There are two trails you can follow after Lower Pisang. The flat one leaves from Lower Pisang to Humde, through which you can enjoy a easy walk in the peaceful valley. The upper and the harder one, which you should ascend up to 3.750m before coming down to 3.500m, includes great views of the valley and the mountains.
At the end of the 6th day, with the information we had received and the hope of a clear sky due to the snow we'd seen after we had arrived at Lower Pisang, we had decided to take the latter route. Juli & I had also agreed on meeting before sunrise and climbing up to the Buddhist monastry on the top of Upper Pisang previous night. So we did; the morning ascent - maybe because of altitude and/or the backpacks and/or starting trekking with a steep climb just after waking up - was challenging. Unfortunately, the sky was again a little bit cloudy.
Finishing shooting, we met with the girls and continued our trek. 45 min. walk on the slope of the mountains was decorated with the view of the tiny and cute green lake. Then came the toughest ascent of the circuit, which leads to Ghyaru village. It took us nearly an hour to climb 400m. We had our black teas in a lodge of the village and rested.
Ghyaru
It was nearly noon when we started to walk again; the target was Ngawal village for the lunch break. With each second, the sky was getting clearer and the snow over 4.000m mountains was becoming brighter. After 2 hours of walking, we reached Ngawal. My blisters on my feet, from the beginning of the 3rd day, were hurting badly. Plus my right shoulder was aching due to my unbalanced old backpack. I had to repair it as soon as possible.
During lunch, I blew my blisters and hoped that they wouldn't effect me through the rest of the day as we had decided to reach at least Braga, which meant 3 hours of walking. For the first 15 min. I was convincing myself that I should wait my body&feet to get warm and then I would not feel the pain. When we started to descend steeply, I had already forgotten my blisters. The enchanting view of Annapurna III (7.555m) also accompanied us all the way down.
At the end of the descent, we found ourselves at the beginning of a forest with short trees lying through the northeast of side the valley. Since I'd been slower than my friends, by the time I caught them they had already been rested and prepared to move. On the contrary, I was tired and wanted to view and shoot Annapurna III for a while.
I stayed there for 15 min; when I walked a little bit, I was confused of having difficult trails. Decided to take the lower ones, which enter the forest, continued on my way. Few minutes later, there were no trails:) The little wooden bridge I saw far ahead helped me in finding a trail again. I realized that my Arg.s had the upper path. The way I should go was so clear; with the confidence of this knowledge the 1 hour lonely walk in the forest up to a small village, Mungji, was great.
I had a black tea and biscuit break in Mungji whilst watching the trails. It was the intersection point of the two trails. Waited for a half hour, but they didn't come; so I continued my way to Braga. The first thing I thought when I saw Braga village was that my fellows, especially Juli, would certainly love it as I did. As the sky was also getting dark when I arrived; decided to stay here and checked the lodges whether they'd already been in the town or not. Having 'No's, I put my stuff in one of the three rooms of a new built lodge after agreeing for "food&drink without bed".
I started to keep my eyes on the trail passing in front of my dining room. Just my hopes had finished, I heard a Spanish voice coming from the dark road. It was Juli's voice asking me to the previous lodge. Renata and Mila gave me a big hug:) They had really had some hard times and worried a lot.
The rest of the evening was full of joy and laugh, as we met again:) The lodge was ours since it had just 3 rooms filled with us and our hosts were so generous in keeping us warm in the dining room. Now it was the time for rest, logistic preparations and the great views of Annapurna range with hopefully a bright sky. As we were feeling good and had went up to 3.750m before, we decided to skip the acclimisation for the next day that most of the trekkers do at this point.
DAY 8 ( Braga - 3.500m )
At the time I woke up, it was the end of the night and from my window you could see the Annapurna III with the stars at the backround. At last we had our full clear sky!
I did some washing and stitched some of the parts of my backpack, which were ripped. After that I had a walk to Manang, which was 20 min. away from Braga. It's the biggest town after Chame and the last town before Thorung La pass. Full of hotels, bakeries and shops, in which most of the things a trekker needs could be found.
I was back at my lodge after 2 hours and I learnt from my friends that the tasty meals we had previous night were cooked by a cook from another lodge. As you can see our lodge was brand new:) As our hosts told us they could not cook, we went to that cook's lodge, Himalaya Lodge & Bakery. As the middle-aged Tibetan cook told, he had worked in Kathmandu with his wife for years and learnt international cuisine, then had started the first bakery house of the Manang district. I'm glad he did:) After 7 days of scarcity of tasty food, we were at the seventh heaven with the great view, beers, cheesecakes,...
As the sun set behind Annapurna range, we turned our faces to the exit and walked to our lodge with quick steps:) The evening passed as usual: simple dinner around the fire. It was a very relaxing day before we tested ourselves over 4.000m.
DAY 9 ( Braga - 3.500m to Letdar - 4.200m )
After buying Yak cheese&bread from Himalaya Lodge&Bakery and chocolate bars&tuna cans from Manang, we continued our way to Letdar. With the heroic view of the Range, we climbed for nearly a hour to our first black tea break. The way to Yak Kharka (4.018m) didn't take long. Yak Kharka just consists of 2-3 lodges as the latter stops before Thorung La pass. We had our lunch here and followed the trail to Letdar.
The first time any of us (Julian) felt the effects of altitude was during this period. Mila joined him in Letdar later with her headache. But nothing to worry about, 'cause these were the normal symptoms and we had all the afternoon, evening and night in Letdar to adapt our bodies to this level of oxygen.
The thing that disturbed us was the crowd in our lodge. As the towns had finished, we had just few lodges on our way to the Pass and there was no way to escape from the trekkers. The lodge management was another case: bad food, inadequate fire and cold rooms. Only funny experience we had was the mice in our (Mila&I) room, which ate all the peanuts of Mila all through the night:)
