Day 18 (Continued…)
After taking in sunset and breakfast we packed our bags up to make our way back down. You go back the same way for most of it but then you turn off at Tadapani and make your way down to Phedi. MK was eager to get going, he walked so fast we lost sight of him for the morning. We met back up at a tea house and had some tea. We were due to stay in Bamboo but we arrived there at lunch time and decided to push on to Jhinu. By the time we had arrived into Bamboo my legs were very shaky from all the down hill walking but I had conquered all 3 stick bridges before the rain settled in. I was so relieved to have got those bridges done and in dry weather. The rain was heavy, we were soaked through by the time we arrived in Jhinu. We had stopped at this tea house for lunch on the way up and would now stay for the night. The rain got stronger and a thunderstorm cut the electric in the tea house. There was a Israeli family walking down as well and we kept passing each other, they also ended up at Jhinu they were hiking as a family with 75 year old granddad…he was incredible! Despite them being pretty rude to MK and I we had dinner with them and then tried to hang our clothes up to dry but it was a loosing battle in a very leaky tea house.
Day 19
It was our last full day of walking. Of course the rain was still going as we made our way down and back up to Tadapani. We had to stop in for a nice coffee before we started to go down hill again to Phedi. It was a windy steep path down to the last tea house of the trip. My legs where so shaky at this point it took me a hour longer to get down the MK as I was afraid I would slip. Our guide told us about the natural springs at our last spot of the hike. I was keen to go until I saw another hiker covered head to toe in leaches from the springs. MK was still keen so he went with Raju. MK was eager to eat meat and asked if it was safe to do so at this stop as we were closer to civilization. Raju said it would be fine. We were in the dinning room later on having a tea when a man walked up with a back pack and the owner of the tea room pulled out a dead chicken…I said to MK I think that is your dinner! Safe to say when it came to dinner time MK did not order his chicken. I was so stiff by this point it took me ages to walk anywhere. I knew I just had 4 more hours of walking a head of me tomorrow.
Day 20
Our final 4 hours of walking! I was thinking what could go wrong…. First challenge was crossing one of the worlds largest swing bridges, but compared to the stick bridges I breezed over this. Second challenge I got my bun on my head stock in a tree and big leach flopped on to my face. I screamed and by the time I opened my eyes Raju had whipped it off my face. We had to trek through dense wet land which meant stopping every 15 mins to remove all the leaches off our boots. Then Nepal decided to give my height fear one last challenge. There had been a landslide and our path was now loose soil and rocks on a steep incline. My legs where still not strong and I was so nervous shuffling across this tiny path. A porter from another group tried to help me across from behind and MK was the other side. MK said after that bit of the hike did scare him. I couldn’t believe it when I saw all the 4×4 trucks waiting for people…we had made it back! We bought our group lunch and a celebratory beer. It felt so good to know we were going back to a bit of comfort and a shower ( I hadn’t showered in 10 days). We all crammed into a car and started the hour and a half journey through crazy windy roads back to Pokhara. The car was silent everyone was exhausted.
Yorkshire Rambler 