Day 7

Back to Tal via Odar and Nache Village

For the hike back, instead of retracing our steps we took a longer detour up the hill to a small stupa and then on to a small village that according to or trekking book has been untouched by modern tourism...aside from the satellites...

Then on to Nache Village, a monumental climb up the eastern side of the gorge along a narrow stone path chipped from the overhanging rock.  The village is situated on a plateau 1200ft above the river with a beautiful lake and peak behind.



 By far the bet views we have had thus far!  Then back down 1200ft to the river then down river to Tal.

Day 6

Tal to Lower Danaque

The trail was more of the same...dusty dirt road, mule trains, few views.  We passed through pine forest at this elevation (2300meters).  As we arrived in Danaque we caught our first glimps of Annapurna III above the tree tops and another snowy peak to the south.  The lodge we stayed at was very picturesque, with our first encounter with fellow trekkers; two Brittish blokes.

The lodge owner gave us some hot coals to warm our feet and some home-made rice wine to warm our bellies!  We decided that we had had enough with the circuit and decided to head back out and try our luck with another trail called the Annapurna Sanctuary, because the trail, the views, and the colds, we getting worse not better with elevation!

Day 5

Rest Day in Tal

Because of the high river gorge Tal gets less than 4 hours of sunlight, from 11:15 to 2:45.  During that time everyone in town seems to stop whatever work they are doing to lounge in the sun...
There is a Buddhist Stupa (temple) in town with a beautiful waterfall just behind, we can see this from our guesthouse window.

We are beginning to lose interest in the circuit trek because of the lack of mountain views and the road construction, coupled with the lack of fellow trekkers and Ben's cold.  We decide to give the trek and the cold one more day (and more elevation) to improve or else we would turn around...

Day 4

Chamje to Tal

 This was a nice short hike to Tal where we decided to have a rest day to help Ben recover from his cold.  We hiked along the dusty road for a while, then crossed over to the Eastern side of the river amid one mule train after an other.

Tal, which means lake in Nepalese, is situated in an old lake bed that was created when a major landslide thousands of years ago dammed up the river.  The slowly filed with sediment over the centuries and is now a gravel meadow with the river meandering through it and the lovely town of Tal.  In reaching Tal we enter the Manang district

Day 3

Bahundanda to Chamje
Day three was a beautiful hike through rice and millet terraces along the Eastern side of the river.  After we crossed over the rive at Shyange, where there was a beautiful waterfall and a not so beautiful hydro electric plant (generating power from the water fall), we found ourselves walking along the under-construction dirt road.  This road will haunt us for the remainder of the circuit trek.  It has been under construction for the last 5-10 years and is in no way complete, the speculation is that the government, who receives foreign aid money strictly for rural road development, is squandering the money, feigning construction a road to the district headquarters of Manang along a nearly impossible river gorge, using jack hammers, picks and the occasional explosive to whittle away at the sheer rock walls...oh the sounds of jackhammers and diesel generators in the wilderness...

Annapurnna Range Day 1 and 2

Crazy roads...(yes..thats a goat on the roof of that bus!)

Nepal

So we have been in Nepal now for 4 weeks...amazing how time goes so fast...
Upon arrival Nepal/Kathmandu seemed so refreshing, clean, friendly, less chaos...then we went into the mountains...
20 days later we find ourselves back in Kathmandu contemplating our time spent in the Himalayas, and some how it is not nearly as peaceful here in the city as we once thought