The view from our room when we woke up the next morning at the Bob Marley Hotel in Muktinath.
The Chyongkhar Nunnery.
We began a slow descent towards Kagbeni at around 9am.
In recent years a road has been built all the way along the Kali Gandaki valley, connecting Muktinath to Pokhara. This has put a big damper on hiking this part of the Annapurna Circuit. Many people decide to save time by taking a jeep or bus from Muktinath or Jomsom, and for those who do decide to hike they are often being past by the vehicles on the road.
The day was clear and the mountain views were wonderful.
One of the towns we passed along our way.
An example of the local botanical life.
The view as we descended further toward Kagbeni (2800m).
The town of Kagbeni, a small green oasis amidst the desert terrain. Here we got a taste of Tibetan culture as Kagbeni was a part of Tibet, up until the border wars about 50 years ago.
A massive Stupa in the centre of town.
We had lunch at this quality establishment called 'Yak Donald's'...the BigYak Meal was actually very tasty.
The view from our hotel the morning we woke up in Kagbeni.
At Kagbeni the valley bends toward the south. Along this part of the hike there are very strong winds that blow up through the valley towards Tibet, everyday at around 9 or 10am. We were on the trail by 6:30am to try and take advantage of the calm morning.
Unfortunately the wind picked up at 9am that day and so we had to fight our way through it for about an hour before we reached Jomsom.
Jomsom was the largest settlement we had come across along the whole circuit. It is loud and dirty, with a bus station and an airport. Overall, we were very unimpressed and so decided we didn't want to stay there. We found out that it was possible to get a bus from there to Tatopani, about 60km down the valley. Originally, we had planned to hike all the way there, but the wind, the bleak desert landscape and the jeeps and tractors constantly passing us made hiking a lot less fun. We also determined that if we could reach Tatopani that day we would definitely have enough time to do the Annapurna Sanctuary trek. So, we bought our bus tickets and departed from Jomsom at 12pm.
An interesting sign we saw as we were leaving.
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