Shikhe to Ghorepani – Back up at Altitude (2nd blog today)

The night was good apart from the guides in the dormitory room below us, striking up a noisy conversation at 3am. Shut the front door boys!

The morning light brought loveliness.

Another great breakfast and we’re off to Ghorepani. Looking up the path through the tiny village, the ancient stone rooves outweighed the currugated iron ones.

It was a decent uphill hike, sometimes steep and stickily warm, rising up 2,500 feet to 9,500 feet – back in the altitude zone. Tomorrow we would be climbing up Poon Hill, a local viewpoint at 10,500 feet, before dawn to watch the light grow on the Annapurna range to the north and the Dhualagiri range to the west. Poon Hill is a very popular vantage point for this pre-dawn international assembly!

Today however we were following the sun up to the top of this valley to stay in Ghorepani. Cut off from roads and tracks, serviced by horse and porters carrying food, drink and goods up the footpaths leading to the village, Ghorepani is a popular trekking overnight stop. 

Looking back the valley was cultivated and civilised, and the big peak of Dhualagiri nestled in the clouds. For years it was considered to be the highest mountain in the world but is really the 7th highest. Notorious for avalanches, and we were unaware of what happened on a lower peak below it during the night, with 9 poor souls being wiped out in their sleep by an avalanche. We had heard of two people copping it in an avalanche a couple of weeks ago and at the same time five people going over the edge of a ravine in a jeep, including two Aussies, all dead. It’s a phenomenal place but bad luck is a killer here. 

After a good stretch of trekking up quite a steep valley side there is nothing more civilised, when you’re soaked in sweat, than having a cup of tea! 

The local folk are pleasant and live entirely off trekkers and farming. These two ladies were out in the sun washing dishes and tending their flock of goats.

Two thirds of the way up we stopped for lunch and looking down the valley the view was great. 

The last push was up a steep array of steps through a rhododendron forest. The national flower of Nepal. Arriving at the guest house we were delighted to have a small cabin as a bedroom. With a shower and western toilet. Result!

And the view was epic.

Night night.