Reinvigorated by a week in Pokhara, blending in with the throngs of other gringos and refuelling at ‘Hungry Feel Bakery’, we returned to West Nepal. 30 hours on rickety Nepali buses which were built in the 1950s and probably haven’t been serviced this century was without doubt the most dangerous part of our whole trip, but we made it back to Kalikot unscathed. Sans bikes we were less of a freak show than before, and it was refreshing to draw little attention as we passed through familiar villages and rattled over familiar potholes.
On 28th October we pulled on our trekking boots in Manma and took our first, wobbly steps eastward. If all goes to plan there’ll be a couple of million more steps, 1,500km, 80 vertical kms and a host of 5,000m passes before we reach our goal near Kanchenjunga on the Indian border.
Please click here for our Jumla photoset on Flickr.
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| Walking along the road to Jumla. Not being used to walking long distances, the 3 days and 84km from Manma to Jumla made our legs ache in places we didn’t even know we had muscles. Stumbling into towns at the end of the day brought much hilarity to the locals – especially when we had to walk up steps to hotel rooms. Very difficult. |
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| Nearing Jumla. It was a pleasant walk up a fertile valley with many small villages. Often we’d be followed by people for a while as we walked along, but having relaxed in Pokhara, this didn’t bother us as it had done on the bikes. |
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| Girls in Jumla. |
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| In forest on the way to Gautichaur La. |
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| A lovely couple who gave us their bed for the night. When we turned up in their village we’d been pestered for the previous half hour by an aggressive beggar – we’d planned on camping, but didn’t want to with him around. When we asked if there was a guesthouse in town, these two said we could stay with them – only later did we realize they’d be giving us their bed while they slept on the floor. |
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| Arriving at Maure Lagna Pass (3,910m). |
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| A bonkers kid we met near Tripurakot. |
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| Descending to Juphal on a veritable motorway of a path. |
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| Rest day in Juphal. Haz on a muesli hunt (eventually successful after a couple of hours – the right shop was 5m from our hotel room). |
Days – 9
Trekking days – 7
Distance – 181km
Trekking time – 47hrs
Amount climbed – 6,250m
Passes – 3 (Gothichaur La – 2,994m, Maure Lagna – 3,910m, Balangra Lagna – 3,832m)
Dal bhats – 12
Maggi – 7
Other gringos – 9