Day 3: Jomsom to Kalopani
Trip Start
Sep 17, 2007
1
90
272
Trip End
Oct 08, 2008
Kalopani,
Nepal
Tuesday, January 8, 2008
As we left Marpha the landscape changed from the desert of gravel and scrub brushes to evergreen trees. I love trees. There's nothing like the rugged beauty like we saw this morning, but trees are so welcoming. We were also progressing into some true mountain peak territory, and the contrast between the snow-capped peaks towering in the sky and the pine covered hills was inspiring and gorgeous.
One of the most beautiful points on the Jomsom trek came upon us around lunch time
walking from Jomsom
. First we sat for a rest, and as we were admiring a large mountain in front of us several children came up to say hello. They were very curious about everything and took much time examining my camera, exclaiming over their photos and pushing buttons. One of them threw a rock at a cow and we learned just how young children learn to chuck rocks at animals. This is a habit that seems to have developed through all of South Asia. Fortunately, although the cow was about a meter away, the kid missed. We decided to move on. Our lunch spot was perfect. We were sitting on a rooftop drinking the best apple juice I've had since we left the US (it doesn't taste like green apple, which is how pretty much every other country seems to think apple juice is meant to taste), tucked in the deepest valley in the world. This is because the town is on the river but has two mountain peaks (a mere 20-30 km apart) towering over it, a 6000 and an 8000 m peak. That's tall.
The 8000 m peak had an ice flow that we admired at length. Travis said he'd like to climb on the mountain, but I forbade this due to the fact that mountaineering is one of the most dangerous sports in the world. Shortly after we left Larjung, where we had stopped for lunch, we came into a crescent sort of bay in the riverbed with a stunning panorama of peaks all around us
near Marpha
. We just stopped for a moment and stared. I never thought I'd be here. In total we walked for 5.5 hours. But for little ups and downs the going was not difficult - mostly flat and on a jeep path. Nevertheless the last haul of the evening was a little much and I was never happier to put up my feet after a long day...except perhaps that first day. But we do it to ourselves because we don't really take long breaks from walking. I guess we both feel that if we can walk there's no reason not to.
Nights are still dark and freezing, and there's nothing to do but snuggle down and wait for tomorrow.
Erin
