Day 16: Ghasa to Tatopani
I hiked the Annapurna Circuit with Michelle from Full Time Explorer. She did a great write-up of our trek which she kindly let me borrow, so what you see below is Michelle's text and my photos. You can find her original article at Annapurna Circuit Itinerary.
As said in the previous paragraph, we made the bright decision to do two days of trekking in one. We were still in good spirits when leaving Ghasa. We attempted to take a side trek to the left. After walking pretty far down, we realized that a crane doing roadwork above had pushed giant boulders down the slope, and they had all landed on the footpath that cut across. There are no signs indicating this blockage, and the path is covered by what looks like a landslide. It’s a complete mess and very dangerous, so don’t take this route.
Past the construction work on the road is a well-marked path that has not been effected by roadwork. Be sure to take this one. It goes directly across a suspension bridge to the other side of the river. The path hugs along the cliffs, offering beautiful views. It goes through quaint villages with little tourism. At first there isn’t much elevation change but eventually the path does go up and down a couple of steep stairs. If you do this in two days, it shouldn’t be too exhausting, but we had been trekking for over 5 hours and were pretty tired at this point. After the hills, you’ll walk through fields of corn and pathways lined with marijuana plants.
Since we did this section during the afternoon, we decided to stop in Dana for dinner. Getting here took 3.5 hours (with a few unplanned detours). We had giant plates of dal baht at the Asha Lodge and Restaurant. The food was great, and we consider staying, but were only an hour away from Tatopani if we walked on the road. We decided to skip the trail to save ourselves time, and to ensure we arrived at Tatopani before it got dark. We checked into the Hotel Trekkers Inn after finding out that the WiFi worked and there was hot water. The food is great and the staff are super friendly.
Dave
Normally a software engineer, recently I've been spending a bit more time in nature.
