My temporary life in urban Nepal

I had always intended to fit in a short trek during this visit to Nepal, but I didn’t know when it would happen. Luckily, by leaving it till the end, I was able to go with a guide I already knew from last time. The Ghorepani/Ghandruk loop (Poon Hill trek) seemed like a good fit for the time available, but in an anti-clockwise direction.

On Day 1 we drove by car to Nayapul (1070m), about an hour out of Pokhara. Down in the valley, it was shady and pretty cold there, and I have to say it reminded me a bit of the Star Wars cantina scene – people constantly coming and going, some shifty-looking, others wide-eyed like me… We weren’t there very long before our jeep arrived to drive us up the unsealed road to Kimche (1640m), where we started walking.

There were some pretty ominous clouds around as we set off, but the hour-long walk up to Ghandruk (1940m) was really quite pleasant. As we arrived we were besieged by mules taking their right-of-way on the trail. I soon learned this would be a common occurrence. Ghandruk is such a pretty village, and in the afternoon – for leisure, but also to warm up as it was so, so cold – we walked a little further up to Old Ghandruk, where some of the houses could be as much as 500 years old. It looked like a movie set; very clean and tidy and just oozing atmosphere.

Overall, Day 1 was an easy walk, but no sign of any mountains due to the overcast conditions.

Waking to a slightly clearer day on Day 2, we set off through the forest to Tadapani (2630m), via Bhaisi Kharka. It took about half an hour just to walk up through Ghandruk, which goes to show how deceptively large the village is. But after we left Ghandruk behind we really didn’t see too many other people on the trail all morning.

Arriving in Tadapani in the early afternoon the clouds were very low, so it was a bit like Ghandruk – cold and no mountains to make up for it! The village is very small and there wasn’t much to do, but luckily the lodge we were staying in had an excellent heater in the dining hall. I think I sat there in front of it for 7-8 hours straight.

Day 2 was probably only about 3 hours of walking, excluding breaks, and although it was all in an upwards direction, it wasn’t too hard on the knees or the lungs.