Day 13: Kalopani - Tatopani

After last night’s violent Bram-Stoker-perfect storm, I was ready to sleep in and enjoy my morning, but Sam woke me up at 6:10am since we had a long trekking day ahead of us.  We packed and I sorrowed over my still wet wool socks as we made our way downstairs for breakfast at 7:00am.  Our meal, that we once again had to wait for, was the Set breakfast: except they didn’t have toast, just chapatti (like a thick flour tortilla), and no peanut butter to go with it, only butter.  It was a strange combination and the exact opposite of yesterday’s breakfast combo.  I ordered an extra set of boiled eggs, since yesterday’s eggs had come in “handy” as a dual-purpose snack; the man looked at me like I was cracked.  I saved my buttered chapatti in the plastic baggie I’ve been stashing extra toast in for a mid-morning snack and gently stuffed the eggs in my pack.

Day 13

At 7:45am I affixed my wet socks to the outside of my pack to dry as I hiked and then I nimbly stepped outside the dark teahouse and into the bright, crisp sunshine.  After Sam had paid our account (he was put in charge of handling all our bills throughout the trip), he and the man joined me on the road in front of the building.  I was marveling at the glistening snowy mountains and the man started pointing at each peak and naming them for me - it was difficult to keep up with him, since there were so many peaks all around us.

Dhaulagiri and Tukche 

Nilgri.

Annapurna I.

Not fashionable, but it got my socks dry.

We walked on the road for awhile, with a group of Germans clicking their trekking poles behind us.  I had a difficult time in my shoes without my socks and the uneven rocky road was giving my feet some hot spots within a few miles of walking.  Thankfully, by 11:30am my socks were reasonably dry and I had relatively happy feet once they were reunited with the socks.

There was an ACAP and TIMS checkpoint station at Ghasa that we tried to avoid, hoping they wouldn’t notice us walking past them, since there was a large bus group of trekkers who were mobbed around in front of the station.  No such luck: those checkpoint people take their jobs seriously and we were beckoned over to the one-room building that served dual purpose as visitor center and checkpoint office.  I had to pull everything out of my backpack in search of my documents, only to discover I’d brilliantly placed them in the top flap so they would be easily accessible.

Nilgri

A German woman left the checkpoint at the same time we did and the three of us walked along together sharing trail stories.  I ate one of my eggs and the woman asked if I was eating it for Easter.  Easter?  Ah, then Sam and I realized today was Easter and it felt so strange to have almost missed it.  It sure didn’t feel like Easter, so far from home, in the middle of Nepal.  We mused about what we must be missing at home and described our typical Easter day with each other.  The woman said she had visited the U.S. during Easter and thought it was strange that we hung eggs in trees.  We were confused and there was a bit of back and forth discussion about her observations until we concluded she had seen egg bunting that someone had strung in a tree as decoration.  We all had a good laugh.  Soon we came to a suspension bridge and crossed it to rejoin the trail and escape the road with its busses full of trekkers; we said goodbye to our companion who stayed at the bridge to wait for her group and we continued on our way. 

We are headed down there.

See?  Here we are.

The trail was a seemingly unending series of ups and downs and ups and downs – happily, the scenery was lovely with several long cascading waterfalls and small pockets of farms and other building structures, like mini temples.  We heard tree frogs and saw lizards.  At 11:45am it started to drizzle rain and it continued off and on all day, but the sun would return and it was rather pleasant.

See the viewing platform on the right?  Would have loved to have climbed up there.

Hello Buffalo

See the little temple?

See it now?  What a great spot.

Here is a 360* video of a section of the trail:

At 12:45pm we passed a teahouse settlement of a couple buildings in a shaded valley that reminded me of a place one might see in Hillbilly country.  A boy of maybe 12 years old called to us from the front porch and asked if we wanted any lunch or hashish.  I looked at Sam; Sam looked at me.  Sam said, “Did he just ask what I think he asked?”  It was so unexpected.  We laughed as we hiked, after shaking our heads ‘no’ at the entrepreneurial boy.  There was a steep section just past this holler and we stopped near the top to rest and eat my chapatti and butter sandwich.  The road on the other side of the river valley was visible and we could periodically see vehicles as they bumped and bottomed out on the rutted and rocky road.

Spot the yellow VW Bug - center of photo.

We don't know how it made it up here with its low ground clearance.

When we began climbing again, I was looking down as I walked, because the stone steps were of uneven heights and I didn’t want to stumble, but unfortunately the trail zigged and I zagged and found myself walking down a trail that was suddenly not a trail, but an overgrown weedy footpath.  I stopped and called for Sam, not knowing if he was ahead of me or behind me.  He didn’t appear from either direction, so I sat down and waited and listened for him, but all I could hear were little songbirds in the brush.  I finally made a decision to retrace my steps to see if I’d somehow gotten off the trail, not because I thought going backwards was a better idea, but because in front of me was an enormous white and black speckled spider.  I made a hasty retreat.  After discovering my mistake and regaining the trail, Sam rounded a bend on his way back down the hill to find me.  Oh well, I guess not getting lost for the first 100 or so miles of our trek was good enough.

A relatively flat section of the trail.

We were exceedingly glad at 2:45pm to see another suspension bridge up ahead, because the up and down trail was exhausting.  The bridge was bouncing and swaying in the stiff wind that was blowing up the river channel and it was a little scary and a lot exhilarating to cross it.  A little old lady followed behind me and she was very grumpy, as if she didn’t welcome tourists and trekkers using her bridge.  We discovered we were in Dana and close to our destination, so I ate my last egg as we hiked along in relative peace – the busses seemed to have all gotten to where they were going by that time.  It was a nice easy walk and the scenery was lovely.

Sam was super happy to finally be crossing the bridge.

Holding on to my hat so it didn't blow away.

These signs gave us a good laugh - front side.

Back side.

Found the Three Billy Goats Gruff.

Villages on top of villages.

A single rose bloom - I wanted to take a cutting home, but feared customs.

An hour later, 3:45pm, we arrived in Tatopani and walked through the narrow pedestrian-only stone paved street, passing a great many teahouses and shops, until we found a teahouse we liked.  I wanted it because it had a garden and wasn’t right in the middle of the town, but I balked when the owner said how much it cost to stay there: 500 rupees, the most we had ever paid for a room.  “No way!” I said, but Sam said he liked the room and honestly we were too tired to leave and find a different place, so I conceded and we set our packs down and claimed the room as ours.  We ordered dinner in the very busy dining room: I got chili fries, which turned out to be potato chunks covered in hot sauce with some vegetables.  We gorged ourselves and chatted with the other trekkers while sitting at tables lit by candles, since the electricity had gone out half way though dinner.  We used my headlight to navigate through the garden and up the stairs to our room.  More thunder and lightning tonight.

The craziest bridge of them all.

Data

Starting elevation: 8,220ft

Ending elevation: 8,117ft

Distance: 14 miles

Weather: mild/moderate