Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Trekking with the Princess and the Tiger

Oooh, I'm a bit embarrassed. It has been almost a year since I posted anything here. And I will cheat and just put a lot of pictures too. Last week, Toby, Noa and I went trekking together...without Mads and Clare...for 5 days. And we survived. We had our moments. It was difficult for them to sleep in a new place every night and the rhythm of the days didn't always give me enough of a break, although I could walk really slowly or really quickly and get out of earshot of any whining. Oh, yes, I forgot to mention that we had an entourage: 2 porters and a guide.














But Toby and Noa did walk sometimes. I chose a relatively easy route: drove from Pokhara to Nayapul then walked to Tikhedunga, Ghorepani, Tadepani, Gandruk and back to Nayapul. They probably could have walked more than they did had I been more aware of distances and how much flexibility we had with the time. Yes, Noa is wearing a princess dress; you can't see her tiara. She wore it everyday and every night; it was filthy by the time we finished. But boy did she entertain the other trekkers!

Toby was his outgoing self with children and some adults at the tea houses but generally with other trekkers he did his tiger growl in greeting.







Both kids are developing a knack for photography so now you might start seeing a few more photos of me.



Good eating habits went out the window. I don't know how they survive on what they eat. They lived on boxed mango juice, the odd apple pancake and eventually I broke down and bought packets of coconut biscuits, which are available everywhere. We made it back to Pokhara and they happily shared a pizza.






As always, it was great to get out of Kathmandu and it gave me ideas for our next trek, which should be in the first week of October, in case anyone is planning to visit... Think my princess, tiger and I will go to Jomsom and do day trips.

Love
C T N