Day 13 - Annapurna Circuit - Muktinath (3700m) to Kagbeni (2800m)

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We set off at a reasonable time of 7am. The landscape had vastly changed where we were walking out of a green bowl in the valley out into a dusty and sandy landscape almost like something out of the Middle East. We passed through a small village called Jhong with green lush plants everywhere you looked and smells to die for. We passed a military base where the Nepalese army were doing mountain training. We had seen huge groups of soldiers marching on the trail with full packs on previously. This time it was a bit harrowing with machine guns and MGs being pointed out towards you! They were very friendly though and we had a chat to one of the sargeants (we thought). The going was pretty easy without any major inclines or declines so found some time to do some fossil hunting! As Tommy has a Geology major he managed to give us a mini lesson about fossils and where to find them. So off we trotted along the trail, all of us eyes down, picking up rocks and throwing them at bigger harder rocks hoping to find a dinosaur.... maybe the mountains had sent us all crazy..... Char managed to find some imprints of ancient shells but not the actual fossilised shell itself. We passed through a green meadow with some sort of white deposits coming out of the soil, maybe salt, maybe calcium, and there was a huge herd of goats with a shepherd feeding all around us. We bumped into a French couple who were coming the other way and had a chit chat. We pushed through a few more Kms and we found ourselves on the side of a mountain where a dry, grey, rocky riverbed was a few hundred metres below us. In the distance we could see another green oases down in the valley with gold monastery tops - the village of Tiri. It looked great and with that view came the knowledge that we were very close to our village for the night. We made our way down into a valley and into Kagbeni. It was a BEAUTIFUL traditional village with stacks of wood and branches lining the edge of every rooftop, to keep out bad spirits and better karma for the house. We went to a tea house called “Showboat” and it was perfect. Cool rooms with everything you needed (a bed and a roof), great food (the Nepalese guy owning it worked in a subway in New York) and to top it off an awesome rooftop, accessed only by a ladder carved out of a tree trunk, with a view of the village and its small alleyways topped off with the mountains and valleys behind. That night we treated ourselves to a buffet of Tibetan food none of us knew the names of and what a treat it was. We definitely had a full stomach when we went to bed that night.

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