Day 7 - Pisang (3200) to Manang (3500m) - 15km

Toby Diary

A mediocre night’s sleep.  The combination of a cold and the dirty atmosphere leading to a dried blocked nose and a dry mouth.  Glad to get up and shovel porridge down the fuel loading chute.  

Set off uphill but have to stop to adjust Thorpey’s blisters.  The compede patches soon ruck up if you put other tape over them.  A steady upward climb gains most of the height in the first two hours and has taken us through more forest of pine and thorn bushes.  The pines are gradually getting smaller due to the altitude.   We crest a moraine ridge to meet with fantastic views of the upper Manang Valley, as per the photo in the guide book.  In the distance is the snowy side of Tilocho peak while the cliffs immediately to our left have ice falls that send Jules into climbing raptures.  They seem to be permanently in shadow and the ground is frosty below them.  Looking back and to the right, Pisang Peak with its rounded snowy

Pisang Peak

cap looks quite accessible but it is sobering to remember that it is nearly another 300 metres above us.  Ahead in the valley is Hongde, Manang’s airport.  The dirt strip is visible from our vantage point.  After a short descent we are walking along a relatively flat valley floor.  At this point Jules explodes and is very happy about his first positive bottom experience for three days!  As we approach Hongde the daily aircraft comes in from Pokhara and is out again in about ten minutes. 

Hongde itself is pretty unpleasant and very dirty.  The main change that hits us after Pisang is the arid nature of the countryside.  Rain is obviously very rare up here and as we are post harvest there is very little sign of vegetation.  Goats and small black cattle wander around finding what they can.  Lots of the locals go to and fro on horseback or in large mule trains.  We check in at the police station at Hongde where the police are very jolly, making jokes about each other’s farts and giggling.  Further on we cross the river to the north bank and get to Braga where we stop for lunch.  My stomach has been feeling very dodgy but is settled by my first taste of Yak yoghurt and the usual bowl of noodle and vegetable soup.  Excellent views up to our left of the lower peaks of Annapurna III.  Above is one of the Gompas that appear half way up each side of the valley.  Finally, after another half hour, and we arrive in Manang.  My legs are a bit sun burned so my first priority is to slap on some cream.  We stay in the Tilocho Hotel, a large three storey lodge with squatting holes!  Very civilised.  Have a hot shower and then go to explore the town Gompas with Jules and Mark A.  Both are deserted but the lower one seems to have organised opening times at certain times of day.  Not when we were there though.  Excellent views over to Annapurna IV and Gangapurna and the glacier that spills out between them.  Also the eroded cliffs below this with hermit caves and over to the right the glacial lake.  We resolve to go to the bottom of the glacier tomorrow.  Dinner at six with hot and sour soup and bean curry and then play hearts until 8.30 while supping lots of hot lemon.  Smoky atmosphere – which includes an American hippy smoking dope – playing havoc with my nose and so to bed.

Mark Diary

By now none of us are wearing our watches, leaving behind the shackles of life at home.  Life seems much more simple, more focused; we get up when the sun rises and simply need to ensure that we are our next stop before the sun sets.  In between we walk and our only worries are food and shelter and water during the day. 

Our route takes us via Hongde, some four miles away and we head up through draping fir trees and stop on the pass with views across in the Manang Valley.  We descend again.  It is much more arid now and the path is dry and dusty and made worse by the horses and donkey trains that we occasionally see plying their trade within the region.  They each have colourful but faded plumes upon their heads and red carpets across their backs and raise clouds of dust around us as they trot past.   We have lunch in a tiny place called Braga which consists of about four houses and the tea shop where we stop.  There is a monastery overlooking the town up in the hills opposite.

For the last hour the going is easy.  The larger mountains rise high above the edges of the valley that envelops us and we now feel as if we are amongst them rather than just detached observers at a distance.  Far ahead the valley splits, one part to the left and the other to the right.  On the right side the mud and brick of Manang, partially hidden by the spur and curve of the valley, clings to the slopes.  High up on the right as we approach are a couple of Gompas - Buddhist temples. 

We find accommodation in the town with en-suite toilet (aka a hole in the floor) and then head up to explore the Gompas, climbing a dried valley behind the village to reach them.  They are both empty, although one is somewhat larger than the other.   After a brief exploration we head back down to Manang where we ate our dinner of Hot and Sour soup in a crowded dining room.