Trek The Unknown

We started the day at around 8:15 in the morning walking from Ghyaru. remember that we are way up over the valley at that day so there are magnificent views from the top.

Walking starts with a few short climbs and there are a few great view points along the way. Suddenly on the way we saw some vultures ( I’m not an ornithologist, but it looks like it :)). So for the 1st time I had a good excuse to use my 75-300 mm lens I carried with me the whole time.

On the way it’s possible to see Homde airport ( If we were walking the straight easier way the previous day we would have walked through Homde). If you are too tired or can’t get used to the heights, one of your options is taking a flight from Homde to Pokhara, but you might have to wait a few days for a flight and an available seat.

We had the chance to see a small airplane landing and taking off, it’s weird to look down on it, instead of looking up to the sky!

The next village coming up is Nagwal. There are many alleys in that village so you have to ask people which is the right way to cross it.

After Nagwal the trail goes down , back to the valley. Then it’s an easy 2 hour straight walk to Manang. On the way there is another small village called Braga ( or Braka) so don’t get too excited that you arrived to Mananag, it’s another half and hour walk….

We reached Manang pretty late, at 14:30. Our porters mentioned it would take only 4-5 hours to walk until Manang, but the girl in our group got hurt in her foot, so we had to find a horse for her that would take her to Mananag. All this waiting and logistics took quite a while.

All along the trail and especially at this part of the trail there are many people renting horses or yaks ( which are more expensive) in order to carry tiered or hurt trekkers.

This was the end of that day. There is a clinic at Manang that is there for a reason, but it deserves a special post.

That would be my next one.

Leaving Out Chame in the morning let’s you enjoy a pleasant walk, except of one climb before reaching Bhratang. We left Chame at 7:25 in the morning and reached Bhartang at 9:05, total of one hour and a half. The road goes along and reaches Dhukur Pokhari, we were there two hours and 10 minutes later, the walk was still nice and easy.

At this day you reach a dryer part of the Annapurna range. The vegetation is thinner and less trees are around.

Sometime later we reached Lower pisang ( Acap map show that you 1st reach Upper Pisang and then Lower Pisang, but on the way we took which was shorter it goes the other way around ).

the trails inside lower Pisang are a little big confusing. There is one split on the way that goes to Upper Pisang, from there the road continues to Ghyaru.

A shorter way would be to keep go straight on the road until you see a big prayer wheels wall. From there you get 2 choices. The harder and nicer one would be to turn right towards the end of the well and cross the bridge. If you want the easier ,less scenic way just keep walk straight. This is a pretty straight road with no ups and downs going all the way to Manang. We chose the harder one and turned right.

When you cross the bridge after turning right you will see Upper Pisang on your right (even when you are in Lower Pisang, you always see Upper pisang on the other side of the river). Take a left turn right after the bridge. This is the way to Ghyaru.

The way now is very easy with short climbs up. You will walk by a small clear lake and right after it there is another bigger lake (The clearest one I’ve seen in my life!Beautiful!). In order to enjoy it’s view, leave the trail and go along the shore. If you keep go along the lake shore you’ll bump again to the trail so don’t be afraid loosing it.

Again…walking is fairly easy now…until you reach a bridge. Cross it…and look up…Ghyaru is up there. The Climb is long and took us almost an hour ( I think it was around 50 minutes). But I must say after almost a week of walking I felt this climb was easier for me to climb than I thought it will be. Your body will get use to these kind of climbs and walks.

The view is more beautiful from each moment to another. When you reach Ghyaru you see a few of the annapurna range tops. From left to right you are able to see: Annapurna II, Annapurna IV, Annapurna III, Gangapurna and Tilicho Peak on the far right.

It’s truly amazing!