Trekking Day Two

We set off through more jungle, crossing lots of streams, stopped for an early lunch where the littles were delighted to meet the sleepy cat and kittens, and Eve organised us all to take turns photographing each other. We don't have many family photos at all, so she definitely has a point....




















Mushrooms drying in the sun on the terrace of the lunchtime teahouse.








Arriving at the blue roofed village of Ghorepani. This is the lower part of the village.




Little Thom insisted on holding my finger for the first two days whilst he was riding on Den's back - this was progression from the first day when he had refused to go with Den at all, so I carried him until mid afternoon. Of course by day three Den was the best thing EVER and very funny and clever and much more interesting than me.....





This is our tea-house for night number two:




And this is the view from its front door:





Noah took this photo of the dining room and sitting room area.....





Looking down onto more bright blue roofs.



And the rather surprising site of a volley ball / basketball / footie pitch. I am still in awe that this is in a village where there are no roads, and everything is carried in by either mules or porters!

Trekking.....Day 3 & 4

We got up before dawn, dressed quickly and set off up Poon Hill to watch the sun rise...

As the sun clipped the top of Daulaghiri, we basked, awestruck on the deserted summit of Poon Hill....









Ahem, only kidding about the deserted bit.... It had a rather festivally feel to it - there was even an (illegally pitched) tent on the top.
And we met several people we knew from school, and Raj Kamal who'd cooked for us when we stayed at Furse Khola Farmhouse in February.



The smalls were shivery, even after scoffing huge cinnamon rolls, so we soon set off back down to the teahouse for Masala tea and pancakes.


Then set off on the 'real'trek of the day.

This meadowy bit reminded me of Twilight, where Bella and Edward lie.



Loved this band of cloud.



And this section of the trek felt rather Fellowship of the Ring ish. It was very busy - we plodded up hill with hundreds of other trekkers.



Biscuit stop.

Dad's fleece is always warmer than your own, isn't it....

After lunch the trail became a lot less crowded.

Crazy jungle angles.

Den, Suresh and Karma went on ahead with the boys in the later part of the afternoon, and Harv and I walked with Eve, playing 'Top Five Fish Dishes' (Harv and I), Top Five Animals (Eve), and Top Five Biscuits (all of us).

And then a small group of langurs appeared, leaping softly through the branches, seemingly oblivious to us.

Seventies in the jungle.... I'm sure the more ambitious gardeners on Charterfields used to cultivate this sort of plant when I was a child.

We finally reached our final teahouse, in Ghandruk about 5pm, 12 hours after we had set off for Poon Hill that morning. This is the view from our bedroom doorway.

The following morning we set off much later, maybe 9.30, and pootled down the hill back towards Nayapul.

Thom cooked lunch on the way:

And we watched the rice harvest.

And it got warmer and warmer again, as we came back down from the mountains. These water buffalos were cooling themselves down in a man made swamp.

My last photo before my camera battery finally gave up.