13th May - Lumle to Ghorapani

I was up at 5.20 with the light and had breakfast about 6. The lovely lady cooked me an omelet with some fried bread. I sat and looked at the beautiful view. The children of the sisters that live in the building all came to talk to me while I sat and ate breakfast. It was really lovely. They are very cute, especially the little girls with their funky hats.

I was on the way by 6.30. I felt better today after a really good nights sleep but I could not breathe completely normally yet. The path from Lumle to Chandrakot was easy to find but I took a wrong turning at Chandrakot.


The map I have of the area says that it is a main route from Lumle to Birthithani - it is not. It was very easy to get on another track and instead of going North go Northeast. It took me a while to realise and I then to find someone that I could ask directions.

A lovely local man walked me down along a tiny track until it met up with a larger track. However, I had to go back on myself for about 1 hour. It did mean that I got to see this awesome view though!


My leg was itching badly as something had been biting at me in the night!


I had a second breakfast in Birithani as I was hungry. Unfortunately, I had set off early so that I could get a good long way today but it was actually 10am by the time I left Birithani and this was not very far from where I had started.


The trails are absolutely awesome and the views fantastic. There are loads of tea houses and lodges along the way and so every hour or so you could stop and get some food and drinks if you wanted. It makes for very easy trekking. You still get to see the amazing mountains but in a very safe environment. It was lovely and sunny all morning but then did rain a bit in the afternoon.


I stopped for a thali for lunch at a restaurant and had a nice chat with some others doing a similar route.

There are so many people up in the Mountains without the proper equipment. I find it strange at these altitudes as even in the Lake district in England (where the highest mountain is only just over 1000m) the weather can turn and you can get lost and fall off etc.

Nepal is very different as there are so many villages and towns in the hills. If you are on a major path, even if it is the wrong one and you are going in the opposite direction than planned, you will not be stranded and will be able to find shelter. I don't think that the weather is quite so variable either.


My knock off Northface shoes where really great and hardly rubbed at all. I had been really worried as normally I have pathetically soft feet that blister really easily. I had a couple of small blisters on my little toes but nothing major. In fact they are one of the comfliest shoes I have had. They are badly put together though and it is pretty obvious that they will not last.

I really enjoyed listening to podcasts on my ipod. I downloaded loads of bbc radio 4 documentaries from the net when I was in Pokhara and spent about 10 hours just listening to loads of them - 2 every hour. Some of them were very apt from Indian arranged marriages done via internet matching sites to the recent changes in Nepalese family structure, to Chinese web censorship and then some philosophy.




The terrain really changed after a village beginning with B that I can't remember the name of.... After about 40 mins of walking on the trail I thought I had better double check I was on the right path as I did not want to make the same mistake as this morning. I had asked several people on my way out of the village beginning with B and they said I was on the right path but I thought I might have missed a turning when concentrating on a podcast. I checked my map and it said that the trail that I was on should have the river on the left hand side of the path. The river was on the right and had been since I left the last village. However, my compass said I was going in the right direction. There was another path slightly off to the West that was a minor path rather than an major one. On this path the river was on the right on the map and so I though I was maybe on the wrong path. Needless to stay I then turned round and walked for about 1 hour back again only to find out that I was on the right path and the map was wrong..... Off I set again...


Today I should have done about 20 km but ended up doing 35km. I did have a very enjoyable day though. I still halved the times on most of the times given on the boards on the paths :-)



I got to Ghorapani at about 6.30 with enough time to check out a few of the hostels before it got dark. There were loads of other people in the one I choose and a great atmosphere in the warm dinning hall. It can get quiet cold at night here.

I tried some Tibetan bread for super.

Most people were planning to do as I was planning - to climb to Poon Hill for sunrise and so everyone headed off to bed about 9ish.