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Published: April 17th 2018
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Jagat (1300m) – Nadi Bazaar (930m)
Well somewhat sadly today is the last days treking for us. I’m going through the intial stages of divorcing my backpack, firstly telling it how despite my respect for it I no longer love it. Later today I may go as far as thinking about possible replacements or perhaps introducing other things to the relationship such as a day pack.
Before the end though we do have one more day to complete, essentially along the Annapurna circuit. We decided to finish at Nadi Bazaar primarily because from there we can catch a public bus to Besisahar and connect with the regular busses to Pokhara.
After breakfast at Jagat we set off, initially, on the road towards Besisahar. The porters remained at Jagat waiting for a suitable Jeep or tractor that they could hitch a ride on.
Not long afterwards we were wandering along quietly when a Jeep went by with a couple of Nepali guys on the back shouting “Kia Ora Bro” We’d taught these guys well!
We soon left the road and had a very steep climb to Ghermu where we stopped for a coffee (using the Maccona coffee
we were carrying) and the last of Arch’s bulk purchase of chocolate wafer bickies.
From Ghermu the trail descended rapidly before a very long and steep climb to the village of Bahundanda where we stopped for a cold drink. A really interesting village with a snake god statue in the centre and a somewhat forgotten feeling about it.
After Bahudanda the trail descended again (as usual in Nepal you only seem to go up in order to can almost immediately do back down again) and was relatively easy walking through to Nadi Bazaar.
One really interesting thing was just before Nadi Bazaar there is a large hydro dam under construction. When we were here last (four years ago) we were informed that they had tunnelled through the hillside to bring more water to the power plant. It would in fact seem the dam is designed to divert the water from the river through the hillside to another development on the other side of the hill. We obviously didn’t see this second facility but it is the only explanation for the river being dammed and no water spilling past.
The dry river below the dam was rather
sad. It is obviously one solution to the dirty rivers issues we face in New Zealand, that is just drain them, but it does leave a bit of a blight on the landscape.
The guest house at Nadi Bazaar was unremarkable except for the hardness of the beds. The other guys all have blow up mattresses but for the first time I really suffers on the Nepali mattress.
The family who run the guest house were very friendly and in particular the nephew of the lady (who lived with her), Rohit. He was 9 years old and spoke extremely good English. I gave him my phone to look at our family photos which he initially found really interesting. Notably after a while I went back to check and he was on YouTube watching videos on how to drive manual cars and do hill starts and parallel park. Not sure of the relevance of this for him, given cars are a rarity here, but he was clearly interested in driving.
I talked to him about Leyton (my 9 year old grandson) and he was keen to write to him so perhaps I’ve started a budding pen pal relationship.
He was a very engaging little boy who was really interested in our lives and where we lived etc. The next morning he attached himself to me and followed me around like a shadow to the point of being a bit of a nuisance.
Another early night as tomorrow we are getting up to get the first bus back to Besisahar.
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