We dropped 800m one day and 1500m the next, from Hidden Valley (5011m) to Marpha (2667m) and then went upstream to Jomosom (expecting to fly out).
 | The sunlight on the snow gave some really sparkly effects. Climbing towards Dhampus Pass. Hidden Valley, Dhawalagiri Region, Nepal |
| Glen and Joseph chairing Thakur "off the field". Tukuche Peak in the background. Taken at Dhampus Pass (5270m), the "exit" of the Dhaulagiri Trek from Hidden Valley, which begins our descent (eventually - you feel like you are walking in the sky for a few hours before you really start descending). |  |
 | Frequently, Helen will spontaneously take the most amazing photos. This was descending from Dhampus Pass towards Marpha. Mountain cloud had enveloped us, and the scene looked like something out of "Kurosawa's Dreams". Windy, foggy, and desolate. |
| Demoiselle Cranes (anthropoides virgo) . Some of the porters, when they heard them but could not see them, hurried down the hillside in fear of witches! Above Marpha. |  |
Taken from Yak Kharka above Marpha, Kali Gandaki valley, Nepal
Mustang on the left, Glen in the middle, Nilgiri on the right, Kali Gandaki 1500m below.
| Above Marpha, Mustang Region, Nepal |  |
 | Marpha, Mustang Region, Nepal One of the few that I actually took. btw: on the opposite side of this rustic looking roof was a dish for satellite television! |
| Jomosom |  |
And thus we got ourselves down to Marpha and then Jomosom. The next day we spent wandering about waiting for our plane to come in, but the Kali Gandaki valley, up which the flights come, carves itself between two of the ten highest mountains in the world, meaning that the weather can be a little unpredictable. This time, just lots of low cloud. You can't fly through cloud with great confidence in Nepal, as the clouds have rocks in them! Once we realised our plane was not going to come in that day, we decided there was only one thing to do... march back to Pokhara (well... with some motorised assistance where there were roads...)
As seen on Andrew Purdam's Bushwalking Treasure Box blog.
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