pokhara. She was very happy to pose for me and nearly jumped into our arms, giving us hugs as we said goodbye before catching our bus to the Nepalese/Indian border at Sunauli.