Trekking Nepal – Ghandruk to Tolka – Day 6

Ghandruk to Tolka

I won’t bore you with tales of pain.  Suffice it to say, that despite the day of rest, my thighs and calves feel like they’ve been tenderized with a mallet.  Now, moving on…

Leaving Ghandruk we descend stairs for an hour and a half.  Kaji points across the canyon to show me where we’re going.  A bridge would deliver us there in minutes.  But alas, there is no bridge and we must go to the bottom of the canyon and then back up again.

On the way, we pass an elderly woman climbing the steep stairs while carrying a man on her back.  Needless to say, any internal whining I may have been doing ceased at that point.

After two hours, we arrive in a small village where a Nepalese movie is being filmed.  The entire village has come to watch.  It’s a colorful spectacle:

We continue on towards Tolka, on a newly-built dirt road.  Everywhere, flaky silver rock glints in the sun.  Terraces for planting vegetables hug the mountains for as far as the eye can see.  How many hundreds of years has it taken to build all these terraces where onions, garlic, cauliflower, corn, wheat and rice are grown?

We finally arrive in Tolka.  At the guesthouse, I meet Meri, a retired woman who last lived in Spokane, Washington and has been traveling solo for the past two years.  She’s a bundle of energy and a pleasure to meet.  And proof that one is never to old to fulfill a dream.  Her blog is a fun read.

Photos of the Trek from Ghandruk to Tolka: