Nepal 2019 - Day 16 - Gorakshep to Dzonghla

 Gorakshep to Dzonghla

The previous night was cold and restless, one of the consequences of sleeping at high altitude being shitty sleep. Post breakfast, I packed up and headed back down the trail towards Lobuche. Luckily, the sections that had been bottlenecked on my way weren't too clogged today. Further down the trail, the valley flattened as I gradually descended into Lobuche. The trail towards Dzonghla lead through wide rocky valley floor. I had to cross that to join an exposed trail that ascended south-westward along the mountain before levelling out as it curved along the mountainside, making for a very pleasant flat hike with great view of the valley and surrounding mountains. 


The trail rounded the the mountainside heading back towards the northeast, passing a Yak skull on a rock and a beautiful turquoise lake far below, eventually descending across a muddy plain before climbing back up the slope on the other side of the field. It was at this point, I realised that I was off route.


While I later discovered that I should have followed the trail up and over the top of the slope, I had to veer left on a trail alongside the side of the slope. What began as something looking as a trail eventually turned to be a scramble blazing my own trail. Eventually, I spotted the trail towards Dzonghla below and I descended towards it. I had to cross a stream and make my way up a valley on a steep dusty trail leading towards the village.


Dzonghla was a small collection of less than half a dozen of lodges. Like all hamlets I'd been in lately, all perched in a natural bowl on the mountainside. I noticed the rent for rooms almost double over the last 2-3 days but it was nothing compared to the exorbitant food prices.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Nepal 2025 - Day 7: Samagaon to Samdo - Side trip to Samdo Ri

Image
Samagaon to Samdo Samdo was just under 3 hours from Samagaon and we decided to head out early in the morning. The initial trail was the same as the previous day but very uneventful. It was a very simple and pleasant hike which followed the river deeper into the valley. You passed through a host of yaks grazing on the banks and looked totally unbothered by our presence. Their cowbells emanating a sweet melody which was almost meditative.  We passed few Mani walls, a very long one in particular marked the path towards Samdo. The massifs of Pangboche Himal, Samdo and others just decided to hide behind the clouds. The weather wasn't looking good for our plan to hike Samdo Ri later in the morning, however, we enjoyed the grasslands with the yaks and now, a lot of elusive marmots running through the fields into their burrows. We finally saw Samdo up ahead across a wooden bridge and there was quite an elevation gain to get to it. We saw a new bridge under construction to make this approac...
Read more

Nepal 2025 - Day 6: Rest Day - Side Trip to Manaslu Basecamp

Image
 Manaslu Basecamp Today was our first significant elevation gain to the basecamp of Manaslu. Again, only carrying daypacks with basic essentials was definitely going to help with our speed and getting acclimatized. We woke up to fairly clear skies which revealed the beautiful mountains surrounding Samagaon. After a hefty portion of muesli with apple, I was charged up for the day. Niranjan took the rest day from the group. We left around 6.30 and were one of the first people on the trail. Along the way, you could also visit Birendra lake which is abeautiful alpine lake just about an hour from Samagaon. We decided to skip that for the time being and head for the basecamp trail. The trail towards the bascamp from the village is fairly flat for the first 20 mins with gorgeous mountains leading the way. Manaslu peaked every now and then from behind the clouds.  We gained a little elevation going through the treeline and saw glimpses of Birendra Lake towards our left. We came across...
Read more

Nepal 2025 - The Return

Image
 Nepal: Part Deux - Ideation Since my first foray into solo hiking in Nepal 6 years ago, I always wanted to get back and explore the beautiful landscapes of Nepal again. The Covid years definitely put a roadblock into that idea and during that time, I improved my hiking/trekking experience by exploring a lot more of the Himalayan regions of India. This experience was equally satisfying if not more, since it taught you to be self-sufficient and not be dependent on certain luxuries that Nepal provided. Nonetheless, I always wanted to explore Nepal again with my wife ever since my first escapade of that country. So, in the month of January, an idea was conceived to explore the other side of the Khumbu region, the Western region of Nepal, the Manaslu circuit. An anti-clockwise journey around the magnificent massif of Manaslu and exploring remote Nepali culture which then transcends to Buddhist and Tibetan. We wanted to do this in the month of May which is peak season for the Sagarmatha...
Read more