Day 11: Muktinath - Marpha

My watch alarm started beeping at 6:15am and I groggily rolled over and fumbled to make the noise stop.  I had a difficult time getting moving.  We hadn’t ordered breakfast last night, so there was no rush to arrive on time for them to serve (or start making) our food.  As we sat in the empty dining room and ate our Set breakfasts of boiled eggs, muesli, pancakes, juice, and tea, we watched cows wake up and leave their home via a cow sized doorway on the floor level of a teahouse across the street; they walked out like cows with a destination in mind.  We laughed, shrugged, and look around our own teahouse for signs of resident bovine.

Day 11

After that, I shopped a street vendor for some pashmina scarves made from yak hair. The woman was very talkative, though my Nepali and her English skills didn’t quite cover the communication barrier: there was a lot of nodding of heads involved.  She showed me her loom and I felt all the colorful, thick scarves, which were priced reasonably well (500 rupees, about $6), but I started thinking I didn’t want to lug scarves for the remainder of my trek.  So, at 8:00am, Sam and I wandered down the street and out of town.  We immediately got confused by which way we should go, somehow missing the trail when it diverged from the road.  My guidebook directions were not as extensive for this side of the Annapurna massif as they had been for the other side.  I wasn’t feeling very adventurous, so we decided to trek the road, which turned out to be rather pleasant.  A few Mahindras passed us, full of trekkers, headed down the valley.  Apparently, a great many trekkers ride down the valley after completing the Thorong La portion of the trek, instead of trekking the entire circuit.  On one of the Mahindras, we saw our Japanese and Israeli friends and we all waved goodbye to each other. 

Goodbye town

The buildings don't look like they do on the other side of the Pass.

Avoiding the road when we can.

Our morning progressed uneventfully.  The landscape was very barren; the only people we encountered were two male “trekkers” who were riding up the road on fat tire bicycles – it looked like an arduous task, with all the rocks and the relentless incline - and one shepherd with a flock of goats.  It was such a relief to be walking down hill, instead of always uphill, though it grew to be a little monotonous. 

See the white Mahindra on the road?

Village across the river.

Solar oven to heat a kettle of water in someone's backyard.

Those aren't bushes, they're goats - and their shepherd.

Looking back at the mountains we descended yesterday.

Feels like a desert.

These are cool.

Looks like a rockslide wiped out this village. 

The view from my bathroom pitstop at an abandoned building.

By 11:30am we reached Kagbeni and decided to eat and rest.  We chose the first teahouse we came to, but it was deserted: we wandered around the spacious place until someone discovered we were there and led us to the dining room.  This teahouse was like a palace, compared to the teahouses we had been in for the past ten days, and very clean and bright, comparatively.  I ate some sort of vegetable soup and Sam attempted Buff Chili: the buffalo chunks were so tough Sam had to gnaw on them.  

Approaching Kagbeni

Narrow trail

See that crazy switchback trail leading up that awesome rock mountainside?

Such a green oasis in the middle or so much rock.

Many hands make light work.  No that one is not talking on a cell phone.

After we had eaten and soaked up the warmth from the sunshine, we consulted my guidebook pages and discovered that the rest of today’s trip was supposed to be terribly windy if attempted during the afternoon.  Oh great.  It was now exactly 12:00pm, so we suited up in our jackets and hats and ventured back out onto the sunny trail.  It was fine for about 30 feet, until we rounded a bend and received the full force of what felt like a hurricane gale right in our faces.  The wind was so fierce, we couldn’t speak to each other; it was impossible to hear anything over the roar of the wind.  At one point, we crested a small hill and the gust of wind that met us nearly knocked both of us off our feet: we stumbled backward and I was only saved from falling because I crashed, backwards, into a pole.  Eventually, the road dropped down from the hillside and led out onto the riverbed of the Kali Gandaki river.  The wind was just as strong, the only difference here was that the wind threw little pebbles and sand at our faces instead of dust, as it had on the road.  It was like walking on Mars, during a sandstorm.  My mind was saved from going crazy by occasional glances up the sides of the gorge to admire the rock formations that showed terrific examples of Earth’s geologic formations.  The Kali Gandaki Gorge is argued to be the world’s deepest river gorge, and I would not doubt it: the rock sides seemed to extend all the way into the outer atmosphere.  The riverbed itself consists of a braided stream system and the river weaves and twists and turns its way though the channel; rocks of all shapes and sizes make up the floor of the gorge, but most are round from the river pushing and polishing the edges to make them smooth.  Red and tan are the predominant colors – thus my feelings of being on Mars.

The only photo I dared take in the wind - I was afraid the blowing sand would ruin my lens.  This is looking back at Kagbeni and the Kali Gandaki river can be seen.  There was no more green after this.

Back to the trek: the wind, as I said, made talking and breathing difficult, so I put my head down and followed Sam’s heels along the riverbed for six miles.  The entire trek consisted only of rocks, sun, and wind.  I felt a tiny little sharp rock shard in my shoe, up around my big toe, but I didn’t want to stop to deal with it, the wind was too troublesome to make it worth the effort.  So we walked until 3:30pm, when we finally staggered into Jomsom and flopped into a teahouse for relief from the wind.  I ordered lemon tea, so we could be have a reason to sit there and to use their toilet.  Then, I took off my shoe to dump out the rock, but no rock fell out – I inspected more thoroughly and discovered it wasn’t a rock, but a blister on the ball of my foot between the big toe and the second toe.  Bummer.

Sam's face, because I only ordered one tea, but the woman brought two and we had to pay for two.

Fifteen minutes later, at 3:45pm, tea was finished and we were walking the stone paved street of Jomsom.  We were stopped at the ACAP and TIMS offices, where I had to dig everything out of my pack in search of my documents.  Those pesky things seemed to always be buried deep at the bottom of my pack.  That chore accomplished, we walked briskly out of town as storm clouds rolled in and loomed above us.  We arrived in Marpha easily enough, though it not only rained on us, it hailed, and we were soaking wet as we entered one of the last teahouses on the edge of the village and asked for a room at 5:00pm. 

Jomsom

Sam and the storm clouds.

We were delayed on our way into Marpha by a herd of goats.

We merely laughed when it rained and hailed on us and we're happy to be near Marpha!

While waiting for dinner, I stepped outside the teahouse to send a SPOT signal; as I was standing there in the dark, with the SPOT held up over my head, a dog came up to me, gave my pant leg a friendly lick, and laid down at my feet.  It was nice to have company out there, while I stood in the rain, unsure if the signal had been sent.  Dinner finally arrived at our table two hours after we ordered it, I’d ordered spaghetti, but both our meals were so terribly cooked, or in my case covered in rosemary and fennel seeds, that we could barely choke down a few mouthfuls.  I ordered hot chocolate, because the rain and hail had made me extremely cold, and the tepid goat milk and melted chocolate concoction I was served did little to supply me with the warmth I’d hoped it would provide.  Resignedly, and hungrily, we surrendered and went to bed.  Our room, on the top floor, leaks and we are watching a decent lightning show from our skylight.  A lot of people have come and are very loud in the common room outside our door.  I can’t tell what language they are speaking, but I wish they’d be quiet so I can get some sleep: it’s 7:30pm and I’m exhausted.

Not an awesome photo, but it shows a bit of the room.

Data

Starting elevation: 12,172ft

Ending elevation: 8,694ft

Distance: 16.2 miles

Weather: extreme