The end of the Khopra Ridge trek (according to Lonely Planet) is Tadapani. 

Unexpected rain resulted in a power failure for most of the night.

For trekkers that means Kindle light dinner.

Did you see what I did there? 😀

As usual on this trip, next morning skies were clear.

This has been the best vista so far of my favourite peak – Machapuchare.

After evening rain, the village was washed clean.

Lodges in Nepal are very similar. There’s not much difference between yours and HOTEL MAGNIFICENT.

From Tadapani it’s easy to get back to Pokhara in a day. But I decided, instead, to spend one more mountain night in Ghandruk, a  Gurung village, famed starting point for many treks.

Ghandruk was only a couple of hours downhill stroll. A very easy day for me.

Lonely Planet recommended Hotel Trekkers Inn in Ghandruk which had won many hospitality awards over the years. It’s good, but not much different than any other IMHO.

As prices are fixed at all lodges in each village, they try to match each other in features, as well.

Hotel Trekkers Inn did have good food including some menu items I’d not seen anywhere else. I tried the Moussaka … tasty, but unrelated in any way to Moussaka.

And also the local smoked, dried, spiced meat called sukuti,

In the restaurant I met a young American who will be volunteer teaching at the largest school in the area. She’ll be living at Hotel Trekkers Inn for the next 2 months.

We both met a Brit who’s an old Nepal hand. This trip he’s come to photograph the Kulung’ honey hunters‘, men who climb bamboo rope ladders to harvest the world’s largest bees. An interesting man.

Pro tip – bring a tiny luggage lock for your room. What they provide are bulky and awkward.

The Khopra Ridge Trek I just finished is excellent.

In fact, Nepal needs more like it. And there is plenty of opportunity to develop more trails in higher, less developed spurs of the Annapurna massif.

Widely circulated in local lodges is this 2014 article by Donatella Lorch who lives in Kathmandu:

… The tea-houses and lodges are packed. Hikers have to share the stone steps with Nepal tourism’s unsung heroes: the unending series of mule convoys, loaded down with everything from water and food to cooking propane, kerosene, mattresses, stones and bags of cement to feed the mountain region’s lodge construction boom. …

ACAP faces socio-economic, ecological and political challenges. New roads have jeeps and trucks competing with trekkers and brings with it increased risk of landslides. There is little variety as the vast majority of trekkers stick to a small number of routes that are at times crowded walking highways …

Many trekkers along the route are willing to pay more for a more Nepali experience, and were in search of less crowded trails. …

Value-added hiking

Nepal’s trekking is at a cross-road, in need of a quality upgrade

Next morning — day 7 —dawned, as usual, clear. I never tire of looking at these peaks.

I saw my first monkeys of this trip. Always entertaining.

As the bus stand below town looked good, I decided to take a chance on the local bus to get back to Pokhara.

Yeesh. Getting to and from trailheads in the Himalaya is by far the most dangerous part of trekking.

The only good news about this ride was the cost — $5 for 5 hours of very rough going.

Back in Pokhara, I took a couple of showers. Then headed for Utopia for Chicken Sizzler.

day 1  | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6/7

related – Click PLAY or watch another trip on YouTube.  (30min)