NEPAL 04.09.12 Trek Day # 4 Ghorepani to Tadapani

Dear Friends

This day, which turned out to be our longest and most difficult, began with a knock on our door at 6:00 AM from Jawane, who urged us to come out in front of the Nice View Lodge to watch the sunrise light up the Himalayan peaks to the north.  We were already dressed, one of the benefits of an early bedtime. I grabbed my jacket, headlamp, and iPhone and hurried downstairs, through the dining room, and outside.  The sun had just begun to lighten the sky from behind Annapurna south.  Other huge peaks were being gradually revealed from west to east, with a pink light first illuminating the southeastern face of Dhaulagiri.   

The first morning light illuminates the formidable Dhaulagiri

As I scanned the peaks, enthralled by the unfolding of a majestic scene, I heard a faint sound coming from my right pants pocket.  When I pulled out my iPhone, I was delighted to hear clearly one of my favorite pieces, the Brahms Piano Quintet. Somehow, in the process of grabbing my phone, sticking it in my pocket, and running downstairs, I had “selected” iTunes -> artists -> Brahms -> Piano Quintet -> III movement.  I could never repeat this happy accident of picking out the perfect music to accompany this striking mountain scenery, but hearing Brahms in the Himalaya brought forth a bounty of tears from my grateful heart.  I felt complete at 6:20 AM.

Two good friends shooting the dawn light on the Himalayas 

-- 

Dick and Karma as silouettes at the Nice View Guest House

            We set off for Tadapani right after breakfast.  We walked through the slate-paved streets of the village and tried not to slip on the 2-3 inches of hail that had fallen the prior afternoon and evening.  We moved uphill with a throng of trekkers and along a ridge that crested at 10,600 feet. In a clearing there was a resting place for porters surrounded by blooming rhododendron trees and grazing horses.

[Short] Nepali Girls can be porters too.The center porter's pink sweater matches the rhododendron blossoms in the background and contrasts to her HUGE blue backpack.

Three horses, scores of flowering rhododendron trees, and in the background
two of the several splendid "Annapurnas" -- Annapurna South and Annapurna II

As we kept moving upwards, the hail got deeper, and the clouds enclosed and cooled our ridge.  We were most thankful today for our trekking poles to help us descend through the hail and tree roots on the slippery descent from the ridge.  As you know by now, when you trek in Nepal, you walk where people make their living by farming and animal husbandry as well as taking care of trekkers.  So it should not have surprised us – but it did – to be accompanied on this high trail by some cows who were as curious about us as we were about them.

Dick, Donna, and Dorje say hello to a local cow.  Three porters f
rom another group descend the trail behind them

We continued relentlessly (of course!) down hill – today’s hike featured 2,300 ft. of descent vs. 1,800 ft. of ascent – past the tempting snack and knitwear stalls at Deorali to follow a beautiful stream before we broke our hike at Banthanti for lunch.  [Add another 1,500 to both the ascent and descent if, like Maisie and Sky, you got up at 4:30 and joined the line of hikers to Poon Hill to see the panorama of peaks.]

Karma leads a typical rocky downhill segment of the trail along a stream and, I imagine, was wishing someone would build more stairs here

Our lunch stop was welcomed by all, and we retreated to the warmth of the inside dining area where, as always, Jawane took our order and gave it to the cooks at the tea house.  Jawane and our porters and helpers stayed outside for their meals.  Brrrrr.  After our filling feast, Donna and Karma shared the bench beneath two cloth cradles  for a nap,  You can see the bench under the left of the two cradles that hang from the ceiling near the wood stove. Inside the cradles were newborn twin baby girls and after Donna and Karma woke up, their mother came in to rock them with such vigor that I imagined she was getting them ready for careers as trapeze artists in the (imaginary) Banthanti Flying Circus. 

Karma and Donna's napping bench is under these two "hammock cradles" that karma is photographing -- you can see his camera's viewing screen in the  lower right of this image.

            We continued to walk along a stream, climbing to a ridge, and then descending to the next valley (repeat as necessary to reach your goal in the Himalayas).  If you still have the email with the trek map, you will notice the trail crossing three tightly grouped contour lines before reaching Tadapani --The Lonely Planet trekking guide accurately describes this as “climbing again dishearteningly.”  Our lighthearted, gently teasing trail companions kept us from despair and we arrived at the Grand View [this time a most apt name] Hotel before the afternoon thunderstorms began.

            The Grand View Lodge was full of merry trekkers from New Zealand, Sweden, the US, Britain, and Australia and their Nepalese guides and porters who arranged themselves around the 50-gallon barrel wood stove.  At Donna’s invitation, after dinner we all joined in to sing “Happy Birthday to Karma” and passed around the dark chocolates piled high on a dinner plate decorated with rhododendron blossoms that was served in lieu of a birthday cake.  Happy # 73 to a great guy!

Karma smiles and holds up his birthday t-shirt as Donna passes his birthday chocolates – the blur in front of the shirt – to the to the crowd.

Namaste, Marian (Chico, CA 05/14/12)