October 28, 2006: Ghorapani (2,850 m) to Poon Hill (3,210 m) to Ghandruk (1,950 m)

Got up shortly before 5 am and got dressed. Waited a couple of minutes for Bharat and then we walked towards the start of the Poon Hill trail. People were streaming out of every lodge. So, me and a few hundred of my best friends started the procession up to Poon Hill in total darkness. Most people wore a headlamp, I, of course, forgot mine, but there were so many lights, I didn't need one. It took about 45-50 minutes to get to the top of Poon Hill. It could have been a lot faster, but then some my "closest friends" were quite slow and as everybody was walking behind each other in one long line, it was difficult to pass. Anyway, we got up there with plenty of time to spare before sunrise. Once up, I had battery problems (of course). The "new" batteries I bought in Kathmandu did not work, so the entire time on Poon Hill, Bharat was constantly massaging one set of AA batteries while I used the other set in the camera. It worked. Sunrise was spectacular!!!

At first the sun appeared on Annapurna South and then on the summit of Dhaulagiri. I took lots of pictures while up on Poon Hill. The views were incredible and the South Face of Dhaulagiri glowed. Dhaulagiri, Tukuche Peak, the Annapurna Masssive including Annapurna South, Machhapuchhare and of course, the Kali Ghandaki Valley, the deepest valley in the world. We stayed up there until about 7:15 am and then headed back down to Ghorapani.

Dhaulagiri, 7th highest mountain on earth at 8,167 meters or 26,794 feet

Back at the lodge we had breakfast. I had oat porridge with apples and chapati. Then, around 9 am, we started our trek to Ghandruk. I was under the impression we were going down (as we had only climbed up the last 2 days). But as soon as we left our lodge, the trail went up. Shit! I was not mentally prepared for that. And Bharat said: "Don't worry, just a littel bit up". OK, I thought. After about 300 meter altitude change, we came to the top of the Deurali Pass where we had great views again of Dhaulagiri and the Annapurna range. We were almost as high as Poon Hill now.

Ghorapani (above), Annapurna range (right) and Bharat (below) on top of Deurali Pass

Now, we started our descent (or so I thought). Well, yes, we descended for quite a while, very steep at times. Then, after a couple of hours, it really was a steep descent.  And I was wondering....what goes down must come up. We were going down a steep ravine and there was a ridge in front of us. So, I asked Bharat: Do we have to go up there? And he looked at me and said: " No problem. Just a littel bit." Well, after spending a few weeks with him and also after this morning,  I knew his "Littel bit". Sure enough, we had to climb all the way up again on the other side of the ridge. Now I was really pissed as I didn't expect that at all and I didn't want to go up anymore after all that hiking I had done. Anyway, after we were on top of the ridge, we were in Tatapani. We were hungry, but none of the places there looked inviting, so we continued. Another 30 minutes we were in Baranthi where we stopped for lunch at a very pleasant lodge with great owners! Had lunch there, a tomato/cheese soup (with the owner barehandedly grating the cheese into my soup right in front of me) and then maccaroni with cheese. Very delicious. After lunch, we continued our steep descent for another hour and a half to Ghandruk. Ghandruk is at 1,950 meters, so we started at 2,850 meters, climbed to Poon Hill which is 350 meters higher, descended back to Ghorapani, hiked up to Deurali Pass another 300 meters, descended 500 meters, climbed up another 150 meters and then finally descended down to Ghandruk. What a frickin' up and down day when I thought it was only going down after Poon Hill. The other thing I didn't like to much was that for the most part, we were hiking through forest with no mountain vistas at all. But it was my own fault as I didn't do any checking on this route as I didn't think I was coming here. (This was copied from my diary written that night. Now, a couple of months later, I actually have very fond memories of that day and the hike to Ghandruk!)

While on the outskirts of Ghandruk, we heard lots of loud voices and screaming. We saw that there was a school with a volleyball field. Two teams, apparantly one from Ghandruk and the other one from a neighbouring village, had a hotly contested volleyball match going. Bharat and I sat down and watched for a while and these guys played quite well. It was fun! Our lodge in Ghandruk is very nice. It is called the Annapurna Lodge. It has 4 stories and is built out of stones and brick, so no wooden crates for the night. As a matter of fact, all lodges, rooms over here in the Annapurna region were much much nicer than the ones in the Khumbu region. Towering above the lodge is Annapurna South and Machhapuchhare. Both mountains came out of the clouds late afternoon and there even was some kind of sunset on Machhapuchhare.

Lots of nice people in the lodge, including a group of Austrians to whom I talked for a while. Another good dinner with spaghetti and tomato sauce and onions and then rice pudding with apples for dessert. Went to bed relatively early as I was really tired after a long but great day.

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