The Trek Begins…

March 1- Day 1 - from the itinerary:

Kathmandu - Pokhara -

Nayapul/Ghandruk (1940 M. /6400 Ft.)     5-6 hours hike which should be about 2.5 miles.

Early morning transfer to the airport for your flight to Pokhara.

Upon arrival at Pokhara commence your drive to Nayapul with your trek guide (approx. 1.5 hr. drive). Start trekking along the banks of the Modi River towards Ghandrung. The compact village of Birethanti is reached after walking for about 45 minutes. Cross the suspension bridge at Birethanti and follow the Modi River from the left bank.

Lunch will be taken en-route. After lunch, the trail ascends up to Ghandruk where you overnight at a lodge.  Ghandruk is one of the biggest Gurung settlements in western Nepal. From here, you can get a good view of Gangapurna, Machhapuchare (Fishtail), and Mount Annapurna south and other snowy Mountains. If time permits, visit

ACAP (ANNAPURNA CONSERVATION AREA PROJECT) head office, local

museum and village Spend one overnight at Best Available Tea House.

Hopefully I will be able to have a single room for the entire time. Deven rightly is managing my expectations- that it might not be possible if the place is too full (ugh).

Pokhara is a 25 minute flight from Kathmandu ( from point 1 to 2 on the map).

Pokhara is a city on Phewa Lake, in central Nepal. It’s known as a gateway to the Annapurna Circuit. Tal Barahi Temple, a 2-story pagoda, sits on an island in the lake. On the eastern shore, the Lakeside district has yoga centers and restaurants. In the city’s south, the International Mountain Museum has exhibits on the history of mountaineering and the people of the Himalayas.

The weather today was....sunny and about 70 degrees. The altitude isn't much higher than Denver (5280').

Had a lovely surprise at breakfast where I saw my guide from Druk Path in Bhutan.

My flight left from the domestic airport which I remember from my trip to EBC. It hasn't changed much. Deven said these flights now go from a different airport about 90 minutes away. I seem to remember we were one of the last flights to go to Lukla from this airport and we came into the new one. I still find it odd to be one of the tallest people in the room....

My bag was exactly 15 kg (the limit for the flight) and I hope the scale was wrong as I seem to have gained 4 kg....

The flight was a bit late, but the weather was great for the views. It was also great to get away from the air pollution.

The airport in Pokhara is only about a year old and still looks like new. Pokhara is the second city after Kathmandu and has about 2 million people (compared to Kathmandu which has about 4 million). Below are pictured the main gate to the city and the telephone lines which always give me a laugh.

We transferred to a 4x4 jeep for the 90 minute drive to Nayapul and lunch.

The road paralleled the river with farming villages and terraced fields. The road got pretty bad in spots. We got our first glimpses of Fishtail and also saw some adorable baby goats.

Nayapul is the village where you get your permit into the ACAP. I found out that Annapurna means full/plenty and that there are many popular routes through the area

We stopped here for lunch where I had Thukpa soup and ginger tea. (Lisa- the Exodus sign is for you:). They had an interesting use for a gas canister and some interesting local instruments

The description of today was a bit off. In other times the trek would have begun from here. Now the road has brought a lot of traffic and walking the next bit is

dangerous due to the number and speed of cars. We drove up to birethanti and walked from there.

Our starting steps

Poor Shekker lugging my stuff

Here is a bridge not long after we started

The walk was gentle and actually about 2.33 miles with an altitude increase of 1267 feet. Chris reminded me the first day of Machu Picchu was also easy....

The weather started closing in (par for the course). Here is the view vs. What I should I been able to see.

Here is my favorite sign of the day and the wifi wires along the way

There are some lovely flowers - the rhododendrons are blooming, red and yellow poinsettias, and various others:

There are orchids, but haven't seen any blooming yet.

But there were giant spinach plants.

Some snaps along the way including some people dressed in the local costumes

There were some monkeys along the way, but they didn't come through in the last shot, bove

Ghandruk itself is in three parts - low, middle and high. It's a bit of a false summit when you get to the Ghandruk sign

And then realize there's another bunch of stairs to get to upper Ghandruk. The people of this area are historically from Mongolia, so their faces look a bit different than the main stream Nepali. It is fast turning into a weekend destination for those from Pokhara because they can now drive here. I asked Dev about the museum and other things described, but he said it wasn't worth it, instead recommending we visit the old town in the morning.

We got to the Ghandruk Tea House at about 2:30. Below is our route from Pokhara to lunch and then our walking portion for the day.

The Guest House was a pleasant surprise - free WiFi, en-suite bathrooms with hot water, my own room, and plenty of charging facility in the room. The color of the shampoo (black), was a bit off-putting, but did the job well.

Dinner was vegetable curry, rice and ginger tea.

I ate by myself with lots of company watching as their dinner wasn't until an hour later. I was able to visit with Deven and found out he is from Darjeeling, but has lived in Kathmandu for about 25 years. He's married with a teenage daughter who I met by phone after dinner. As with all of my guides to date, he is a certified mountain guide. He knows my guide, Pakrait, from EBC and also knows my guide from Bhutan. He guides in Nepal, Sikkim and Bhutan. Shekkar is from Kathmandu, is married with three children. His English isn't so good, so i wasn't able to find out too much

It got very cold once the sun went down and I put on most of what I brought. I was given my camelback full of hot water to use as a hot water bottle.

Tomorrow starts super early with a wake up at 5 to see the sunrise or 6 if it's cloudy. I'll be finishing this up and off to sleep shortly.