Amazing what sixteen hours of sleep at a lower altitude does for one’s energy level. I felt much better this morning and we packed up for our last day of hiking. The descent into Marhpa passed through some very diverse foliage; scrubby juniper bushes up high, then big gnarled old pine trees, and finally the valley bottom with its vineyards and fruit tree orchards.
We visited a Buddhist monastery in Marpha. Ongchhu was a great tour guide! He showed us around the place and pointed out the closed off buildings high above where some monks live in solitude for years at a time. We also got to sample yak butter tea…it tasted pretty good…more like a milky, salty soup than tea, but my stomach was still a mess, so I only had half a cup…Becky had her cup, my other half, and then had one more cup!
By early afternoon we’d hiked into Jomsom, a small town at the tail end of the Annapurna circuit thus it had lots of westerners, hotels, and the only airport within a day’s drive. Because Jomsom is in such a deep gorge and the afternoon winds are so strong, there are only a few flights in/out each morning, and given that it was trekking season, it wasn’t looking very likely we’d be getting that plane flight out that was on our itinerary. Tickets hadn’t been bought in advance since we didn’t know exactly which day we’d finish so we were probably going to be bouncing home on the jeep trail back to Beni.
Nima’s final night as our cook brought a dinner of fried chicken and a cake for dessert. Our whole gang sat in the hotel dining hall eating cake and we did our best to kill a bottle of local apple brandy. We gave out our envelopes containing the tips to all our staff and then it was off to bed to get a good night’s sleep before the rough ride out tomorrow.
...the next day
link to all the photos
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