Beautiful Western Nepal

After a few days of the hussle and bussle of Kathmandu we went to the beautiful lake town Pokhara. It is a calm place and offers day trips to surrounding sights. From Pokhara we set off to Nayapul, the start of the Ghorepani Poon Hill trek.The beginning of the trek gives you glimpses of the Himalayan peaks but the rest of the way was mainly views of beautiful green hills and beautiful rhododendron bushes . After approximately 10 miles (5 hours) we arrived at the stop for the night, a sweet and simple 'tea house' at 1527 meters, run by a lovely Nepalese family.

After a very deep sleep we enjoyed a nice nepali breakfast to start the next stretch of the trek. The first part of the trek was a steep upward walk for about 2 hours which then turned into a more gradual hike. The walk on the stone paved steps is a daring adventure early in the morning. The trail leads through villages and forest to Ghorepani. The reward of this 7 hour walk (about 15 miles) is a close up view of the Himalaya. We stayed at another cute tea house at 2810 meters and enjoyed a wonderful dinner. The owner of the small establishment had a nice hot fire going for us and we dried our socks and shoes. We were prepared for an early night as the next morning called for a pre-sunset hike.We set off at around 3am if I remember right. The trail was only lit by the beams of our bouncing head lamps and we managed to reach Poon Hill before the sun began to rise over the ten peaks that are visible from this viewing point. Although the place gets pretty busy with lots of trekking groups, it is worth the trip. The view is absolutely stunning.We went back below to Ghorepani for breakfast and then carried on to Tadapani, a sweet medieval looking village. As we were on our descent, we got treated to home made rice-vodka ... well a whole other experience in itself! We spent the last night at 2700 meters and returned to Nayapul via the villages Gurung and Ghandruk.

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