Day 17 - Kids On the Beach

Kagbeni to Marpha

A few kids are wandering around on the beach looking for stranded shells.

Well, almost. The kids are no longer kids, at least in their physical appearance; the beach is not really a beach but a big, wide and many kilometers long sandbank; there is little sand and mostly gravel and rocks; finally, the shells are no longer shells, but the shadows of shells, the imprinted traces of their ancestral existence and passage: ammonites.

We are wandering on the wide, flat, dusty riverbed of te Kali Gandaki in search of ammonites. My new German friends, Barbara and Lars, are good at it. Especially Barbara. She wanders around slowly in search of the "precious" stones, the ones that - once cracked - would reveal their mystery - a beautiful perfect spiral pattern. She is good at it as well, finding quite a few. Some

We left Kagbeni behind this morning in no particular rush. The scenery is gorgeous, this wide flat grey-brown riverbed guarded by bare reddish hills and ridges. Its sheer size is totally overwhelming. I feel like walking along a river in Gulliver's land. I am a dwarf oversized by any surrounding terrain feature, I am the tiniest fraction in the millenia old history of this landscape.

In the morning Nilgiri was brilliant in the sun. I only had to prop myself up in bed and I could see it through the window. Now that was a room with a view! Followed by a breakfast with a view and then the view of Nilgiri accompanied us almost all the way on our left. Eventually it disappeared behind the ridge on the left.
The trail, more like a wide dusty road - and indeed some sturdy 4WDs were driving up that road leaving huge clouds of dust behind them - was following the Kali Gandaki riverbed in a continuous but gentle up and down. On certain sections you could simply walk on the flat wide riverbed like on a rocky beach.

Once we left Kagbeni behind with its green fields and the willow trees along the river the landscape became a pallette of earthen tones were it not for the blue of the sky and the white of the peak. On the right river bank the hills and slopes show off their contorted history: clearly distinguishable by colour and texture the sediment layers are torn and twisted as the earth late movements have imposed on them. I take pictures which are by far not doing justice to the beauty and uniqueness of this place. At times I feel like walking through an alient landscape. The rocks on the riverbed are many colours, too, ranging from white to black, yellow and even orange. Sometimes a local comes riding a horse and the image reminds me a bit of the American Southwest, of a western movie.

We reach the town of Jomosom before lunch. Pipi and Purna - the Germans' porter - are waiting for us here. They walked here fast unimpressed by the scenery or the possible ammonite findings. From here Barbara and Lars are going to take the plane to Pokhara. A lot of people do so and you can see it is a busy town, if only for the fligh connection it offers. Before saying good-bye to each other we do go together for lunch.

Jomosom is not beautiful. It is like an oasis stretching mostly along the right riverbank. The houses are all painted white. The airport is a bare strip between the river and the houses and main street. You walk past it. Otherwise the river is flanked by green fields and vegetable gardens. That's the only green you see around here. On beautiful days like this you could enjoy some of the best mountain views at landing or takeoff as you can see not only Nilgiri on the left but also Tilicho peak and one of the Annapurnas. On the right riverbank behind the ridge that provides te dramatic background to any picture of Jomosom are further peaks. Majestic Dhaulagiri, Tukuche and the softer Dhampus. They are not visible from here, but would be from a plane. They were visible far away from Muktinath a couple of days ago.

We say good-bye to Barbara and Lars after a delicious lunch and continue towards Marpha. By now, as is normal in this region, the wind has picked up. It is also very hot so the combination of sweat and dust is something you should have been used to by now, in order to fully enjoy the walk. It is an easy walk, on the dusty road to the right of the river. Clouds of dust are enveloping us and the gusts make us choke, stop and turn our back to the wind in order to be able to breathe. There is no way I can use the camera in this dry, bare, windy landscape.

As we cross the little village on the way we pass by a little shop selling beautifuk big green apples. I suddenly have a terrible craving for apples. I cannot resist it and aso I stop and buy 0.5kg of appleas and wash one right away to eat it.
Who else could be this crazy - to eat a juicy apple while walking through huge clouds of dust with a strong headwind in the scorching heat. But I can't help myself. This is my personal and clear defensive response to the elements. I defy the wind and the dust and enjoy the apple. Sometimes I have to stop because of the strong gusts.

The riverbed turns into a dark rocky slightly uphill surface before we finally descend to Marpha which is just another oasis in the Kali Gandaki valley. We reach the entrance of Marpha, the "apple capital of Nepal", around 3pm. Bordered on the right by a steep slope leading up to a plateau and on the left by the river, Marpha is a very nice cluster of flat-roofed houses, all white with neatly stacked firewood on the roofs. The street is just a narrow slab paved lane lined up with souvenir shops and guesthouses, convenience stores and houses. It is extremely neat and clean.
Next to the river are many vegetable gardens and apple orchards, corn and millet fields. It all looks like a puzzle of different patches of green.

We stop at the Paradise Hotel which doesn't look like much from the outside, but it has 2 small courtyards in the back and an apple orchard behind. My room is large has windows to both courtyard and orchard and has a boiler in the attached bathroom. Pure luxury! Since I am planning to take a rest day tomorrow I manage to do some laundry. I needed that desperately.

Here in Marpha I meet again Colin and Emily, a couple I have met before in Manang and Kagbeni. They are looking for a book in exchange for the one they have finished and, fortunately, I'm in the same situation. So I trade "Trespassers to the Roof of the World" for "Ghosts of Everest" - the story about the Everest expedition in search of the legendary George Mallory and Andrew Irvine who disappeared in 1923 on an attempt to summit Everest. Awesome!
Not only am I delighted about the book, but I also enjoy very much the conversation with the two world travellers. They have travelled extensively around the world and arrived to Nepal after traversing Russia, Mongolia and Tibet among others. Quiet and very open minded they warmly encourage me to visit the Tibetan monasteries. When I mention Africa and Tour d'Afrique I notice the spark in their eyes. Colin, a Brit, was born in Africa and lived there in different countries in his childhood. He has very fond memories of places like Zambia, Ghana, Senegal and the Ivory Coast. Extremely nice and interesting people!

After a brief exploration of the village and its souvenir shops I end my day reading and writing in my diary. Tomorrow I want to visit another village, the Tibetan refugee camp and the very old Buddhist monastery - Chhairo.