ABC Day 04 - Poon Hill
Ghorepani to Banthanti
We left the lodge in Ghorepani (
elevation : 2860 m) soon after we were done packing our backpacks. The early morning light was lovely and soft, and the sides of the trail quickly became rhododendron-filled once again as the trail dipped right back into the forest. The incline picked up a little after that and we began trudging up the stairwell on a fairly long and sustained climb that ended in a plateau of sorts. There was a rest stop in the middle of the small field here, and the peak of Dhaulagiri (
elevation : 8172 m) and the backdrop of rhododendrons completely dominated the views.
Rhododendrons, Dhaulagiri (elevation : 8172 m) and Tukuche (elevation : 6920 m) dominating the views.
About 1.2 kilometres in, the trail brought us first to a hill and then to another plateau. We had just exceeded
3000 m at this point, after having climbed from
2860 m at Ghorepani. Clouds whipped by above us and dark, rolling shadows were cast across the landscape, surprisingly similar to the plains that surrounded the
Stirling Ridge in
Australia.
We passed by a hut with refreshments atop a hill not too long after (1.6 km mark). The rhododendrons here now seemed to be of a different variety, and had a deeper red to them as opposed to the pinkish-magenta of the ones that we had previously come across. We continued walking on the ridge-line for a while and were accompanied by numerous eagles
(Aquila sp.) that soared sublimely above us, sometimes in pairs and sometimes alone.
The trail dropped down to Deurali after a while, where we stopped for a short lunch break (macaroni and cheese,
NPR500/2).
