Nepal 2015 - Tadepani-Jhinu Dada

< 30 Sep - Ghorepani and Poon Hill to Tadepani

1 October. The anniversary of Mike's Dad's death. And Gramps's birthday. Life and death. The cycle of life. I think Mike is happy to share his experiences of Nepal with me and Toby one year on.

Up at 5.30 to watch the sunrise from our guesthouse at Tadepani. We had great views of Annapurna South and Fishtail. Stunning.

We had breakfast on the patio with the mountains looming above. Omelette and corn bread. Washed down with masala tea.

Once done there we were off. The initial descent was huge. We'd been going steeply downhill for an hour when Kamla realised she'd left her camera in the dining room back up the hill. Jimmy volunteered to go back for it and left his day pack with us and started running back up. It took him half an hour to get back up, found the camera put aside by the owners and fifteen minutes back down to us. He's a machine.

We walked to a view of the river still far below and had masala tea. Bharat thought the woman making our tea was gorgeous and got a photo with her. I think she enjoyed the attention. She laughed lots.

Down to a huge swing bridge over the river and then up a steep gradient for a bit. Jimmy used a wee waterfall to wash his face so I leaned in to wet my hat and I fell in. In slow motion. Oops. As I waited with Jimmy we watched Toby bounding up. I said Toby has so much energy. Jimmy said he's seen many children from Wellington high school older than him and Toby is way better. No complaints. Walks well. Good kid. I said Toby was going to that school next year and he might come here again and Jimmy might see him. And Jimmy said he hopes so.

From the steep uphill after the swing bridge we came to to a primary school. They got the children out to say hello to us and we gave them all a pen each and some toothbrushes and toothpaste. Toby enjoyed this.

Around a few corners and we stopped for lunch. Rice and fried corn bread for lunch. It was hard to pile that away. I discovered the green chili sauce. Yum.

Away after lunch we enjoyed a long descent past gorgeous farm houses with terraces full of crops. The soil is so rich. I chatted to Jimmy lots and Mike and Toby were with me for a bit.

We could see Jhinu Dada, our destination, off far below, nestled in a huge valley. As Toby said, it never seemed to get any closer. But we did eventually get to our guesthouse. We got a room with four beds in it, so we pushed two together for us and two for Toby.

After tea we got into our togs and walked down to the hot springs. Toby stayed behind and got a half body massage from a deaf mute who had been trained as a masseuse. Apparently it was fantastic.

Meanwhile we walked for ages down to the river far below. I think it was 50 rupees each to get in. The hot springs had three big pools and most of us went to the bottom pool. It was luxuriously hot. Only spoiled slightly by the Chinese tourist in his big white undies. Maybe he thought he had his far more attractive and less see through Calvin Klein coloured undies on and groaned when he walked this far and realised he only had his tight whiteys on. But they went very see through when wet and it was imperative to avert your eyes.

Simon collected a few leeches on the way back up to the guesthouse. I walked up with Mike and we seemed to avoid them even with Mike in his Tevas.

Back up for tea and we got potato and garlic soup and lasagne for dinner. All vegetarian. We ate vegetarian the whole way to avoid any possible meat issues.

One thing Mike and I find amusing is the way every sheet under Toby falls off his bed during his sleep. Every morning the sheet is in a ball somewhere.

2 Oct - Jhinu Dada to Tolka >