This morning we travelled for two hours from the city of Pokhara to the trailhead at Nayapul for the beginning of our trek/hike to Ghandruk. The mountains in the background in the photo below is where we are headed. Annapurna Mountain is on the left & Fishtail Mountain is on the right.

The drive to the trailhead was pretty much a repeat of our drive from Kathmandu to Pokhara – a thrill a minute in the traffic plus very winding roads with precarious drops to the canyons below!

There was a sizeable crowd at the trailhead depot. Lots of buses with groups like ours getting ready to depart on an adventure or returning from one.

The night before our tour group leader had provided us each with a heavy duty duffel bag & we were each permitted to bring belongings with us weighing no more than 7.5 kilograms. We were also told that we would carry our own water & other things that we wanted during each day.

Our heavy duty duffel bags were distributed to our porters & they proceeded to vigorously combine & compress them in size to bundles of three for our porters to carry to our destination.

When we were ready to start out our group leader introduced us to our porters & we headed off.

Catherine also checked out the road ahead.

The first part of our trip was through a little village selling lots of trekking supplies & equipment.

At the edge of the village there was a small sawmill operation.

We walked on the road for the first 45 minutes until we reached the sign officially marking the Annapurna Conservation Area area.

We started to see Fishtail Mountain.

We came to a bridge on the road & our group leader Kalpana pointed to the stone steps on the right & said that’s where we are going – “jumjum” (meaning “let’s go!”). This should have been our first clue as to what we were heading in to.

After climbing the steps we started walking through terraced fields of rice that was just beginning to be harvested.

At one point we stopped with our porter Ale to enjoy the view of the Annapurna Mountain Range. Ale is 45 & has been a porter for more than 20 years.

Next up was a short crossing over a steel suspension bridge.

An hour further down the trail we arrived at a rest stop for lunch.

Kalpana had ordered a hot lunch for all of us.

Fed & watered we were back on the trail with layers of clothing off as the sun was getting hot.

We were starting to climb a lot more & Kalpana kept encouraging us.

Each step brought a more rewarding view but they were beginning to take their toll.

At this point the trail sign indicated “only” 4 more mile (up) to our destination.

The trail was now a variety of terrain comprised of dirt roads & many more stone steps.

We finally arrived at our destination just in time to see the sun’s fading rays on the mountain tops.

After settling into our very nice rooms at Breeze Guest House the group reconvened to the dining area for delicious hot supper & to debrief about our day’s trek.

We had hiked almost 17 kilometers in 7 hours, climbed thousands of stone steps & gained about 1,000 meters in altitude – whew – we were pooped!

Once the sun went down it cooled down a lot. We piled on more clothing & went to the guest house rooftop to view the stars. The mandala in the photo below was on the landing at the top of the stairs.

Then off to bed in our comfortable, but unheated room. Cath came well prepared with silk long underwear from her mom Jeanne. Thanks Mom!

Cheers!