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Annapurna Circuit - Day 12

Mon 21st Sep 2009 — drew
image(s): 
Marpha
layers of hills
it's a long road
building bridges
cold water and sore feet
pine forests and buckwheat fields
water stop
best dal bhat on the circuit
Day 12
Start Marpha (2670m)
End Ghasa (2010m)
Distance (day) 24km
Distance (cumulative) 170km
Height climbed -660m

After the toughest day going over the pass we have now endured two of the longest days walking almost 50km and descending 1.8km over the course of around 15 hours on the hoof. We started the day with a treat breakfast in a cafe, with eggs, potatoes, toast and real coffee - they also had some delicious home made apricot jam (Marpha can do soft fruits as well as apples!) - just the ticket after the birthday celebrations.

We waved goodbye to our friends, who had now finished their trekking and were heading back to the city on the bus. It seems that most people now take the bus or jeep on this side of the circuit, and we have wondered at times whether we're not mad for continuing on foot out of sheer bloody-mindedness - those who know us will probably agree we can both be quite stubborn though. Heather's feet had not improved and walking was becoming very painful.

The day began again following the dusty jeep track, although thankfully we were out of the wind and it was fairly pleasant passing through some pretty villages. There were lots of planes flying low overhead - most of the flights to and from Jomsom go early in the day to avoid the afternoon's high winds.

To avoid a long loop in the track, we set out across the floor of the valley. This involved removing our boots and wading through deep cold tributaries. We had to remind Devendra that our feet are soft and tender and our progress was painfully slow. It was hard to keep your balance, but we formed a chain and tough-footed Devendra led us across safely. Quite an adventure.

With boots chewing up her feet, Heather changed into her sandals and felt considerable relief for the rest of the four hour walk to Kalopani. Just as we came into the village, it started raining so we were happy to get inside and order some lunch. The monsoon is apparently not quite over, although we've been fairly oblivious to it for the last 12 days.

During our (very nice) lunch the rain stopped. We were both fairly exhausted and were trying to ignore the jeeps outside tempting us to give up walking, but again we decided to soldier on - mercifully it only took us 2 hours to get to Ghasa when we had been expecting 3. This section of the path was very pretty, and reminded us of walks through pine forests and wild flower meadows in the UK. There were several crystal clear streams and waterfalls coming down the sides of the valley, and feeding into the murky river.

We were fairly shattered when we arrived at the lodge for the evening, and had a bit of a scare when they initially mentioned $10 as the price of a room (more than 3 times what we'd been paying almost everywhere else), but thankfully they had basic rooms with a shared bathroom for considerably less (funds were starting to get a little tight by this stage, and the only ATM on the whole circuit was back in Jomsom).

Dal Bhat for dinner; 9.5 out of 10 - more excellent Thakali style dal bhat served in heavy metal bowls, lovely flavours with two curries of potatoes, cabbage and soy beans.