Today was a fairly gentle day from Tolka to Dhampus. We climbed out of the Modi Khola river valley which we have been walking up and down for the last 2 weeks. The day was warm, sunny and the path was through a leafy forest. It felt very similar to a walk through the New Forest except that we are still at 2,000m; well above Ben Nevis. We had lunch in the garden of a lodge and had wonderful views of the Annapurna range. After another hour or so we reached Dhampus and a lodge run by another of Narayan’s friends. From the window of our room and from the roof there were superb views of the mountains. For perhaps the first time on the trek, the night was clear and we could see the stars – far more than we can see from Fuji city. The lodge is run by a family and Julian spent a long time in the kitchen watching the mother and two daughters cook the dinner over a mixture of wood and gas fires. In the ceiling of the kitchen was a birds nest and some swallows through in and out through the evening not bothered by the human activity below.
Yeti Fan 2011 