Yet another bloomin’ awful climb as we went though Bheri Kharka, Bhicuok, Dhampus and Phedi. Hang on … I thought that we were meant to be going downhill!! The landscape started to soften, more like a country park in the UK – wide spaces of grassland and trees. Looking back, the mountains were wrapping a quilt of clouds around their shoulders, and still looking pretty impressive.
The settlements were starting to get much bigger now. The road began to appear from the distance and we heard the unfamiliar sounds of beeping horns, roaring engines and the sight of blue smoke plumes rising through the trees.
At the roadside we got back to normality … bargaining with a obstinate toothless taxi driver to take us back in his knackered old Toyota Corolla Mk1, a car that had very little in the way of brakes, a constant smell of petrol and had to be jump started prior to the driver leaping back in like some rodeo cowboy.
Back at Pokara our clothes were put into a receptacle usually reserved for nuclear waste and waved it goodbye at it hoped to the launderette. Dressed up in clothes that hadn’t evolved into a higher life form and made our way to the poshest restaurant in town, sat next to the roaring fire, had a beer and the finest steak in the house.
In total … 5800 metres climbing up and the same down to get to 4130 metres above sea level.
Knackered!
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