Nepal Journal — Saturday, 11/23/96

Day 2 on the trail:
From Hille (1495m) to Nagethanti (2460)

After a bracing cold shower, I dress and join everyone for breakfast on a patio next to the trail. A few minutes later, we hear some bells jangling far away. The bells get louder and louder, then almost deafening as they get closer. Finally, a pony with a necklace of bells comes bursting into view, startling all of us. The pony is followed by about eight or nine other ponies, then eventually by a guy walking and waving a stick while shouting at the ponies. Almost all the ponies have a heavy sack or boxes lashed onto a frame resting on their backs. We see dozens of these pony trains on the trail each day, carrying goods from Jomsom to Pokhara and back. Thanks to them, we can enjoy bottled water and Coke all the way, along with stuff like film, toilet paper, and flashlight batteries.

Ponies bearing life-giving Coca Cola

Setting out on the trail for the second day, we come to the village of Tikedungha after only a half-hour. The Lonely Planet guide to Trekking in Nepal describes the trail between Tikedungha and the next village, Ulleri, as an "endless stone staircase." They couldn't have said it any better. We can't believe just how many stone stairs there are; it must have taken generations to build. We all get winded by the climb, so we have to stop often. We're pretty tired by the time we finally reach Ulleri, but we're rewarded with a great view of Annapurna and Machapuchre from our lunchtime restaurant. We have plenty of time to enjoy the view: Nepalese lodge service can be very slow, since there's often only one person who begins making our meals completely from scratch after we order. (Later on, we'll learn that we can speed things up by all ordering the same thing.)

Resting in Ulleri, the top of the endless stone staircase

From Ulleri, we decide to push for Nagethanti as our stop for the night. We come to the last village before Nagethanti around 4:00 p.m., and the late time makes us slightly nervous. We would like to be done hiking before it gets dark at 5:30. According to Lonely Planet, the village is only an hour away, but we're discovering that whoever wrote that section of the book must have legs as big around as my waist. The locals aren't much help, either: one says that Nagethanti is only twenty minutes away, while a hotel proprietor says it's more like two hours. (Then again, he has a vested interest in us not going on.)

We keep going, and going, and going. When it gets past 5:00, the light really starts to fade quickly, so now we're trudging through darkening woods, with no sign of Nagethanti in sight. I end up taking Mom's pack, and balancing it on top of my own, so we can make quicker progress.

Mom enjoying the sun after lunch

Finally, we come over a crest and see the lodge we're heading for--separated from us by one last deep ravine. We plunge down, then climb steeply back out, finally reaching the lodge a little after 5:30 p.m. A few minutes later, it's too dark to see without a flashlight. We get a room, but contrary to what we've heard, the place is a dump. The food's okay, though, and we have a good time talking to the woman who owns the place.