The Kali Ghandaki Trail

The trek was amazing. 70 miles in 8 days, walking through the deepest gorge in the world,

 around the amazing Annapurna, Nilgiri and Dhaulagiri mountain ranges and reaching an elevation of 4,800 meters.   Although we saw so much, there is much more to see as the scenery changes dramatically from village to village. The trek started in Nayapul and ended in Muktinath. We played on bamboo swings with Nepali children, drank Tibetan tea in a woman's kitchen, visited 550 year old Buddhist monasteries and slept in a local house in Tatopani when the lodges filled up. There were plenty of trekkers on the path, most going opposite of us completing the final days of the Annapurna Circuit Trek, a 14-21 day circular trek around the entire range.

Day 1: Nayapul to Ulleri. 5 hours, ascending 800 meters, and a minimum of  300 flights of stairs. The trek was adjacent to the Bhurungdi Khola river through a rich jungle filled with hillside villages and pony's carrying supplies up and down the mountain. This day provided the most difficult mental challenge. After ascending 3 hours of stairs in the later part of the day, I made a joke about the never ending staircase, and Javed (the guide) responded by stating the stairs continued to Poon Hill. Poon Hill was a day and a half away. I knew I was in trouble because I found myself excited when I took 4 or 5 steps on flat ground opposed to 12" high steps. In Ulleri we hung out with school kids and I felt like a wimp when I discovered my painful afternoon walk was their daily walk home from school. After dinner, my intoxicated porter led Nepalese dancing in the kitchen, which was a stand-alone building with a wood burning fire used to cook.

Day 2: Ulleri to Ghorepani. 4 hours, ascending 1,000 meters. I woke up to a view of Annapurna 1, which was followed by a manageable walk with slow ascents and reasonable stair climbs. Javed had set me up to fear this day, but, thankfully, it wasn't that bad. Although it seemed more crowded than the day before, it was a great walk with scenery much like day 1. We arrived at Ghorepani early and were able to enjoy the day and the views of the Dhaulagiri mountain range from the lodge. Shortly after I went to bed, I woke to Micheal Jackson's Beat It playing loudly in the lodge restaurant. I went down to check it out. The lodge was filled with Australians and Nepalese doing shots of whiskey and dancing, poorly, to cheesy American music. At one point there was a Conga line. I am sad to say that after I made 6-8 rejection attempts, I was forced to join the Conga line. This was, by far, my darkest moment on the Trek.

Day 3: Morning trip to Poon Hill then Ghorepani to Tatopani. 8 hours ascending 400 meters then descending 1,000 meters. In the morning we got up at 4:30 am (ouch) and went to Poon Hill to see the sunrise. The colors of the sun were amazing, changing from red to yellow to white. The 180-degree view of the Dhaulagiri and Annapurna mountain ranges was outstanding.  Descending down the hillside through the villages was the first time I realized how far away from civilization we were. Although there are small medical stations along the way, it is a good 2 day walk to a major town. Initially, I was very excited for the decent, thinking it would be a piece of cake compared to the uphill climbs we'd been making. How wrong I was. Going down is as hard, if not harder, then going up. But, the hillside scenery more than made up for the pain.When we got to Tatopani, I was wrecked and looking forward to a hot shower and some r&r. I was in for a rude awakening when Javed told me the lodges were fully booked and the only 'room' he could find was a tent on the roof of a restaurant located next to a lodge. There were no other tents around my 'room' and the bathroom was down a spiral staircase, through a patio, through a hallway.....I fought back tears of pain and exhaustion. Shortly after, he found a room in a local house.  Even though the bed was no more than a piece of wood with a blanket, I was ecstatic I was not staying on the roof of a building. The evening went in a strange direction when David, the porter, decided to mix alcohol and Hindu prayer. At first I thought I was not understanding the Hindu culture, as he sounded possessed and angry. When our host started voicing her concern, I knew we had a problem. 

Day 4: Tatopani to Ghasa. 5 hours ascending 800 meters. We woke to views of Nilgiri.  On this day, I found I could no longer pass the ponies who were hauling supplies to the villages. I was losing steam and felt like they were on my heals the whole day, taunting me for going slow. The walk to Ghasa started in the deepest gorge in the world with the adjacent hills standing approximately 2,500 meters above the trail. The views of the mountain ranges continued most of the day along with beautiful waterfalls, the best being a multi-tiered fall at Chhaharo. The unfortunate mixture of alcohol and prayer continued this evening and Javed sent home porter number 1.

Day 5: Ghasa to Tukuche. 5 hours ascending 600 meters. Javed hired a local villager, Kuber, as the porter and we headed out for more fantastic views of Dhaulagiri and Nilgiri. As we were walking around the mountains, every turn on the path offered a new amazing view. Kuber followed me closely and would reach out to grab me each time I stumbled. Because my inherent clumsiness is exacerbated by looking around while walking on a rocky path, this happened quite frequently. Either he was a uniquely nice guy or he was hoping to appear to save my life and get a great tip. I was torn between the two possibilities as most of the time he tried to catch me, I had barely moved and was in no danger yet he seemed genuine.   The mountain scenery was followed by a wide river bed surrounded by pine trees and more mountains. In Tukuche, we stayed at the Dutch Bakery and the lodging was fantastic. Many other trekkers had commented it was the best on the Annapurna Circuit, and it did not disappoint. Great room, shower and food. Even the mouse running around the second floor common area didn't ruin the atmosphere. Tukuche is an old hub for Himalayan transport to and from Tibet. The homes were all made of stone and many were abandoned. The village population is only about 500, but some of the friendliest people on the trek.

Day 6: Tukuche to Kagbeni. 5 hours ascending 200 meters.  This trip was typically, 'Nepali flat,' which means lots of small ups and downs on a rocky path.  The day started following the river with hillside views, but quickly dried up. As we approached Jomson, the dirt road, used for jeep transport starting in Tatopani and continuing to Muktinath, started to get old. It was dusty, windy and the most bland scenery of the trek. In Jomsom, we picked up one of Javed's friends, Niken, who joined us for the remainder of the trip. He was a great addition to the group. Kagbeni was a nice village located on the edge of Upper Mustang, the northern most area of Nepal, bordering Tibet and forbidden to tourists unless you have a guide and pay $500 to $700 USD. We snuck in and climbed a nice size hill for a great view of the forbidden area.

Day 7: Kagbeni to Muktinath. 5 hours ascending 1,000 meters. The walk was slow and steep mostly surrounded by gorgeous desert hills. As we approached Jharkot (about 30 minutes below Muktinath and pictured on the right) there were beautiful fall trees with the desert and the Himalayas as a backdrop. It was an amazing combination of colors. When we made it to Muktinath, the end point of the journey, it couldn't have felt better - we made it! Walking around, we happened to come across the slaying of a Yak. Thinking it would be a cultural experience, I anxiously watched. It was awful. The lower caste of Hindus have a ritualistic killing of the yak that involves tieing up it's legs, sitting on it's head and wrenching a knife into it's heart until it dies. The process took about 30 minutes. We only stayed for 5 then went to hang out with the live Yaks, who retreated down the hillside to hide from their ultimate fate. When we returned, the Yak was dead and they were sawing off his hoofs. The next day we saw the end product, a bare rib cage laying on the ground. The Nepali's use every part of the Yak, there is no waste. I kindly rejected the Yak momos on the lunch menu. The village of Muktinath was not as nice as Jharkot, so we decided to head back down and stay in Jharkot. A few days earlier, Javed had noticed that our trek had an extra day in it. It was supposed to be 8 days, flying home on the 9th, but we had booked 9 days, flying home on the 10th. So we had an extra day to explore the Muktinath area.  This day we lost porter number 2 to foot problems.  It was a sign that I needed to carry my own bag.

Day 8: Day Hike from Jharkot. 6 hours ascending then descending 1,000 meters. We reached our highest point of about 4,800 meters. It was amazing! It only took about 2 1/2 hours to get up an extremely steep hillside, with no real trail. Being with two Nepalese, I was by far the slowest and most cautious. Theses guys went up and down like they'd been doing it for years. 

On the way down, we side tracked and went back to Muktinath to see the Muktinath Temple. This is one of the holiest Hindu temples in the world and many Indians take pilgrimages here. Although the temple is mainly Hindu, it also has a Buddhist and Bon temple. Bon is a Tibetan derivative of Buddhism. By far the best part was hanging out with the Sadhu Baba, known as Baba to the Nepalese and seen to the right smoking tobacco from the horn of an animal. A Baba is in the fourth phase of Hindu life and gives up material attachments to live in caves and temples searching for liberation through meditation and contemplation of God.  Basically, a Hindu hippie.

We took a jeep to Jomsom and flew back to Pokhara on a very small, seemingly unreliable, propeller plane that navigated it's way through the narrow gorge.  Thankfully, it was only a 15-minute ride.