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Hello all.
We've been off the air for a couple of days up in Dhampus (about 1600 metres) - no Wi Fi there (or TV or cold drinks either for that matter).
We had intended to walk up from Phedi (the staging point for the Annapurna Sanctuary Trek), a repeat of the first day of my Trek back in 1993.
In talking with some of the locals we heard there was now a 'motorable road' straight to Dhampus so that was the end of walking up there as far as we were concerned - trust me, it's hard work!
At least one Taxi driver offered to drive us up but we had already heard that the road was more suited to 4x4's, meaning the average Pokhara Taxi (a Suzuki / Maruti with a mighty 800cc engine) was not really up to the task.
We arranged a bigger, better vehicle via our Hotel, the deal being:
drive us to Phedi, continue up the 'road' to Dhampus, drop us off, pick us up the next day back down at Phedi at a pre-determined time.
This meant we got to stay at Dhampus overnight, catch the mountain views the next morning, trek back down (much better than trekking up) to Phedi, get picked up and driven back to our Hotel.
We lashed out a bit on this one - $100 for this arrangement which, in Nepalese terms, is a lot of rupees.
Mind you, the Hotel's car (a pretty nice mini-van) would have only been worth about $100 once it had been flogged without mercy up the creek bed which passes for the road so they do need to make the trip financially worthwhile of course - boy, did it cop a belting.
This is not the worst road we have ever been on from the perspective of the chances of shooting over a cliff (plunging it is called locally).
It was though without doubt the worst constructed road we've seen - just large, round, loose rocks, very steep and quite a few plunge spots.
All worth it though because Dhampus is pretty much perfect - relaxed atmosphere, beautiful mountain views, plenty of opportunity to go walking if you wish. The local farming community seem quite prosperous and the pace of life is slooooowww.
It is not a complete Shangri La though - that is about a day & a half walk to the north at a village called Landruk!
We stayed at a Lodge called Dhaulagiri View Hotel Pvt. Ltd for 700 rupees a night (about $10 - the best view for the price anywhere in the World surely).
It does have a view of the top of Mt Dhaulagiri (higher than Mt Annapurna as it happens) which is nice as from this point on you don't see it again anywhere on the way in to Annapurna Base Camp.
Other Mountains in view from here include Annapurna South, Himchuli, (a bit of) Gangapurna, Machhapuchre (more clearly showing it's 'fishtail' peak from this view), a couple of lesser Annapurnas (still averaging about 7500 metres each though!), Lamjung and Manaslu.
After a hearty breakfast we set off back down the trail to a spot called Ghatlekhola which is back down on the main road near Phedi - there is a bus stop there.
The walk took us almost 2.5 hours and was pretty easy really. The walk up takes 5 or 6 hours if you are fit so we weren't complaining.
Back at our original Hotel now (Hotel View Point). We are in a different room now with less views but nicer breezes so again we are happy.
Will sign off now - Namaste.
- comments
Aliya The roads sound quite terrifying!