Day 22 - May 24 - Alternate route through the rhododendron forest

Virtually all foreigners and most locals head to Ghorapani and its neighboring lookout Poon Hill, one of the famous viewpoints of the Annapurna Himal. But we had done that in better weather just six months ago, so we took an alternate route through a thick rhododendron forest. Except for a pair of herders, we had the trail to ourselves.

Rhododendrons grow as trees in Nepal. We had hoped to still be able to see their red flowers, but those had long since blown away. Only two isolated trees still had their blooms.

Even so, it was delightful to climb through this temperate rain forest only 20 kilometers south of the deserts on the other side of the mountain. Occasional orchids grew on trees. A few leeches were getting ready for their heyday in the monsoon.


We ended our day at our late lunch stop Deorali. The word indicates a trail summit, and we were greeted by the clouds blowing over the ridge. It was cold enough that we spent the afternoon reading books.