Day 14 - Point Me Back to Pokhara

We are both ready to get back to Pokhara. We made it as far af Kyumi today after five hours of hiking and tomorrow we finish the trek into Bhiratanti. Tomorrow we will leave a world of trails with no signs or markers, no markets or shops, no electricity or telephones and go back to a world of cars, city noise and E-mail. (Kathmandu and even Pokhara have E-mail - ah, the shrinking of the world). We will probably still see water buffalo wandering the streets and men with bamboo baskets strapped to their foreheads, but the landscape will change from looking down deep valleys and terraced corn fields, from watching men weave bamboo mats to looking down crowded streets with carpet dealers and street vendors. The one thing I look forward too most, is any stretch of land that doesn't go up or down but instead remains at a constant level - flat! Even the word 'flat' is getting me excited at this point.

Actually, in comparison, the trail was fairly level today. At least the rocks and boulders were missing so we could concentrate a bit on some of the scenery and not constantly watch our footing like we had yesterday.

We stopped for the day in a small village just above the large river bridge leading to Landruk. The photograph opportunities here are endless, and I'm inspried. But there's a small group of boys here trying to draw my attention from my writing pad by throwing stones. I'm ignoring them hoping they will go away.

To kill some time while I've rested my ever-so-sore muscles these last two days, I've been reading a bit about major hiking expeditions. I have learned some interesting facts, and I still insist ours qualifies for the record books!.

There are 87 peaks in Nepal that are open for foreign expedition and another 17 open for joint Nepalese-foreign expedition. (There's got to be someone out there trying to conquer them all.) Eight of the world's 14 peaks over 8000 meters are in Nepal. Everest, the tallest, is booked years in advance. Of the remaining six, five, including K2, are in Pakistan and one (Shisna) is in Tibet.

By 1989 there were 274 ascents of Everest including several that were repeat climbs. By 1993 there were 301 expeditions where 519 different people reached the summit and 125 perished in the attempt.

The Annapurna range, which John and I saw on this trip, consists of greater than 16 summits higher than 20,000 feet unbroken by a single pass. The highest of them is Annapurna 1 (8091 meters) which is the mountain the Russians are climbing.

After reading about a 1924 attempt on Everest by a British team, I've come to the conclusion that for our trek, although not as ambitious as Everest, John and I were well prepared and decidedly over-dressed. Those incredibly naive Brits had set off to conquer the king of mountains in nothing but tweed suits. John and I will live to tell of our adventure. The unfortunate British businessmen all froze to death.

On that cold note I will leave you to go do some laundry, eat dinner and prepare for tomorrow's final descent from these hills.