We went back down to Ghorepani, had breakfast and left, climbing up another hill above the town. The day was still crystal clear as we reached the summit with its stone porter rest stations adorned with prayer flags. Here we rested soaking up the last view we'd have of both the Dhaulagiri and Annapurna ranges before heading down the other side of the hill.

Down the hill we walked through a more subtropical environment. We came to a deep gorge whose sheer rock walls stretched up to become a mountain above us. The gray stone was coated with moss. We came upon a tiny hydroelectric power station which provided electricity for the village. I thought it strange that such a tiny, unobtrusive building could provide power from the little stream it was next to. Dipak said many of the villages have these tiny power stations.

We crossed a bridge which had a sign saying the stream was the “Saranga River”. I guess during the monsoon it becomes a raging river. The river's course had been changed into an obstacle course of cascades, pools and waterfalls by a rock slide which had sent huge platforms of rock, some probably more than 20 feet across, into the river bed. As we climbed out of the gorge, we saw a stocky deer race down the steep slope to the river.

We found ourselves on the side of a mountain with a view of Ulleri, the first village we'd stayed in. Annapurna South made its appearance behind the curve of the hill. We made a steep descent and a steep ascent and were soon near Tadopani. Rowshan thought he saw a monkey but it turned out to be a different animal, perhaps a yellow throated marten, something that looked like a cross between a cat, a monkey, and a skunk. It was trying to pilfer a crow's nest which is what had caused the commotion which attracted R's attention. At one point it stood on a branch looking at us with its cat face and pretty black side stripes.


Tadopani is set on a hillside across and under Annapurna South and Machhapuchre. We saw another pretty pink sunset and talked to fellow travelers Haley, from Australia (ending a 2 year trip soon) and Andrew, also from Australia who aside from hiking the Annapurna Base Camp hike, was in Nepal to compete in the Elephant Polo world championships in order to raise money to help find a cure from MS. Andrew was not a professional elephant polo player or even a regular polo player. His first time playing elephant polo was when he came to Nepal for the competition. For more info about their team see the Pukkachukkas web site. This made for some interesting dinner and post dinner conversation. Andrew left the next morning accompanied by his guide and 2 stray dogs who had followed them down the mountain side from Deurali. Each dog had taken a position in front of Andrew and his guides separate doors, sleeping there in their voluntary posts of trusty guardian.