April 6th – Kagbeni to Ghasa
After a quick early morning breakfast, we all set out in some heavy wind and stinging rain for Jomsom. Blaine is limping badly and most likely will be unable to continue. As we hiked there was a shout up ahead as an avalanche of rocks came cascading down the hillside from about 300 feet above and crossed the road ahead of us by about 50 feet. There was a contingent of fellow trekkers ahead of us who had to make a hasty scramble for the clear ahead of the avalanche.
The largest rock that came down hillside was the size of a large frozen turkey. It narrowly missed turning a cow into tartar, a sight that Mike and I were disappointed about. Directly across the road was a modest house with a five foot tall stone wall. I don’t know if the wall was there for privacy or protection, but it did its job well in receiving the brunt of the turkey sized rock. A large chunk portion of the wall was completely smashed in, although the damage would have been much worse if the rock hit the house. The amount of power rocks have when coming down a cliff side is awe inspiring as well as a sober reminder to maintain an awareness of one’s surroundings. As we hiked the rest of the way to Jomsom, I kept a weather eye to the cliffs above me in case any other surprises decided to come thundering down.
We reached Jomsom and purchased some Jeep tickets to Ghasa for 600 rupees. While waiting to purchase the tickets, a large crowd started to gather for a march. They all held the same flags and started chanting. Raj our guide explained that they were fans of the democratic congress and their march was to drum up support for the upcoming elections. I was nervous about something going wrong with a large crowd gathered for political purposes, but they marched right by without incident.
A quick lunch at a local place left us with enough time to shop for a few treats and supplies as well as check in at an internet café. As I returned to the area where we would meet the Jeep, I happened to bump into a couple that I sat next to on the plane on my flight from Delhi into Kathmandu. They were also hiking the Annapurna Trek and had just made it over the Thorung La the day before. The couple shared the news that they had narrowly made it over in time. Last night the Thorung La pass got five feet of snow and had to be closed. I feel sorry for a lot of trekkers who didn’t have enough time to hike the entire trail and got all the way to high camp or Thorung Phedi before having to turn around and hike back down to the start of the hike.
Once we had everything assembled with the Jeep, we all crammed ourselves in and were on our way. The Jeep ride lasted almost three hours and was accompanied by the prerequisite eastern Asian music bumping through the tape deck. Check out this video shot by Blaine to get a better idea of what it’s like to have everyone jammed in the Jeep together. As we got further from Jomsom, the landscape improved. The area is beautiful and looks like it could be the Pacific Northwest with large pine trees and snow capped peaks.
Since we arrived in Ghasa late, our tea house choices were limited and we settled on the “Florida Guest House.” The rooms had a funky odor and the food was almost inedible. At dinner we ran into a couple of Australian girls who we had meet and talked with at several other parts of the trek before. It really is a small world as you continue to see the same people over and over on the trek.
On the way to bed, we came across the innkeepers little boy playing with what appeared to be a flashlight. Blaine took his picture and it looked to me like this little guy’s flashlight was projecting an image. We got him to hold still long enough to determine that the flashlight projected a rather racy image of a young woman. I’ll refrain from posting the picture here, but if you want to check it out, it’s in the picture gallery here.