- Start point: Jagat, 1,330m
- End point: Deng, 1880m
- Total ascent: 1089m
- Total descent: 573m
- Distance travelled: 21.5km
- Time walking: 9hrs 46 minutes
- Big mountains spotted: 4
- Innocent locals on the trail that were subjected to us trying out our new Nepali phrases: 39
A note on the stats!! Total ascent and descent is off my watch, showing how much we climb and descend each day. This includes all the little hills so is much bigger than the actual altitude difference between our start and end point. The time walking is the entire day from guest house to guest house, all stops included. Today we stopped for at least an hour in Philim and then another hour at lunch, plus other little water stops. Distance is also off my watch so might not be entirely accurate, but is a great indicator.
I can’t believe it’s only our second day walking and we’re already having this much fun and seeing so many incredible views. We were on our way by 7:15 AM this morning, and it was nice to know that this would be our last few hours on the road before we left it completely. The road did make for very efficient walking though, and we smashed through nearly 5km in the first hour. We got our first views of some bigger snowy peaks, and Josh and Mayla spent some time looking at the map and working out which ones they were.
The surroundings are already changing from yesterday, we’re noticing less diverse plant life, more intense rocky features and a dryer feel overall. Yesterday the vegetation felt really lush and dense, today it’s much more sparse and woody. Although we’re enjoying the lack of rain, Mayla told us that the crops (primarily corn) could do with some rain. Hopefully they can last until we leave because I’m quite happy with the lack of rain!! We’re seeing lots of lizards, some of them are up to about 20cm long and quite chunky. Also lots of beautiful species of butterflies in all different colours.
After a little more climbing we dropped off the road and passed through a small village, before crossing the river (along with all the local kids heading to school), and continued up to Phillim. This town was a bit bigger and had a really welcoming feel to it. It had some amazing views and lots of nice houses, home stays and gardens. We found Josh a bandana to help protect his neck from the sun, and even found a coffee machine!! We all enjoyed an extended mid morning rest here with cappuccinos, it was such a treat. After another hour up the track we stopped for an early lunch at around 12, to power us through the rest of the afternoon. Mayla said it should be only another three hours from here, but it looks like a fair amount of elevation and distance on the map to me..!
From here the valley got more and more narrow with enormous cliffs towering over us on either side. We continued following the river and gradually climbed higher. On the other side of the valley we saw the attempts to extend the access road come to an end (for now). They are basically cutting a road into the side of a cliff, and it seems pretty disruptive from an environmental perspective, but will really change the lives of people in local villages. It will also really change the trekking context, as you’ll eventually be able to get a jeep to much higher in the circuit. But for now, from here onwards it would be trail access only, and everything would have to be carried in by mules!
The main river splits into a few different valleys, and we passed the turn off to the apparently stunning Tsum Valley with a few regrets and second thoughts… maybe next time! We’re still following the main river but it’s significantly smaller now, and climbing steeply.
The trail felt long after lunch, and Mayla’s estimate wasn’t exactly accurate… it took us a decent four hours to get to Deng. We were both getting tired and had a bit of a debacle with our map which momentarily lowered spirits. We’re using AllTrails, which is an app that shows trekking routes globally and good quality topographic maps. We’ve never had any issues with it. We were checking the map after a stop that was only two hours away from Deng, and we were greeted with what looked like a 700m descent and ascent, but still in the river valley. It was super weird, and we immediately quizzed Mayla to ask if we really had to descend and climb that far… I did momentarily panic! If we had used our common sense sooner we would have noticed that simple physics makes this impossible as we are literally walking up a river valley, but I’ve grown up reading maps and trusting them, so this really threw me!!! Thankfully, the map was totally wrong, and there was no major descent or ascent, just a mostly gentle climb up alongside the river. Turns out it was just a glitch in the map, we were in quite a steep gorge so maybe the satellites didn’t survey it correctly or something.
We arrived into Deng at about 5:15 PM, and were greeted by a view of a snowy peak just as we reached the top of our final hill. The guesthouse here is awesome, we’re in a cute, clean, wooden room with a comfy bed and the whole place has such a nice, homely feel to it. After a cold shower and some stretching we had the BIGGEST plate of egg noodles for dinner, with Mayla insisting we eat them all to power us up for our big day tomorrow! We finished the evening by talking to a great young guy who is working here for a few months carrying wood for renovations, he was wicked smart, so nice and had amazing English.
We’re now tucked up in bed for an early night, and we’ll be up at 6 AM for what promises to be a big day with more views of the mountains, and hopefully no more map glitches!!
I can’t believe it’s only our second day walking and we’re already having this much fun and seeing so many incredible views. We were on our way by 7:15 AM this morning, and it was nice to know that this would be our last few hours on the road before we left it completely. The road did make for very efficient walking though, and we smashed through nearly 5km in the first hour. We got our first views of some bigger snowy peaks, and Josh and Mayla spent some time looking at the map and working out which ones they were.
The surroundings are already changing from yesterday, we’re noticing less diverse plant life, more intense rocky features and a dryer feel overall. Yesterday the vegetation felt really lush and dense, today it’s much more sparse and woody. Although we’re enjoying the lack of rain, Mayla told us that the crops (primarily corn) could do with some rain. Hopefully they can last until we leave because I’m quite happy with the lack of rain!! We’re seeing lots of lizards, some of them are up to about 20cm long and quite chunky. Also lots of beautiful species of butterflies in all different colours.
After a little more climbing we dropped off the road and passed through a small village, before crossing the river (along with all the local kids heading to school), and continued up to Phillim. This town was a bit bigger and had a really welcoming feel to it. It had some amazing views and lots of nice houses, home stays and gardens. We found Josh a bandana to help protect his neck from the sun, and even found a coffee machine!! We all enjoyed an extended mid morning rest here with cappuccinos, it was such a treat. After another hour up the track we stopped for an early lunch at around 12, to power us through the rest of the afternoon. Mayla said it should be only another three hours from here, but it looks like a fair amount of elevation and distance on the map to me..!
From here the valley got more and more narrow with enormous cliffs towering over us on either side. We continued following the river and gradually climbed higher. On the other side of the valley we saw the attempts to extend the access road come to an end (for now). They are basically cutting a road into the side of a cliff, and it seems pretty disruptive from an environmental perspective, but will really change the lives of people in local villages. It will also really change the trekking context, as you’ll eventually be able to get a jeep to much higher in the circuit. But for now, from here onwards it would be trail access only, and everything would have to be carried in by mules!
The main river splits into a few different valleys, and we passed the turn off to the apparently stunning Tsum Valley with a few regrets and second thoughts… maybe next time! We’re still following the main river but it’s significantly smaller now, and climbing steeply.
The trail felt long after lunch, and Mayla’s estimate wasn’t exactly accurate… it took us a decent four hours to get to Deng. We were both getting tired and had a bit of a debacle with our map which momentarily lowered spirits. We’re using AllTrails, which is an app that shows trekking routes globally and good quality topographic maps. We’ve never had any issues with it. We were checking the map after a stop that was only two hours away from Deng, and we were greeted with what looked like a 700m descent and ascent, but still in the river valley. It was super weird, and we immediately quizzed Mayla to ask if we really had to descend and climb that far… I did momentarily panic! If we had used our common sense sooner we would have noticed that simple physics makes this impossible as we are literally walking up a river valley, but I’ve grown up reading maps and trusting them, so this really threw me!!! Thankfully, the map was totally wrong, and there was no major descent or ascent, just a mostly gentle climb up alongside the river. Turns out it was just a glitch in the map, we were in quite a steep gorge so maybe the satellites didn’t survey it correctly or something.
We arrived into Deng at about 5:15 PM, and were greeted by a view of a snowy peak just as we reached the top of our final hill. The guesthouse here is awesome, we’re in a cute, clean, wooden room with a comfy bed and the whole place has such a nice, homely feel to it. After a cold shower and some stretching we had the BIGGEST plate of egg noodles for dinner, with Mayla insisting we eat them all to power us up for our big day tomorrow! We finished the evening by talking to a great young guy who is working here for a few months carrying wood for renovations, he was wicked smart, so nice and had amazing English.
We’re now tucked up in bed for an early night, and we’ll be up at 6 AM for what promises to be a big day with more views of the mountains, and hopefully no more map glitches!!
