17 days, 211 kilometers, 50 or so villages, and one gradual 3396 meter ascent later I've completed the Annapurna Circuit and so here i now am as of last night. back in the land of porcelain tiled bathrooms and flushing toilets and banana papaya lassis. The two second most difficult days of the Circuit after the pass were the very last two so i am doubly appreciative of it all. Like being trapped in a bad Escher drawing, t'was one stone staircase after another, leading up up up to Ghorepani then the next day one giant stone staircase leading down down down back to Nyapul... each day about 6 or 7 hours long. making the staircases in either direction worth the trouble was the whopping final day culmination of Poon Hill, from whence we had the good fortune of clear skies yet again (!!!) thereby gaining panoramic views of daybreak touching the Annapurna mountain ranges all around....
(For a less divinely inspired touch, we spent the final hours of yesterday's final afternoon, dirty, spent and wet as we pushed on towards Nyapul in a steady occasionally uproarious downpour.)
But today feels really good. And it is summer down here at a 800 meters, who knew?!! I keep catching the small strut in my step as I walk around among the trekkers all prowling the town either pre or post treks of their own. Pokhara is a mecca for that sort of thing. I shall spend a few days here, catching my breath and enjoying the big lake and taking a few strolls to the sites. Monday eve is Passover and so how fitting that I should spend it in Pokhara, which had begun to feel like my own personal Promised Land roundabout Day 13 or so....
Happy Passover!! :)
(For a less divinely inspired touch, we spent the final hours of yesterday's final afternoon, dirty, spent and wet as we pushed on towards Nyapul in a steady occasionally uproarious downpour.)
But today feels really good. And it is summer down here at a 800 meters, who knew?!! I keep catching the small strut in my step as I walk around among the trekkers all prowling the town either pre or post treks of their own. Pokhara is a mecca for that sort of thing. I shall spend a few days here, catching my breath and enjoying the big lake and taking a few strolls to the sites. Monday eve is Passover and so how fitting that I should spend it in Pokhara, which had begun to feel like my own personal Promised Land roundabout Day 13 or so....
Happy Passover!! :)
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