Nepal Day 5 Annapurna Trek Ghandruk to Landruk

Thursday April 28^th

I got up at 6:00 and went outside to see the mountain view. The sky was clear and the mountains were visible. I watched as the sun came up and lit up the snowy peaks, absolutely beautiful. Somewhere in the town monks were chanting, which added to the atmosphere.

We had breakfast outside and then took a group photo before departing by 8:30 for day two of trekking. We walked down steep steps for two hours to reach the river which we crossed by suspension bridge. It was sunny and warm again, and we worked up a good sweat.

On the other side we began to climb again. Over hill and over dale as we climbed and descended until we finally wound up at a little tea house high up on a hill in the village of Jhino. We all placed an order for lunch and then we descended for a half hour down steep steps again to the river and a hot spring. We had all brought bathing suits and we sat in the warm water trying to heal our sore muscles. It started to rain just at the end of our soak and we climbed back up those steps to get to the tea house for our lunch.

Luckily it rained mostly at lunch, because a few of us, me included, had left our rain gear in the bags the porters were carrying and they had gone a different route to the night spot, because they didn't need to come to the hot springs. So Anil and Keiran made large garbage bags coats for us. So, I wore that as we descended again to the river, which we crossed again using the same bridge. After that we walked over more hills and dales until we got to another part of the river where we had to cross on a long suspension bridge. This one rocked and swayed as we crossed, quite unnerving. From there we walked for another two hours, parts of which were very steep, to Landruk, our tea house accommodation for the night.

Again today the views were spectacular, the scenery gorgeous and the fact that we were hiking in the foothills of the Himalayas, pretty amazing. It was another very tough day, and I was exhausted by the time we arrived after hiking six to seven hours.

Before dinner I showed some of my pictures to a few of the travellers who were interested. Then dinner and a short yack session before heading off to bed.