I awoke with a cold. For days, I symptoms, but I just blamed them on walking upon a dusty road. Now it was official.
The morning started with another long stretch of stairs. Barring my time at the hotel, I climbed stairs for nine hours straight. Once I passed the Deurali Pass, I then went straight down, then up again, then down. This wasn't so bad; going up continuously used the same muscles again and again, but going up then down gives the different groups rest, plus it is not so tedious. Until Tadapani, the day was a pleasant stroll through nice quiet jungle. Of course by quiet, I mean that all I heard was the deafening roar of jungle.
Tadapani was one of the prettiest towns so far. From the village, Machhapuchhre, the Fish Tail, loomed above with Annapurna South to the left. They were so close, I could almost touch them; in a little over 24 hours, I literally would be able to touch them. After Tadapani, the trail dipped down to enter the gorge carved by the Modi Khola. When I reached the outside of Chhomrong, I was beat.
I knew that Chhomrong stretched down a hill, so I pushed myself to the bottom so I wouldn't have to do it in the morning. The stairs wend down nearly vertically and never seemed to end. Down I went. I found it odd the town went so far down. My knees started giving out. My ankles were aching. Finally, I reached a hotel at the bottom.
While I waited for the innkeeper to get my room together, I peered at my map to see if I would have to climb up the stairs on my way back to Pokhara. That's when I made a painful discovery. I was not on the lower section of Chhomrong, but in Jhinu. That meant I had made a wrong turn and didn't actually have to go down the stairs. It also meant that I would have to climb all the way back up again.
It was 400m up in 500m of trail, about as straight up as one can go. I was quite angry for a while, but it really wasn't so bad. Though I was quite exhausted, dal bhat and my first hot shower in days were a great cure.
No comments:
Post a Comment