The next morning the sky was crystal clear so Wayne went down to Lake Phewa while it was still dark to watch the sunrise. He brought his drone so he could practice flying it. I stayed at the hotel and went out to the balcony with my coffee to watch the sunrise over the Annapurna range. What a special thing and a beautiful sight!
After breakfast we were picked up by a new driver, Rikzin and our porter Kushiman. We headed to the trailhead in Kande, which was about a 45 minute drive. When we arrive, Sharon paid too much for some trinkets…
We started up the trail and when we say “up”, we mean straight up a stone path rising quickly up the mountain with one to two foot steps, also know as thigh burners. It was a real heart starter. There were areas of water running down the path which made is somewhat slick and areas requiring navigating along a ridgeline with a significant drop off on one side or the other. It pretty much gave us a good initiation for the more intense things to come. What have we gotten ourselves into??
On the positive side, it was surprisingly lush and green which could almost have been mistaken for Hawaii. It took us three and a half hours to hike up to Australian Camp where we had a Momo lunch and rested for about an hour. After lunch we played with a cute local boy who was very “spirited”. He was playing with his grandma on a homemade swing, fighting imaginary dragons with a stick in the garden, and generally carrying on for the trekkers. Sharon bought some more trinkets before we continued on ourway.
We arrived to Pothana (1950 m). Here we stayed our first night in the Shangrila Tea House. The camp had several tea houses and the camp is in full view of Mt. Machhapuchare (FishTail). Afternoon clouds had built all day and mostly enveloped the upper peaks that surrounded us, but we did get glimpses here and there between the clouds.
Wayne decided that he wanted to fly his drone here. He started it up and sent it flying into the air and immediately was told to bring it down. Apparently, Mardi Himal Trail is in a conservation area and drones are not allowed unless you have a special permit. Oops…didn’t know that. The officer was really rude to Wayne and he gave Rikzin a lecture as well. We felt bad.
It rained late in the afternoon so we sat in the dining room and chatted over a beer. We met some new friends. Carlos from Portugal was very fun, animated and told the best stories. I see future travels to Lagos to visit him. We met another couple from Seattle who were very interesting and have traveled all over the world in their sailboat. Most of the new friends we have met have been to Nepal several times to trek. We can certainly see why and I am sure we will return as well…
