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| No more swirling stars this morning,
but I had a butterfly. Knowing that rain usually starts
to pour at noon; we hit the road at 6.30am today hoping
to cover as far as we could. |
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| Rishi pointed a few lodges that
appeared tiny at a distant end and said "Look, Tadapani,
our destination for today. Not far, crossing a few hills
and rivers and we are there". Yeah right! |
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| This was the lowest elevation
of our day. I had already lost track of the many names
of Khola (river) we had crossed. Total of nine leeches
crawled up our hiking sticks today, but no victims. |
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| Corn drying on a tall rack. Obviously
this is a crow-free village. |
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| We were at the foothill of Tadapani
now, another 2.5 hours more of steep ascent before reaching
the forest bound village. At times we trekked along steep
ridges, and we never dared to look down at the valley
that has no end. |
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| His neck muscles must be very
strong. I gradually leaned forward like them as well,
after days of carrying my heavy camera daypack. |
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| Kids that are never camera-shy.
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| Big eyes and big mouth mask,
for their harvest festival maybe. |
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| The horses that traveled from
one village to another, carrying heavy loads. |
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| The final stretch of the forest
we had to pass through. You might laugh at how slow I
walked. I was fully drained after long hours of steep
climb. Well, it was good to be so close to nature though.
I hugged the trees hoping to have my body ions neutralized,
theoretically this should give me a sound sleep tonight. |
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| The stop for tonight - again
we picked the highest lodge in the village. The rain poured
hard again right after we settled down. |
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| Yes, rice please! I was starving
after the energy-draining trek. |
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The porters' time.
Looking for hot shower? I had the hottest bath in my life
at this lodge, I guess the cold water tap didn't function
well and the shower hose was filled up solely with burning
hot water. Not complaining, it was still better than showering
with icy cold water, especially in a freezing temperature
at 2540m. |
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| The Tadapani village. It's not
a permanent settlement, more for trekkers like us to rest
for the night before moving on to the next destination.
Trekkers come and go everyday and their different faces
can never be remembered by the locals. |
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| I had a good chat with the sweet
daughter of the lodge owner today. She is 15 years old
and studying at Kathmandu. The long Dasain and Tihar festive
break gave her an opportunity to return to her hometown
Tadapani. Her dream is to further her study at a university
in Australia, and become a nurse to serve her countrymen
in the hill areas of Nepal. She was very much interested
in the pictures of my Nepal Insight Guide. She probably
never knew that her country is so beautiful in the eyes
of outsiders. |
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| Twin rainbows after the rain.
Behind the clouds was an excellent view of the Himalayas
from Annapurna to Macchapucchre. I wished I had supernatural
power to see through the wall of clouds. Not looking good,
another two more days and I would be at Poon Hill. With
these gloomy skies I wondered what it had to offer. Lets
pray hard! |
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