Nepal Journal — Monday, 11/25/96

Day 4: From Deorali (2834m) to Tatopani (1180m)

Beginning the day's hike near Deorali

An unbelievably long day. Our goal is to walk down the mountain from Deorali all the way to the Kali Gandaki river at the bottom, to a large village called Tatopani. The hike down from the pass to Tatopani starts out great, but turns grueling by the time we stop for lunch in Sikha (at 1980m). We'd thought Sikha was two-thirds of the way there, but we all groan when we realize it's more like one-half. The afternoon is a long, knee-grinding descent towards the Kali Gandaki river and Tatopani.

Women threshing wheat by hand

Around 4:30, we come over a ridge that gives us a spectacular view of a rocky valley, and we can see the bridge over the Kali Gandaki in the distance--very far in the distance, unfortunately.

A long way still to go: The Kali Gandaki river is just visible
at the bottom of the valley on the left

By the time we reach the bridge an hour later, we're all so tired, we're not disturbed by crossing over a rushing river on a long, swaying suspension bridge. Chris has to carry Mom's pack the last half-hour, as we make our way up to Tatopani in the dark. We reach the Trekker's Lodge--rumored to have good food--where we eat our dinner and collapse into our beds. In one day, we've come down over a mile of vertical distance.