adventure – Page 3 – Break shackles

The solitude of Khopra ridge – Dobato

28th April, 2025

The views of the Annapurna Himalayas, late in the previous evening, raised our hopes of clear weather, but when I woke up at 5 AM and cast a look outside, my hopes were dashed. Dense fog engulfed every object. I prepared to hike under the gloomy cast of fog and mist for the entire day and just prayed that rain stayed away. Today’s hike was supposed to be longer than yesterday. In fact, today was the first day of full hiking. It would take us to one of the high points on the trail, Dobato. The next morning, we were supposed to hike up to the Muldai view point, which is one of the highest in these regions, promising to offer panoramic Himalayan views. But with the overcast conditions like this, it could be a futile exercise. Ranjan da was already contemplating skipping Muldai view point hike, given the weather conditions, but I decided to defer it till the actual time as one never knows when weather turns merciful, especially, in the mountains. See for a fact, who knew that it’d open up last evening, given the conditions we went through during earlier parts of the day? Hence, I was not ready to throw the towel in yet.

Yugal, our guide, shared a grim information about the death of two laborers high up beyond Dobato, electrocuted by a sudden lightning strike. Apparently, it happened during the brief spell of downpour when we were under the shelter of Bhainsi Kharka yesterday. These laborers were paving stones while establishing a trail towards the “hidden lake”, an side excursion from Dobato. I kept thinking about it while getting prepared for the day’s hike. Once I entered the dining space, all concentration was on the breakfast and the cheerful conversations from fellow hikers from other groups made me divert my attention to the present. We ordered bread toasts along with soup for our breakfast. We asked for two cups hot water to dip the tea bags we carried along with us to prepare our morning tea (that saved at least 100 NPR) and this was a pattern we repeated in the mornings and evenings on everyday of our trek. Nevertheless, after breakfast, we filled our bottles with lukewarm water and hit the trail. The target was still to reach Dobato before lunch. I always face a dilemma about whether or not to put on my jacket during a hike. This is something which I haven’t been able to sort out even after so many treks. The conditions at the start (unless it’s a bright sunny day) mandates wearing it and today was no exception (given the prevailing cloud and mist), but after one starts the hike, the body heats up and causes immense sweating. There have been instances where I’ve taken it off, only to put it on again after winds sent down a chill through the body (especially when one rests at intervals). Hence, the conclusion seems to be to put it on (unless it’s a sunny day) and ignore the sweat. Sweat is a significant factor to consider because once you reach the destination, all your clothes get wet and there are no simple ways to get them dried in these moist mountain climate. The only option is to hang them up near the fireplace at the dining space. Even there, one has to compete for space with other hikers. I also keep a close watch on my backpack. It needs enough space to carry my camera (when there aren’t any chances of snaps), a one litre bottle filled with water, rain coats and sometimes, space for the jacket (when it’s impossible to wear it). This time around, I deliberately chose a smaller bag and left the relatively larger one at Pokhara with some clothes and other items deemed redundant during the trek. That helped reducing the weight of it during the hike.

We started our hike among the mist and visibility was reduced to just the trail and everything around it was behind the shield. After an intial stroll along an adulating track, it started moving up and we were presented with stair cases. Stair cases paved by varied sizes of rocks are a commonplace in the routes spanning the Annapurna sanctuary area. They are a way to shorten the trails, but they take a toll on the hikers’ lungs. Distance gets traded off for angle of slope and I’m not so sure if that helps reducing time. Coming down such slopes also puts stress on the knees and we’ve had some of these tracks during later phases of the trek. Nevertheless, I kept plodding ahead and very soon found myself alone with the mountains (which is always the case in every trek). These are phases where you don’t talk, but introspect about a lot of things. It could be about the trail for the day, the entire trek, some upcoming elements of it, which could be risky to traverse or in general, about life. Unlike earlier treks, this time around, my mind wasn’t able to shelve the prevailing tensions in the current affairs of the country and they kept hovering in my mind while walking.

After sometime, the sun came out and there was some brightness around, but the clouds continued to prevail at the higher altitudes. The Himalayan snow views were out of reach. With the sun coming out, I felt the warmth and decided to peel off my jacket. That made things easier for the moment. Walking through bright sunshine adds color to the surrounding forests. After sometime, I reached an open patch of grassland with a mud hut standing at the center and around it, spread all over the place, a few buffaloes were enjoying their leisure in the sunlight. Some even dozed off amidst the comfort of cool breeze along with the lukewarm sunlight.

En-route Dobato, buffaloes enjoying the sun. — *En-route Dobato*

These domestic animals have bells hung around their necks, which keep tinkling along as they roam about in the surroundings. That helps locating them by their owners even if they stray around. But on this ocassion, none of them were interested in strolling around and were perfectly happy to lie down, enjoying the sun and the breeze. After that amusing sight, I moved along towards the next milestone of a little pass. After a few switchbacks, I did reach it. There was a gate adorned with some tibetan paintings. Beyond the gate, I saw the first patches of snow lying beside the trail. By the looks of it, they seemed to be fresh. The track moved gradually downwards beyond the gate amidst some blooming Rhododendron trees. Unlike their counterparts down below, these trees did have considerable blooms and I even saw some buds.

En-route Dobato, rhododendron buds — *En-route Dobato*

The cycles of flowering for these trees differ by altitude. While flowers have disappeared at the lower altitudes, they were in full bloom or about to start in the higher altitudes. Their colors also differed. The flowers in lower reaches were deep red or dark pink, but up here, the shades were lighter. Some were almost white (with a mix of light purple), some with lighter pink shades and yet others, almost fully white.

En-rote Dobato, purple Rhododendrons — *En-route Dobato*

However, the dark pink shades were still visible, though to a lesser extent. The Annapurna sanctuary area is famous for Rhododendron blooms. They cover the landscape during these times of the year. Both the routes leading to North and South base camps of Annapurna go through dense Rhododendron forests and offer such views.

En-route Dobato, pink rhododendrons — *En-route Dobato*

Trails in the Everest region also have them, but to a much lesser extent, especially due to altitudes, the forest cover itself is not that dense as boulders and snow cut the treeline short. As we moved higher up, the density of the flowers kept increasing.

En-route Dobato, purple rhododendron bunch — *En-route Dobato*

The more we reached closer to Dobato, more awestruck we were by the aura of flowers. The cloudy weather and the lack of the fimilar Himalayan snow views were forgotten by the display of flowers at our disposal. While Rhododendrons were at plenty in the trees, but the flowers on the ground, along the slopes or by the side of the walking trail, were equally mesmerizing.

While walking amidst them, after a few bends, the lodges of Dobato made an appearance. It was just a few metres ahead of us, but we had no hurry to reach there and our shutters kept rolling. That single stretch of the trail, not even half a km in length, offered so much, we took almost an hour to cover it.

Dobato, purple rhododendrons in trees — *Dobato*

Finally, we entered the tea house, rather it’s dining space. “Dal-bhat” was ordered and as lunch started getting prepared, we were handed the keys of our room. After changing our trekking gears to simple warm wears, we re-entered the dining space, which was abuzz with other hikers. The weather was gloomy and it started playing in our minds. Ranjan da already started contemplating skipping the hike to Muldai viewpoint. In clear weather, we could have had the option to hike to it during sunset as well as sunrise, but senset was out of question. The only feeble hope remained is of the sunrise view. After lunch, Ranjan da decided to take a nap and headed towards the room, while I remained at the dining space, hung up my trekking clothes with the hope to dry them up and spent time chatting with the guide and a fellow hiker, a student from Germany. I walked past her on my way up to Dobato. During our conversations, she revealed that she has been in Nepal for the past one month. She had entered Nepal from it’s western frontiers, visited some wonderful places there (including the Phoksundo lake), then moved on to Bardia National Park in the lower Terai regions (bordering with India) and now she was, in the Annapurna Sanctuary area. We’ve come across such travelers before, who spend long duration in Nepal, traveling to different parts of it. After Dobato, she’d be going down as her trip draws to a close.

On our way up to Dobato, we met a group of Nepalese policemen who were going for an official duty. It later turned out tht they were heading to complete formal investigation around the two unfortunate deaths that happened at the “hidden lake” area. Late in the afternoon, a group of four laborers came down the slopes beyond Dobato, carrying a human body wrapped in a plastic and lowered it at the open space outside. The policemen we met on our way up, followed the laborers. There was an immediate hush and curiosity amongst all the people who looked through the window and some even ventured outside. We heard that another body was following this and soon we saw the carriers of it and it was laid beside the other one. The carriers needed rest and the owners of the lodge gave them food and drink. We couldn’t see the faces but we were told, these were bodies of a pair of uncle and nephew (who was just 18 years old). They hailed from distant villages in the Makalu area of eastern Nepal, came as loborers to pave the trails but to their misfortune, a sudden strike of lightning electrocuted them while they were preparing their food. Someone burnt a few incense sticks beside the bodies, while the carriers rested.

It was a stark reminder of life’s realities. They came with the hope of earning some money to sustain their lives, but ended up losing them. Even yesterday, when we started our hike, they must have been alive, oblivious to the fact about what lay in store for them. After a considerable time, the carriers resumed their work and the bodies were carried down the slopes. They’d be reaching Pokhara, the same day, where standard formalities of autopsy would be carried out and after that, they’d make their final journies to the distant lands where they came from.

After darkness settled in, we had our dinner and headed for our room. We were sleeping at 3426 m.

Earlier

The solitude of Khopra ridge – Tadapani

Earlier

27th April, 2025

It was unsually warm at Pokhara during the previous night. The hotel room didn’t have a fan, so we had to turn on the air conditioner to escape the heat and humidity. It gave me a sense of guilt (bordering to criminality) to turn on an air conditioner at a hill station like Pokhara. I’ve never faced it before. To limit the sense of guilt, I turned the air conditioner off after a couple of hours and opened the windows. Morning rituals took some time and after a fresh bath (the last occasion to do so before the trek ends), we headed downstairs for breakfast. We’d already transferred our luggage into the duffel bag. Yugal and Ramesh appeared at the doorstep while we were still at the breakfast table. After some delay, we boarded a Scorpio to embark on our journey towards the village of Ghandruk which was about 58 kms away. It was cloudy and none of the members of the Annapurna family were visible, which was a shame. It didn’t bode well for the rest of the day.

The vehicle made its way through reasonably corwded but disciplined roads of the Pokhara town and after approximately half an hour, it hit the highway. We were told that this highway led all the way to upper Mustang via the towns of Tatopani, Beni, Marpha, Jomsom, Muktinath & others. My mind sprinted through these towns along the highway and I recalled the reverse journey on this highway in the year 2022 on our way back from the Annapurna Circuit trail. This journey in itself is an experience. The lower reaches of it goes through lush green areas with the hills covered with dense forests. Gradually, these make way for dry and barren landsacpes of Mustang with mountain peaks keeping company all through. I still remembered the marvellous sight of the Jomsom airstrip with Mt Nilgiri rising beyond it’s limits. Marpha was famous for it’s apples and related products. Kagbeni, which is further ahead towards Muktinath, is a quiet abode where people prefer to spend a day or two for the natural beauty of the valley to sink in. The entire route travels along the famous Kali Gandaki river, which forms the world’s deepest gorge (reaching up to a depth of 1 km) up above in the upper Mustang region.

While I was engaged deep in these thoughts, our jeep took an exit from the highway to head down towards Nayapul where we saw a signboard indicating directions towards the places like Ghandruk, Ghodepani, Chomrong, Jhinudanda and others which dotted the different routes traversing through what is called the Annapurna sanctuary area (which covers the southern slopes & valleys of the Annapurna range). The sanctuary area is a subset of a much larger Annapurna Conservation Area Project (or ACAP, as the acronym goes) which also covers the Annapurna circuit trail and possibly, parts of lower and upper Mustang regions. After the turn, the road sloped down towards an old metallic bridge which led to some houses, shops & some govt offices. It was a busy place with a lot of people bustling around. This was where our ACAP permits got checked for the first time. The place is called Birethanti. I recognized it. It forms a gateway to the Annapurna sanctuary area and all routes emanate from here. We visited it for the first time during our visit to the Annapurna base camp. We had to halt to allow our permits to be examined and allow the govt authorities to register our entry into the area. Such entries are supposed to be matched during the exit to ensure whoever has entered, has also exited the area safely and no one gets lost in the trails. A similar exercise also happens at different checkpoints of other trekking routes of Nepal. We tasted the delicacy of local samosas. They tasted very different, probably due to the fresh vegetables (sourced from the local aggricultural fields) used in the curry that was stuffed inside. After the brief halt, the vehicle resumed it’s journey through the villages and forests of the sanctuary area. The road was still paved, but turned into a bumpy stretch after sometime as the jeep started to navigate through the curved hill sides. After sometime, we reached a junction from where one route moved further up towards Ghodepani through the villages of Ulleri and Banthanti, while we took the right diversion to climb up towards Ghandruk. The skies turned darker and after significant struggle to maintain its center of gravity, the jeep finally halted at a place, beyond which, walking trails awaited us. We disembarked and started our long awaited trek through the woods of the Annapurna region of Nepal. There was a very light breeze that caressed our faces, while we started the hike. We could see the Rhododendron trees, but they were devoid of flowers. What would have been a full bloom, had we reached here even about a fortnight earlier, was now absent. But there was no reason to complain as thick forests provided a canopy over the trail, which not only provided protection from sun (though it was absent for the day), but a cool breeze and more importantly, the much needed Oxygen which prevents one from tiring while walking on these trails. After about an hour of hiking, we reached the tea house where we were supposed to have our lunch. It was a resonably large place with wonderfully crafted and maintained gardens with lots of flowers.

The flowers shone even brighter amidst the looming darkness of the skies, which sent down sounds of distant thunders. As our lunch started getting prepared, we spent sometime to capture some snaps of the blooming flowers.

We enjoyed our first “dal-bhat” meal in Nepal after about a year. With hunger accentuated after hiking up from the starting point, the meal tasted even more delicious which was served with hot rice, lentils, vegetables, pickles and other delicacies of rural Nepal. After lunch, as I moved out to the open terrace, I felt a few drops of water on my body. Looking up at the sky, I saw the dark clouds hovering above. We still had at least two and a half hours of hike left for the day and chances were there that we may need to walk in the rain. We put on our raincoats and resumed our hike.

I could now see a few Rhododendron trees with a few flowers which were remnants of the full bloom that might have perished about a week ago. Colors of these flowers vary according to the altitude. The trees we saw now, had red flowers, but other colors make their appearances at the higher altitudes. The height of these trees also keep decreasing with altitude. The trees dotting the higher ridges are called “Dwarf Rhododendrons”. Rain droplets increased in their size and frequency as we moved up and after a point, we reached a place called Bhainsi Kharka, a conglomerate of lodges. That’s when rain came down hard and we had no option but to take shelter. I thought this was good in a way as it might clear up the clouds which could pave the way for a clear evening or even clearer weather for the coming days (or so we thought). I came up earlier while the porter, guide and Ranjan da were still behind. After a while, they emerged from the woods down below and made their way up to the dining hall of the tea house, which gave some warmth. After a a heavy downpour that lasted almost half an hour, the rain eased, but clouds still held their sway in the mountains. We took advantage of this let up and resumed our hike. After leaving the premises of Bhainsi Kharka, the trail moved up amidst a narrow alley. It was thickly forested and we had no trouble whatsoever while moving up. We kept our raincoats on, though they weighed heavily on us, causing a lot of sweat, but there was no choice as there were enough clouds to resume a downpour at anytime. While we were waiting at the dining room for the rain to subside, we saw a few lightning strikes with resounding thunder at distant places. Little did we know then, that these strikes would result in grief for someone.

When we finally reached Tadapani, it was still cloudy but the rain turned into a drizzle. The compound of the tea house was spacious with a dining hall taking the centerstage. A rear door at the end of the dining hall led to a corridor which had rooms on both sides. We settled into one of these, changed our clothing and headed for the dining space, which everyone vies to reach after a day of hike. It’s a place for socialization, gossip, reflecting on the day’s proceedings and making plans for the next day, while sipping away at hot tea. All through our way up, we kept hearing about marvellous mountain views which would have been at our disposal, had weather been kind to us, but such statements sounded more like fairy tales, given the current state of affairs at nature’s department. As we spent our time at the dining space, we saw the veil of darkness getting removed and gradually, light became brighter. The chorus of the trekkers outside gathered some energy, which prompted me to look out through the glass panes and wow, there it was, Mt Annapurna South and Mt Fishtail (Machhapuchare, as they call it in Nepal) made their appearance, still shielded somewhat by the clouds, bt their outlines were visible. The sheer size of these mountains gave an indication of the altitude of the place!

The sky cleared up further and immediately it lifted the spirits of the people around. Most of them ventured out of the dining place to train the lenses of the mobiles and cameras to the awe-inspiring display of the mountains. We were no exception and our shutters kept rolling in the fading afternoon sun, which started playing its color tricks on the snowy slopes of the Annapurna Himalayas. The emerging sunlight through the still powerful shields of clouds made the birds chirpy too and their sounds were all around us. We got so excited, that we made video calls to our homes to show this view to our family members back there. While I was at that, Ranjanda quickly reminded that this luck might not run long as clouds were still hovering and making advances towards the mountain tops. That prompted me to abandon the call and resume photography to snap up as many as possible till the luck lasts.

From the left to right, Annapurna South, Hiunchuli, many others in between (the guide told us their names, but I don’t recall) and finally the vista ended at the top of Mt Fishtail.

We couldn’t shift our attention from the mountains as the scenes kept changing continuously in the stage act played out by nature. On some ocassion, a mountain top was brightly visible, only to be shielded by emerging clouds, while others made their appearances and this kept on changing amidst the hide and seek between the sun and the clouds.

The most striking view was that of Mt Machhapuchare, which keeps inspiring awe, despite looking at it on multiple occassions from different places. We’ve seen it from different angles from Pokhara, the entire Annapurna base camp route, where it’s angles kept changing at every place, Mardi Himal trail and now on this trail.

Mt Annapurna South 2, Tadapani — *Mt Annapurna South, Tadapani*

Time flied by as we kept our lenses trained on the Annapurna Himalayas and they didn’t disappoint us, but after sometime, clouds gained their strength and made steady advances and eventually shielded them altogether. That prompted us to recline to the dining space. We had our dinner at 7 PM with sandwiches and soup and then moved to our room. The next day would take us to Dobato. We were sleeping at 2630 m.

Earlier

The solitude of Khopra ridge

Nowadays trekkers often complain about lack of tranquil forests or experience of authentic village life and tribal culture in the popular trails like Annapurna base camp or Everest base camp in Nepal. For that matter, they say the same even for the longer Annapurna circuit trail as well. For Manaslu circuit, though one gets to experience the local village life along the route (more so, than other trails), the complain there is about the ever shrinking trail, thanks to aggressive road construction in Nepal which is eating up the trails gradually. That’s true for any other route. With every passing year, the trails get gobbled up with local jeeps plying higher up in the mountains. In some cases, there are altenrative trails available that lets you escape the mud and dust of the jeep roads, but mostly, that’s not an option, especially, in the Annapurna sanctuary area, which is where I was headed for the third time after Annapurna base camp and Mardi Himal.

I was looking for a week long escapade from the depressing & taxing corporate life to an area which could offer some solace. Given the time constraint, I had to look for the Annapurna region as anything towards the eastern part of Nepal would have required more time, a scarce commodity at hand. Initially it appeared to be a tough ask, given the ever shrinking trails of the region, but after some search (especially, on the website of Nepal Alternative treks & expeditions), I came across the Khopra ridge (or danda, as they call in Nepal) trek. My enquiries with Tej Bahadur Gurung (the proprietor of Nepal Alternative treks & expeditions), confirmed the fact that it was a less trodden trail. The time of the year (late April) also offered chances of witnessing Rhododendron blooms (though to a lesser extent than what we found at Mardi Himal about a year before). We were about a fortnight late than the year before as far as Rhododendron blooms were concerned. Nevertheless, I looked forward to my visit to the area. As usual, the description of the trail along with some youtube videos, provided enough excitement to look forward to it. Expectations ran high with two view points on the trail, Muldai and the Khopra ridge itself, offering almost a 180-270 degree view of the Nepal himalayas ranging from the Dhaulagiri to the Annapurna ranges. To top it off, our trek was to include a visit to the famed Poonhill top, an icing on the cake.

Most of my mates from earlier treks were either occupied during the period or had plans to visit other places. Hence, I decided to embark alone if need be (such was the desperation). Nevertheless, I floated my idea in the WhatsApp group and Ranjan da responded. Hence, we booked our tickets to and from Gorakhpur Junction, a town close to the Nepal border in eastern part of the state of Uttar Pradesh in India. This was followed by our hotel bookings at Pokhara for our stays on our way up and down. Conversations with Tej Bahadur Gurung settled the questions about porter and guide. After all these initial proceedings, I got immersed in my professional work as the slated date of travel was still about a couple of months away. About a fortnight after this, an SMS from Indian railways informed me that our train to Gorakhpur on 25th April got cancelled due to some “pre-planned” work at the railway station and any inconvinience was “regretted”. Well, that’s Indian Railways for you. All they can do is to unilaterally cancel trains and regret the inconvinience. That has always been the case and continues to be (despite their claims of advancement with introduction of “high-end” trains like Vande Bharat). Accidents continue unabated, so do delays and abrupt cancellations with “regrets”. After scrambling for other options, the only option remained to start on 24th April, reach Lucknow and take another train in the following night from there. That’s what we opted for. As they say, every cloud (well, almost) has a silver lining, this gave me an opportunity to meet my friend Dhananjoy De (a constant company for me for all treks done in the past), who was a professor at IIIT.

26th April, 2025

After a day’s break at Lucknow and hanging out with Dhananjoy, we reached Gorakhpur junction at 2:40 AM. The only option was to stick around in the waiting room for the dawn to break. The idea was to get going as early as 5 AM to reach Pokhara with the entire afternoon at our disposal to hang around it’s famous lakeside area. However, our driver had other ideas and he only showed up at 6 AM. His reasoning was that the border officials (which included currency convertors) only started their operations by 8:30 AM. We had no other option but to comply. As the vehicle started off towards the border, I closed my eyes as there wasn’t much to cheer about the passing landscape of this dusty town or its suburbs. After about two and half hours of travel, we crossed over the border at Tutibari. This was much less crowded than the conventional Sunauli border. The gate on the Indian side thanked us while the Nepalese counterpart welcomed us for our visit. Soon after crossing it, we stopped near a police station where the cab driver went in for collecting his permit, while we exchanged Indian for Nepalese currency. Our journey started once again as we moved through the Terai plains of Nepal. The landscape wasn’t any different from the plains of India where cultivation fields extended to the horizon. The only difference could have been the views of distant hills, but they weren’t visible due to dust and smoke (some of it coming from burning of crop residues in nearby fields). As we traveled through the highways towards Bhairahawa, Ranjan da shared the weather forecast for the upcoming week. This turned out to be abysmal as everyday was supposed to be cloudy with light or strong rains in the afternoon. The later part of the week was slated to have rains for entire days. As depressing as it may sound, I decided not to delve much into it and leave it to nature’s discretion. It’s not new in the mountains to have unpredicted rains. Our route converged into the highway coming from the Sunauli border and we gradually crossed Butwal. Hills made their appearance after that and we suddenly found ourselves embarking along the serpentine mountain roads towards Pokhara.

This is a familiar trail as I’ve traveled through it multiple times (the most recent being a year ago on our way to Mardi Himal). After about four hours, we stopped at a place called Ramdi. It had a few shops offering the famous “Dal bhat” meals of Nepal. But we headed towards a fruit vendor who was selling cucumbers and a mountainous fruit from the nearby forests called Karphal. These were sweet and sour and tasted beautiful. After eating some, we purchased some more to have on our way up. After Rambi, we reached a road junction with an iron bridge over the famous Kali Gandaki river coming down from the distant and rugged Upper Mustang area of Nepal. I recalled having dinner at this place durnig our trip to Mardi Himal. After crossing that place, I waited somewhat impatiently to reach Pokhara, which was still about a couple of hours away. As the sun settled towards the west, my impatience increased as if time was running out.

After a few bends, we entered the wide roads of the Pokhara town and a few more turns took us to the famous lakeside area. Our hotel Himalayan Vacation was situated almost on the banks of the Fewa lake with just the road separating it from its banks. We disembarked from our vehicle and headed to our alloted room at the third floor. The balcony opened right in front of the lake and a bird’s eye view of the lake surrounded by thickly wooded hills, greeted us.

We got some much needed bath and headed towards Gaurighat, which was on the banks of the Fewa lake right across the road in front of the hotel. Tourists flocked the area with cameras and mobiles in their hands to capture the shots amidst the fading sunlight. The weather was pleasant with cool breeze from the lake soothing our souls. As the sun prepared to bid goodbye, the lake waters gilttered in gold.

The tourist boats floated in the tranquil waters, splashing their way through it. The sun acquired a crimson tinge as it prepared to hide behind the clouds which also hid the distant Annapurna ranges.

Despite many tourists flocking the area, Pokhara never loses its tranquility, thanks to the wide roads and spaces near the lake area. After capturing many more snaps, we finally headed back to our hotel as we awaited the arrival of our porter and guide. Ramesh (the porter) and Yugal (the guide) finally arrived from Kathmandu and we sat in our room for a conversation. We made some enquiries about the upcoming trek and associated altitudes. Weather formed an important part of it. Both of them were soft spoken and sounded friendly, a welcome sign for a trek. Our bags didn’t quite fit into the duffel bag they had brought over from Kathmandu. So, we decided to transfer the luggage from our individual bags into the duffel bag and leave the unnecessary items at the hotel to recollect them on our way back. It was decided to start at 8:00 AM, the next morning. We were to travel by a jeep to Ghandruk, followed by an hour of walk to have lunch. Another couple of hours of walk after lunch should take us to Tadapani, our halt for the first day. Subsequent days should take us to Dobato, Khopra danda, Swanta, Ghodepani and finally to Banthanti, which is where our trek was to end, culminating in a jeep ride back to Pokhara.

After they went away, we went out for an evening walk. After a stroll, we had our dinners and ice creams and headed back to our room, made calls to our homes to inform our arrival and our plans for the morrow. Given the tiredness of the day, it took no time to close our eyes. We were sleeping at 822 m.