Beer...

We were woken by the sound of some kind of small animal being tortured – or it might have been Sylvie’s early-morning singing ;-). Although it was well before 7am, after our early night, we were more than willing to turf ourselves out of bed and enjoy a leisurely breakfast with our new friends. The angle of the sun and a few annoying wisps of clouds prevented me (again) from getting a really decent shot of Machapucharre’s elegant fishtail, but acres of clear, blue sky and the sun’s burgeoning warmth on our sleep-chilled bones promised a fine, clear day ahead. Around the breakfast table this seemed much to all our liking and we were all in fine spirits as time came to wave the Dutch off. We took a few snaps, said our goodbyes and waved them off with promises to see them in Kathmandu and then finished our packing and left ten minutes later by a different trail.
Much of the first part of the journey passed through moss-draped cloud forest and the green carpet on every tree and untrodden turf seemed to insulate us from the outside world. Sound was deadened, light filtered and heat dissipated so that we were able to walk in comfort along the gently descending path. Soon, though, the path steepened and began to follow the downward path of several converging stream gullies. The footing was occasionally treacherous and the continual downward motion was beginning to take its toll on Michael’s knees. Fortunately, trees and blissful ignorance blinded us to the true length of the descent ahead and we continued to walk with a spring in our step, enjoying a fine, sunny day (which was by now, of course, causing me to leak with my usual abandon). Soon we arrived at Ghandruk, which at 1952m signified a drop in altitude of about 700m. From a vantage point on the side of the hill Suriya pointed out our destination of Tolka, which seemed to be about 100m below us…on the other side of a steep-sided, deep-bottomed valley. I asked Suriya where we were planning on taking lunch (unusual, I know) and his finger seemed to take on an almost vertical aspect as he said, ‘Down by the river.’ I looked down as far as I could (at least 300m) and when I still couldn’t see any signs of water below I realised that we were in for some serious descent…inevitably followed by some serious ascent…and suddenly noticed just how warm the day had become.
Wary of the sun’s increasing height, I set off down the side of the valley at a fair lick as I wanted to be under shade and out of its baleful glare before it reached its zenith. Being more susceptible to gravity than my nimbler companions, I soon left them far behind and within ½ hour found myself seated under an awning at an apparently deserted teahouse. Suriya soon arrived and managed to rouse a slightly sleepy looking chap who set about searching for his wife…unfortunately, to no avail. By this time Michael had arrived and we ordered our food warily, suspecting that this fellow might not be up to much in the kitchen. However, his wife didn’t return until a minute or two before our Dal Bhat came out and I have to say, it was the nicest I’d eaten since leaving Kathmandu. After eating, I kicked back for an hour both to let it digest and to allow the sun to lose a little more of its potency. Michael went off to check the swimming conditions in the beautiful, aquamarine river that snaked along the valley floor. The waters tumbled direct from the snowmelts of the Annapurna Sanctuary and certainly looked inviting but he returned not long after to report that the current was a little too strong for his liking and that he’d nearly been swept downriver, but for the timely help of the teahouse owner with a long stick.
Once he’d dried off and re-applied his sun cream we were able to set ourselves to the grim task of tackling the steep, unshaded hill that rose up from the other side of the valley. The path picked its way along the edge of rice paddies and then wheat fields but there wasn’t a tree in sight until we’d arrived at the first village, where we gratefully collapsed, dripping with exertion, in a roughly-built bamboo shelter. An hour-and-a-half of sweat and toil later, I arrived, out-of-breath at our final overnight stop, Tolka.
Here we found an awesome, powerful, solar-heated shower and we were then able to sit out on the deck surveying beautiful views over the valleys back to Annapurna South. We felt sufficiently celebratory to order our first beer of the trek and as the day cooled it seemed fitting to drink a couple more to refresh ourselves. An excellent meal (accompanied by yet more beer) was followed by a few rowdy hands of cards – but that was about as much of a party as we could manage after such a long hot day and, once again, we were in bed by 9pm. We wanted to finish early on our final day to make the most of our foreshortened stay in Pokhara and, of course, I was looking forward to seeing my brother again after 6 days.