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Published: August 2nd 2009
View from my balcony
looking up the Harpan Khola ValleyThursday 30th July
No school today because of the strike so I asked the POD rep (who runs a rafting & kayaking company) whether there was anything else she could use me for. She had a fairly new Nepali recruit who needed more practice with conversational English so I said I would spend a couple of hours with him. He suggested taking a couple of kayaks across the lake so I had a lovely paddle across with a free kayaking lesson. We then sat having a coffee on the other side for an hour or so and then paddled back.
With the afternoon to kill as well I decided to go into the old town of Pokhara again and have a look for the Seti River. This river flows through the middle of the city but in a very deep narrow canyon so I went to a couple of the main bridges to have a look. It was so deep that it was difficult to see much.
Friday 31st July
The teachers' strike only lasted 2 days after all so we were back in school today but Friday is only a half day anyway so it has
Lakeside
Lakeside and the Phewa Tal from the Sarankot viewpoint been a pretty easy week all-round. The school seemed quite disorganised today and a lot of the kids just didn't bother turning up. Nominally there are 40+ kids on the roll for each grade and on a normal day we might get 25-30 but this morning most classes barely had 20. The builders had left quite a bit of mess (well, more mess than the courtyard usually looks!) so some of the staff went round picking up some of the large stones etc. The English teacher I normally work with was doing this in the last lesson of the morning so I took advantage and decided what I wanted to do with the class! He poked his head in once or twice to make sure the kids were behaving but otherise left me alone so I ignored the text book and used some of the teaching materials I had brought from England.
Saturday is the free day so I decided to try and get away for a night and do some walking in the local hills - there's no way I would have time to get as far as the "real" trekking areas, and even if I did I
Seti Valley
Looking up the Seti River valley - behind the clouds are Annapurna, Dhaulagiri etc. would need at least 3 days to do one of the main listed treks. So instead I decided to get a taxi to a village called Sarankot. This village is on the top of the hill just to the northwest of Pokhara and is reknowned for its wonderful views of the big Himalyan peaks nother of Pokhara - Daulagiri, all the Annapurnas (there's about 5 of them!) and Machhapuchhre. I decided to stay the night there then do a walk on Saturday.
The taxi can't get all the way to Sarankot because of the state of the roads so you have to walk the last kilometre up a steep stepped path. Using the Lonely Planet guide book, I looked for a place called Mountain View Guest House. There was nobody else staying so I had my pick of 5 rooms and an oudoor terrace all to myself. The hotel was very basic (squatting toilet etc!) but the view from my room and the terrace was incredible - hundreds of feet down to the valley of the river which feeds the Phewa Tal lake at Pokhara. All the hotels are on the wrong side of the hill to have an
The peaks
Sarankot viewpoint - what you should be able to see on a clear day! actual view of the high Himalayan peaks. After having a meal I went to bed early, setting my alarm for 5:00am which was just before sunrise - apparently the view is even better at sunrise and sunset.
Saturday 1st August
I was up and dressed before sunrise and made my way in the dark from the hotel to the concrete steps that lead up to the view point above the village. I was not actually expecting to see much because I had been warned that the view is rarely visible during the monsoon but because I had seen the top of a couple of peaks fro Pokhara in my first week I thought it was worth giving it a try. In the event I couldn't even get to the lookout point because the gate was locked and it didn't open until 6:00am! Back to the hotel to read for an hour then back up all the concrete steps again. I spent about an hour and a half at the view point but all I saw was the summit of Annapurna I for about 5 minutes.
After breakfast at the hotel I put on my walking boots and
Sarankot
Where I spent the night re-packed my rucksack. I planned to walk along the ridge from Sarankot to a place called Kastikot, then follow a track down to a village called Pame in the valley floor. From there it would be a walk along the road back to Lakeside. I estimated the whole walk to be about 12Km. In the event it took me 6 hours! - apart from some early rain (which gave me the chance to try out my rain poncho!) the day turned out to be very hot. The walk along the ridge was fairly easy but the track down to the valley bottom was quite wearing. The first half was mostly man-made steps, but very steep. I passed numerous tny hamlets and at each one there would kids running up to me asking "where are you going?", "where are you from?", "what is your name?" or "how old are you?". The second half of the descent was much less interesting - a rough track through thick forest - so it was almost a relief to get to Pame and walk along the road. By the time I got back to Lakeside I had been going for 6 hours and I was
Traditional ploughing
I passed a few of these on the way down shattered!
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Dorothy
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Stunning views
Hi Dad, that view from the terrace is stunning!! Maybe the hotel should have thought about putting the rooms on the other side of the hotel lol.x