Day 7: Gorepani to Naya Pul
Trip Start
Sep 17, 2007
1
94
272
Trip End
Oct 08, 2008
Naya Pul,
Nepal
Saturday, January 12, 2008
So it was painful but to my relief the sky was wonderfully clear and we would have a great sunrise after all. We climbed the watchtower with a bunch of other trekkers and wondered if we'd freeze before the sun decided to shine.
It was close. A beautiful deep red began to spread on the horizon opposite the mountains looming in the dark. Ever so slowly, they began to take shape. The sky was almost light before the clouds started to turn pink and finally, the sun appeared. We were left staring at the result
the sun emerges
.Not one but two entire mountain ranges were spread out before us. Annapurna loomed in the center, while little fishtail (which we had seen from Pokhara) was off to the right. It was a panorama of the mountains we had been hiking around for the last six days and a wonderful finishing touch on the trek. Maybe the pictures can do a little better than I can.
Cameras satisfied, we hightailed it down the hill for a well-deserved breakfast. Then we packed up and headed downhill. Yes, it was nice. We had arrived at the top and all we had to do was fall down the mountain to the end of the trek.
While our pace was much faster heading downhill through the forest, the slope became more pronounced as we went along. We met a lot of other trekkers coming up the other way (many people do a 3-4 day round trip to Poon Hill) who warned us of fun to come. When we emerged into the valley, a million steep rocky steps lay ahead. We were in for a long day. Some people said we couldn't even make it to Naya Pul in one day. But they didn't know what we were capable of.
We made good time down the massive stone staircase, sympathizing with the poor fellows going in the other direction, and tried not to turn any ankles
first rays at Poon Hill
. We had a good view of Fishtail from here, and could even see why it had got its name (see picture). There were a bunch of towns sprinkled across the downhill slope, and we watched the porters carrying huge loads up and down the stairs. We even passed a convoy of chicken carriers. When we finally reached the bottom we were attacked by two very cute kids who screamed "Sweet! Sweet!" and attached themselves to our legs. They were evil. Once we had reached the valley we walked alongside through the various villages. Given the inaccuracy of our map, we were never sure quite how far we had to go, and we wanted to make it in time to catch a bus. Slightly footsore but victorious, we reached Naya Pul around 4:30 in the afternoon.
We carefully avoided the $25 taxi and waited for the bus. We ended up sitting on the floor and I wondered if our bags were going to fly off the roof. It was a pretty long ride back as we chugged up and down the mountainous roads. At one point there wasn't much room to breath but eventually I even got a seat. Erin ended up chatting with an English guy who was here with his Mom and his son. We ended up getting in a taxi with them from the bus station. They weren't going where we were, but eventually we made it back to our good old hotel.
After our trials in the wilderness we treated ourselves to a dinner of steak and beer. Then we treated ourselves to a hot shower and a comfy bed.
~Travis
