First view of the himalaya, in pokhara. But in Ghandrung it is raining, it rains here every afternoon, we are still in low elevation Nepal jungle, at the end of 5 hours of driving and a couple hours of hiking about 6,000 feet elevation.
These are the early morning views of Annapurna and Machhapruche, while sipping hot lemon by the side of the road while they loaded the jeep.
This jeep provided many more bone rattling thrills, especially in the back where we were bounced around mercilessly. The road started out nice and paved, but then turned to one lane of precariouly winding, rocky, muddy, trail up the mountain. The driver had to stop periodically and put water in the radiator, I though this was going to be like Mexico where the jeep just broke down and started rolling backwards, except here rolling backwards means going off a thousand foot cliff. This road made the trip up orizaba look smooth and mild.
But we made it, us and the two porters and the several other local people. I was worried how the porters could even lift our gear, let alone carry it into the mountains, and asked Nima to take on an extra porter, which we will do a ways up the trail.
My view of the drive.
The fairly mellow walk up to Ghandrung. Reminiscent of Kharakhola, same humidity, same smell left by the donkeys, same children running up the hill with their bright clothes and brilliant chatter.
The town itself has slate stone stairways for streets, streets paved in slate, and mostly streets that are stairs. Very steep, everything in this part of the country is built on the side of a mountain.
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