Best day ever (so far) 12/7 Day 5
Up at 6 and had breakfast w our new Croatian friends. I tried the local porridge which wasn't so good. Luckily Andy didn't eat much of his muesli so I killed it. We took off before the Croatians since our bags are much heavier and we figured they would catch up (they didn't). It was cold, but it wasn't for too long until we hit the sun. A nice flatish walk and then we started the uphill. And uphill we did for 1300 ft, straight up w our heavy ass bags. We did well, slow and steady. We made it up in 2 hours. At the top we took in the view of Annapurna 2 w some Himalyan apples and mushroom noodle soup and lemon ginger tea. Just what we needed.
After an hour of not seeing our friends, it was time to head for Bhraga. All the villages in this area are made out of stone. With the flags flying, it's like Game of Thrones. We walked along the ridge for a couple hours. The views from the top of the mountain range was unbelievable. We could even see the snow topped bowl rock we passed yesterday. The sun was shining and there was a slight breeze. Perfect for hiking. Words can't express the beauty. It's like National Geographic. We passed more herders and their yaks. We saw 10 or more condors flying high and circling us. Those suckers were big. We hit the next village and headed down. We opted for the road instead of the path since it was more direct and we had several more hours. Even when we intercepted it we co to used on the dusty road. What a good choice it was.
Around the bend we hit a small town and saw our goal off in the distance. We were hurtin and wanted to be done asap. Luckily Bhraga was just around another bend. It was almost 4 when we arrived. Another loooong hiking day. The town was smaller than I expected. I checked out Hotel Buddha and Andy checked out New Yak Hotel. I didn't want to stay at New Yak because it's a pun, but there were other travelers there. It ended it being the place to be! The in had a little cat and we welcomed her into our room. She was the sweetest. She jumped onto our sleeping bags and purred and snuggled w us. In the restaurant they got the fire going and we sat 20 travelers around it. There were people from Canada, China, Australia, UK, Chile, and a dude from FL. He had been traveling fo a while and has hardly met any Americans. He passed the Croatians on the way in who told us we were here. He barges in the room and says "are you the Americans!?". He just came from India and we got a lot of good travel tip from him for our next journey. For dinner we had garlic noodle soup, a huge veggie burger (it was like a stuffing patty- so good), and a pizza which was actually really good and legit. It's almost 9 and way past our bedtime. I'm hoping tomorrow will be an easy day but I doubt it. Andy is sick but refusing to slow down. He was a beast today when he should be sleeping.
30k steps, 16 miles