Annapurna Circuit - Day 14 - Forbidden Adventures
Trip Start
Jul 25, 2006
1
128
165
Trip End
Ongoing
Marpha, Nepal
Thursday, May 22, 2008
Total Kilometres: 146 Today: 15
Began the day by sneaking into the Forbidden Kingdom of Upper Mustang. Technically speaking, Tilli, the next village up from Kagbeni was recently removed from the restricted list. Nonetheless.
Matt and I got up shortly after 5 am to walk up the village, poke around, and be back in time for breakfast at 7 a.m. We walked through town until the trail led us down to the wide, dry river bed where channels of water split and meandered through the landscape. We made our way to the other side via makeshift wooden bridges that any rise in the water's level would surely wash away. A wall surrounded the irrigated fields of the village and the village itself. We wandered around until we found a small ravine that led into the heart of Tilli village. Despite the early hour, the village was awake and chores and life were well underway. Our presence elicited surprise and a few huge amused smiles. We "nameste"-ed our way around and watched as village women walked around the stupa in the middle of the village, spinning prayer wheels and chanting morning prayers. After a brief visit, and escorted out of the village by goats being taken out for grazing, we made our way back to Kagbeni.
The morning walk to Jomson was long and incredibly windy. There is a funnelling effect that creates a voracious wind that blasts up the Kali Gandaki Valley starting around 10 a.m. and climaxing in the late afternoon. This wind is so strong that Jomson airport will not allow planes to land or take off after 10 a.m. due to potential disaster. During the afternoon the wind reached such levels as to make walking difficult at times as our route took us directly into it. The walk meandered through the dry river bed along the road above the shore. Walking through the riverbed for hours was painful as shoes simply do not have enough sole. Every rock could be felt through the bottom of my shoes and my feet are tremendously sore tonight.
Jomson is the metropolis of the Annapurna Circuit. Getting there seemed to take forever. We stopped for lunch where I paid a fortune to send two emails. It was during lunch that Pia announced she was tired of walking and wanted to take a jeep the rest of the way out of the circuit. She walked the rest of the afternoon with us to Marpha, out night stop, and will walk again tomorrow. After that it's anyone's guess.
It's understandable in a lot of ways. With the exception of Kagbeni, everything has felt rather anti-climatic since the Pass. Things are much more developed on this side. Instead of walking trails like the Manang side, we are walking on roads. Instead of moving to the side for donkey trains and yaks, we do it for jeeps and tractors instead. The scenery has not been as visually grabbing either, with more clouds blocking the peaks as we move out of the rain shadow of the Annapurna Massif and into the pre-monsoon weather of this part of Nepal. If it wasn't for the incredible, stupid stubbornness I've been cultivating so far over this trek, I would jump in a jeep or flight out of Jomson, as was my original plan. Instead I seem determined to limp and shamble along until I finally walk out of this place.
