Sunday, April 2, 2017

Trek Day 6

We started the day at around 7am.  It had rained last night so the stone steps we would be hiking onn were very slippery and irregular in size and shape so we had to be extra careful with each foot placement.  ARound the first half hour we reached Ulleri, a small village with lots of teachouse and on a giant downhill.  We hiked downhill for about an hour and a half and it was a killer.  We were already sore from lots of downhill from the day before.  It got to the point where it was a challenge going stairs.  As we were going through the village of Ulleri, groups of donkeys hauling loads of supplies would come stomping by.  You can get trampled if you don't quickly get out of their way.  Sometimes they slip and it gets scary too because they are so big.  One group that went by us were carrying cages of chickens, something you would never see in the US.



At one point I had to use the bathroom so we stopped at a teahouse on the trail.  It wasn;t a bad looking teahouse until we asked where the bathroom was and you had to tiptoe around a narrow ledge on the side of a building while it had just rained with a 30 ft drop and no railing.  Quite the adventure.

Finally we got don to the bottom of the mountain where we would cross two suspension bridges over a waterfall.  It was actually pretty fun and a good change of scenery for a bit.


As you can see in the pictures above, there is some donkey manure.  That is definitely a normal thing on the trail.  It is everywhere!  So you definitely have to be careful where you step and it can be slippery.  While we were hiking we even saw a chicken pecking at pooh...that in one of the many reasons we don't eat meat on the mountain.


Anyway, as we hiked longer we stopped for some lunch and I got some noodle soup.  At this point I was very tired and ready to be finished.  We had hiked for four hours already and still had two more to go.

About an hour after lunch we entered a little village and was greeted by a very cute little girl and a very cute little goat!  The goat was going nuts and would slam his head into you and run around like crazy.  It was pretty funny and made me forget about how tired I was.



We finally arrived in Nayapul where we would be picked up and have to go on the scary car ride again, but it was worth not hiking another seven hours to get down.  It was a relief to get to Nayapul and see the jeep we would be taking.  It was sad to leave the mountains we hiked on but grateful I got the opportunity to hike on them.

We took a stomach flipping jeep ride back to Pokhara and made our way to our hotel.  We said our goodbyes to our porters.  We would see Kewal again in Kathmandu.

Our hotel is very nice and comfortable. with a shower, towels, a real bed. air conditioning (its 80 degrees here) a western style toilet...everything! We immediately showered and hopped into bed unbelievably sore!

Later that night we went to an Italian restaurant and had pizza
and gelato!!!! Never tasted so good!  We headed back to the hotel and fell asleep very fast.

We will be staying in Pokhara until the 4th and will be doing some exploring and a couple of activities.  Also the posts should be more regular now that we have a fair internet connection! (sometimes when the power is on!)

Lunch with new friends 



3 comments:

  1. I bet it felt good to be in the hotel and have a nice meal at the restaurant. I'm sure that experience was all worth it.
    Safe travels this week!

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  2. Callie and Derik,

    I read through the majority of the blog entries today...wow. What an incredible experience that you get to share together. Your trekking looks especially fun, and despite sore legs it looks like you are having a blast!

    Looking forward to hearing about the rest of the trip!

    - (Matt) Mr. Eicheldinger

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  3. Incredible! So glad you took advantage of opportunities along the way. We are very, very proud of you and so happy you were able to enjoy such an experience ❤

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