Nepal Trek Day Eight: Dole - Phortse

Over the next three weeks, I'm taking a trip down memory lane with a look back at our trip to Nepal last December. For all of the entries about our trek, click here.

"Why does Phortse have to up a ginormous steep hill?" is the first line of my journal entry from December, 15, 2010. Oof -- after a fairly easy walk from Dole to Phortse Thanga (which was located down alongside the river), the climb up to the village of Phortse was ridiculously steep (and seemingly never-ending). As I recall, D was practically jogging up the hill, while I slowly huffed and puffed my way up the trail. It didn't help that my strengthening chest cold was deeply hampering my already reduced lung capacity. As seemed to be the case in many of our overnight stays, our lodge was at the very top of the village. After dropping our stuff off in our room, we headed to the dining room for lunch. After eating, we spent most of the rest of the early afternoon chillaxing in the warm sunshine of the dining room, catching up on reading, and drinking several rounds of black tea. 

 {Phortse lodge}

 {waiting for lunch}

Later in the afternoon, D and I bundled up and headed out to explore the village. Though getting there was fairly challenging (for me, at least), the benefit of being at such a high vantage point was that the views of the surrounding area were quite stunning. I took a million photos of the scenery, as was typically the case with most of our stops. I also spied what looked to be our trail for tomorrow, and given its location alongside a deep ravine, I could already feel the nervousness creeping in.

{view looking down on Phortse}

{prayer flags and mountains}

Our stay at Phortse marked one of the few times when we weren't the only or one of a few guests staying at a lodge. This time around there was a group of Aussies also staying at the lodge, and my, were they a loud and bawdy group! But it was fun listening to them talk and getting the run-down of events to come from their guide. Prior to dinner, D and I taught Bharat and Dilip how to play gin rummy, and we wiled away some time playing several rounds of cards before our food came. Soon after dinner, we headed to bed in the darkness and cold. As it turned out, I would have quite a restless night ahead of me.