Our first view of Machapuchare (Fish Tail)

So, today we began our Mardi Himal trek. Our guide, Dharma, picked us up at 9am with our Porter, Mon, and we drove for about 30 minutes to Gajttikhola. We then began our uphill trek to Pothana where we stayed in a lovely guest house. The trek was only a few hours long and we were quite surprised when Dharma said we were stopping for lunch and that was it for today but we are presuming it will get harder.

The guest house had great views of Annapurna Range of the Himalayas and this picture is of Mount Machapuchare or Fish Tail in English, so named because of its shape (which you can't see fully in this picture). This mountain peak dominates all the others around it and is sacred to the God Shiva to the local people. You are therefore not permitted to climb to the summit. It stands at 6993m and Mardi Himal stands just below it at 5587. To put that in some perspective, Mount Everest is 8848m. We won't be trekking all the way to the top of Mardi Himal as the last part is a climb but we'll be going over 4000m. The guest house at Pothana at 1950m so we still have a way to go.

We enjoy the sunshine in the afternoon and then huddle around the log burning stove in the restaurant/bar in the evening with a couple of French trekkers and our guide and porter who both seem very nice. We sample the millet wine again ... this particular one is much stronger than our previous samples and we retire to bed early slightly worse for wear!

Haiku
Snow capped Himalayan peaks
Warm sun on our backs
Our tek has begun