Trek: Day 11 of 11

Hike start: Pothana (2,000 m)
Hike end: Phedi (1,160 m)
Length: 7.34 km
Ascent: 10 m
Descent: 810 m

Started to feel much rougher during the night and by the morning I was feeling quite fluishy ill. Sore throat, feverish, sore joints. Felt rubbish. Now the plan was “only” for a three hour hike but that seemed an impossible task in the morning. I had to skip breakfast as I was not feeling ok to eat. Not far from Pothana we did come across a lovely clearing with some breathtaking views towards the Annapurna range and especially the Fishtail mountain (Machhapuchhare), the most stunning prominence far around. It truly was my favourite mountain. It is also considered sacred as no one has managed to climb it.

Then we ended up on a maze of tracks, roads and all the time descending into the valley. At many points it felt like we were walking onto somebody’s back garden. We also saw more civilization, meaning way more traffic. The last hour or so was almost pure agony. There is probably a psychological reason for that somewhere in there. After an eternity of stairs which seemed to be never ending we finally came down to the road at Phedi where our buy was already waiting. I was of course one of the last ones one as my knees were also killing me. There were no big celebrations, no big high-fives. We just got on the bus and wanted to be in the hotel as soon as humanly possible. The room I got it was so lush, big, clean, had its own clean toilet. Simply lovely.

After showering and resting I went down to have some of the laundry done. I had quite a few smelly stuff that was about to start crawling out of the laundry bag if left unattended. Met some of the other hikers that left for Pokhara in Jhinu Danda and they convinced me to have a beer. I was feeling more and more tired and had to go back to the room after which I started to have a really bad fever. This lasted a few hours. Did get a COVID test that was negative. Barely managed to get a cup of mint tea down in the hotel’s restaurant. I was getting worried I might be stuck in this hotel for days.

Trek overview

External links

• Trek overview: https://www.komoot.com/tour/973119473