NEPAL 040612 Trek Day #1: Naya Pul to Hille

Hello Everyone

We bundled into our van at the hotel in Pokara at 8:00 AM and drove to Naya Pul where the trail starts.  Karma and Donna were remembering that on their trek in this same area, the WALK started near Pokara and there was no road to Naya Pul.  As we were to learn, roads are a mixed blessing to the communities along the trekking routes in the Annapurna area – making access easier in emergencies, but reducing the work opportunities for porters and the number of visitors to trail-side lodges.

Here is the "wilderness trail head" at the Hotel Buddha at the bus stop in Naya Pul where our van left us = 6 Trekkers, 3 porters, 2 helpers, and Jawane, our guide and "Chief Operations Officer." 

Hotel Buddha, Naya Pul, Nepal

As you can see we were neither isolated nor alone :-) but could have a beer (Everest in the blue sign) or a Coke. The hotel lavatory was an important destination and to get there we walked through the family bedroom area where there was a very wrinkled, very old grandmamma who smiled and returned my offering of a "Namaste" and bow. 

At the "trailhead, the first order of business for the porters was to divide our six duffels into three loads and include enough plastic wrap to protect them in case of rain, which came to cool us every afternoon.

 

Our first order of business was to comemorate this moment with some photos.  Here are karma, his daughter Maisie, and her husband Sky.

Karma, Maisie, and Sky at the Hotel Buddha

Our day's walk began down "main street" Naya Pul, a dirt thoroughfare shared by Trekkers, heavily laden porters, townsfolk on their daily rounds, and, among other vehicles, pickup trucks stacked with cages of chickens being sold on the spot into the strong hands of local women or delivered to homes, stores, or restaurants. Music blared from the shops and people washed their faces at the pumps between buildings. We got our first sitings of the porters who we would share the trails with and the enormous loads they carry.

A porter and his load in Naya Pul.  As  you can guess from the banana tree style vegetation, this is a warm area.  Frankly, it was very warm for hiking and I spent a lot of time really dripping until I "got it" that I needed to slow down.

At the end of town we crossed the Burungdi -- or Bhurungdi, as I never am sure where an “h” is going to appear in a Napali word -- (River) on a substantial suspension bridge to Birethanti and headed up a what??!) that roughly followed the river. What surprised us as much as the road itself was being passed as we trudged uphill by taxis and Land Rovers carrying full loads of locals in both directions. We were accompanied on foot by other Trekkers with their guides and porters through the warm bamboo forest and made many stops for water and photography before arriving in a little valley for lunch along the river at Sudami. 

Lunch treats we're our first introduction to the Chinese + Nepali + Indian + "Continental" menu offerings we would meet at every lodge. I think that between the six of us we ate our first “tea house trekker’s” lunch from each menu section (continent) that was offered. We also enjoyed some great birding as we waited for our freshly prepared meals to arrive: brilliantly colored king fishers dove into the river from the bushes to hunt for their lunches and wagtails hopped among and onto the boulders. Refreshed, we moved on to our overnight destination, the See You Lodge in Hille. 

We arrived at the lodge just as a vigorous thunderstorm began pelting the area with huge raindrops and even a few hailstones. Hot tea warmed us as we offered modest prayers of thanks that we were not staying in one of the 20 blue tents that had been pitched on the village's camping terrace -- tucked among the actively farmed plots – and seen in the image below.

The most charming feature of our pleasantly dry-in-spite-of-the-rain life in the “See You Lodge” were the sights and sounds that came from the hillside pasture behind it:  a herd seven or eight white pack horses was grazing and resting on the terraces there after their day’s work had finished.  Each had a bell on its neck to remind anyone of their presence on the moonlit hillside should they, for any reason during the night, need to wander from the dining table or their room to the shower/WC/sink area.   Those charming hillside bells reminded me of camping in Switzerland during the summer of 1977. 

In spite of the walls between our rooms being very thin and creating that intimate tent camping sense of “dreaming with your neighbor,” we all slept well, soothed by memories of the day’s sights and the mellow tiredness of our first walk among the Himalayan foothills. 

Namaste to you all, Marian 

(Chico, CA written on 05/12/12)