Day 17: Tatopani to Ghorepani

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.

The trek from Tatopani to Ghorepani is probably the easiest to navigate. There are signs pointing to Ghorepani at every single intersection and the path is usually made from hand laid stones, making it the obvious route to take. Some people told us it would take 8 hours while others said 5 hours. Honestly, we probably did it in closer to 7 hours without counting stops, but it was a very long and very hot day, so I’d plan for 8 hours at the worst.

The increase in altitude is what makes this day so difficult. The good news is, most of the path is off the main road, so you are walking uphill constantly but through beautiful little towns with amazing views. Because of the altitude gain, we stopped at least three times for tea or lunch. The tea stops were in tiny towns at the tops of hills. The lunch break was in Shikha at the Moonlight Guest House. The food was really good, but the woman there didn’t want to make me dal baht because it was too much work, and we were the only tourists. After trekking so hard, it was what I was really craving.

Once in Ghorepani, we stopped at the first hotel which is a massive building compared to other places we’ve stayed. The Asha Hotel & Restaurant felt a little cold and uninviting after the teahouses. It’s a cement building which was still under construction when we arrived. What sold it to us was the incredible owner, a young Nepali woman, who spent a large chunk of time in London. She was amazingly cool and insanely sweet. Once we saw the rooms which had the comfiest beds and blankets, we were totally sold.

I had originally planned to continue on and even do another trek, but my hiking boots got destroyed after walking so far in them. I couldn’t fix them and there was nowhere to buy a new pair, so I had to leave the conservation area by walking to Ulleri the following day to get a Jeep. Luckily, I met a group of four on route so we split the cost which came to 1400 rupees ($14) each.

If you’re in Ghorepani, it’s worth doing the hour walk to see Poon Hill. With my sneakers ruined, and cloudy weather, we didn’t do the trek which had no views that morning.