Day 2 - Hille to Ghorepani

“The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.” - Lao Tzu

Waking up early we catch the sun rise while we sit and eat our breakfast. The suns rays slowly bring a beautiful orange glow to the green and brown fields surrounding our lodge.

Sunrise In Hille

After eating we quickly pack and hit the trail. Want to get an early start so we can get the 3000 + steps in before the hot afternoon sun. That’s right it‘s 3000 + steps up to Ghorepani not that we will count them but, I’m sure we’ll feel them. It’s not long before we have to cross our first suspension bridge. Donna is a little apprehensive at first but, goes across following Govinda.

Suspension Bridge

Then the steps appear and it begins, the consistent stepping up as we make our way towards the top. We arrive in Ulleri by 8:30AM which was pretty good time considering all the steps.

Going Up!

Along the trail we meet some young peace lovers who say “Namaste” and request sweets. No sweets, so I give them a few rupees, snap a few pictures and head on up the trail.

Peace!

Love!

At around 9:30 we stop for a spot of tea, milk tea, which taste pretty good. A few steps later, well maybe a lot of steps a lot later we arrive at Nangethanti where we stop for lunch, time 11:30AM. A fast order of Dal Bhat and Donna is off shopping for a new hat - 2^nd day on the trail and she’s shopping for a hat. Guess the steps did not wear her out. After lunch, we’ll just have to do more steps.

A new hat - sweet!

Donna & Tom

The weather is cloudy and we get a light rain during lunch making it feel cold. For most of the hike today we see a mix of sun and clouds which changes the temperature from comfortable to slightly chilly. Another 1 ½ hours of hiking and we reach Ghorepani, elevation 9,400 ft (2865m) our resting place for the night. Cloudy when we arrived with some light rain falling we check into our Hotel “the Hill Top“ and make our way to our room. To my surprise the room has a private bath with hot water, sweet! After about 30 minutes the sky started to clear, the sun appeared, and we were shown a wonderful rainbow which lasted for about 15 minutes. Everyone was out trying to get photos of it but, we had a perfect view from our bedroom window.

Got to find that pot of gold!

Tomorrow morning we’ll wake early, 4:45AM and hike the 1 mile, 1,100 ft (335m) elevation gain to Poon Hill. Our goal is to catch a beautiful sun rise displaying it‘s glory on the magnificent Annapurna mountains. Beautiful dreams!

Today’s hiking totals were 6 hours, 7 miles (11Km) with a net elevation gain of 4,500 ft (1372m).

Peace and Love Donna and Tom