Annapurna Day 2-
Waking up from the familiar sound of lashing rain still lingering in my head, I slowly got up and went out to realise it had been lashing all night. Our host Hari told us not to go because of the rain and urged us to stay at his one more night. 'Daughter' he called me! We decided to have our Nepalese breakfast, say goodbye to the family and head to the road to carry on our journey. Today we would trek from Ngadi to Ghermu which would take us 6 hours or so. We walked along the road until we finally came to a high ridge which we took up to small villages surrounding by paddy fields. We walked for an hour or so before arriving at the start of Bahandunda which we thought was the place we were supposed to reward ourselves with a nice cold drink after the hard uphill hike. Turned out it wasn't!
We stopped here for an hour to have some masala chai and after another hours walk we realised we arrived in main Bahundanda. We were checked by the police for our TIMS card (to allow you to trek) and entry permit (for the Annapurna conservation area). It was pretty funny when we were offered a small bunch of natural marijuana (Nepal allows you to possess an ounce) from a local mans garden. He said that it does Infact help with the altitude sickness and seen as we were going to 5500m in the highest mountain range in the world, we said yes! We bought it for 200rs/$2 and it smelled lovely.
When we arrived in main Bahundanda and after registering with the mountain police, we stopped in at a cafe where david and I threw off our hiking boots and took a seat. He had a chicken soup and I had a two snickers and a coke (energy eh?). We paid the lady and got ourselves organised while the rain lashed heavily outside the cafe shack. We had just read about the next part of the hike being steep steps and if they are wet, they're very slippery. Here we were off on our way through this stony area in the heavy rain! My new boots were treating me well and I was scared about doing a trek so big with non broken in boots. I protected my heels and toes with plasters and the more I walked the more the boots got comfortable. We walked passed a hamlet called Lili Bhir which had handrails along the cliff and which my guidebook had told me was about an accident that had happened before. It was very steep and a sheer drop down to the riverside, so the handrails were appreciated. After two hours of beautiful river and mountain views from a height and sometimes in the rain, we arrived in Ghermu. We stopped at the last lodge as we had read that this place had the best views of the waterfall across the road... And it did!
We discussed a deal to eat our meals there and get our room for free and as luck would have it, there was a great leaving, which meant they need the business. It was low season and this seemed like an easy thing to agree to. We got our beautiful curry dinners there, took a hot shower (luxury I thought) and got some warm blankets for my bed. I had froze the night before and was determined to get a good night tonight. After trying out some of the natural mountain marijuana with the sound of the waterfall in the background, I went to bed in my lovely clean clothes and down jacket. The next day would involve a 6hr walk to a beautiful town called Tal.
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