My temporary life in urban Nepal

The pre-walk briefing for Day 3 went something like “down to the river, up a bit, flat for a while, then up, up, up!” (Apologies to the guide if the paraphrasing is not quite accurate.) And that’s basically how it panned out.

Firstly we walked down through the forest to the small hydro electricity station that supplies Tadapani, then up the steps to a lonely (but nice) little lodge where we stopped to catch our breath before setting out to enjoy the walk along the flat - but disappointingly short - section of the trail to Banthanti.

The rest of the morning was just a matter of gritting the teeth and pushing on, as we wound our way up the trail, often beside the river, to Deurali (2990m). At one stage we were sharing the trail with a herd of buffalo; probably the least people-shy buffalo I have come across in Nepal so far. We passed a section of river where many trekkers had laid piles of stones into little stupas for good luck, and as we climbed higher we began to meet quite a lot of people walking in the other direction. On balance, I was glad to be climbing up, as the trail was a bit slippery and precarious in places.

The morning walk was the toughest part of the trek so far, but the worst was to come after our lunch break, as we climbed up the short, steep path to the Deurali Pass (3090m). On a clear day I can imagine the views from the pass would be amazing, but alas… In the photo below you can see the Poon Hill tower just underneath the white prayer flag. Poon Hill is only a little bit higher than Deurali Pass.

Even before reaching the Pass we could see Ghorepani (2860m), our destination for Day 3. It didn’t look to be too far away, but it took a while to get there. I rather liked it when we arrived, too! Ghorepani Deurali (or Upper Ghorepani) where we were staying, was more like a tiny town than the other villages en route. For example, it had not just one, but three bookshops in the main square. Oh yes, and it had a main square.

So, all in all, Day 3 was about 6 hours (including breaks) of toughness, walking mainly up along some fairly steep stretches of the trail.