I hardly slept at all last night. I’m so excited about getting to the mountains. We got up at 6 am for an early breakfast and departure. Steve gave us small duffle bags to use, since we don’t need all our luggage to trek. He is transporting our luggage to Dwarika’s hotel, where we’ll spend our last night in Nepal.
We had an uneventful 35 minute flight from Kathmandu to Pokhara, the rural capital of western Nepal. Mozella had learned that if we sat on the right side of the plane in rows 11 & 12, we could see the mountains. We did! It is astounding to see them towering over the clouds.
View from the airplane
We were met at the airport by our guide and given a trek briefing by the Ker and Downey group leader. We were introduced to our porters.We were driven in a van for about an hour to our trek start point. We walked the ridge-line in the lower foothills of the Annapurnas with surrounding views to the Pokhara Valley. This route then dropped to the Modi River Valley, where Ker and Downey’s Gurung Lodge in Majhgaon is located. We had a box lunch that we ate along the way to the lodge. Mozella bought a few things from a Tibetan selling jewelry near our lunch spot. We arrived at our lodge after about 2 hours of hiking. Each of us is delighted with the lodge and the view. Argun, our guide took us for an hour hike to a village mid afternoon. Then, more leisure time. I’m amazed at how I can rest and relax when I’m here. About four pm, tea was brought to us in our rooms.
Tea time
Fire in the lodge
Mozella wrote a poem about her experience using my initials at the beginning of each line. You can read more about Mozella at www.loveisamountain.com. I’ll post her poems later on my blog.
Then we joined others for a fire and popcorn in the lodge, Before dinner, Mozella treated us to a bottle of wine! Our dinner was good-chicken cutlet, vegetables, rice and dessert. We were in bed early and slept well.