Seat of Our Pants

Our third day was spent backtracking from Mukinath to Jomsom. Up to this point we were walking in a reverse Annapurna Circuit direction. Most trekkers who tackle the Circuit trek (which the Jomsom area is apart of) walk around the Annapurna massif in a counter-clockwise direction. There are a few reasons for this. The most compelling reason is a little thing called the Thorung La pass. Standing at a staggering 5416 meters (or 17,769 feet) high, this pass is more easily tackled when approaching from the east to west direction. As we’d reached the pass in the opposite direction, the closest we got to it was Mukinath, the little tourist village that sits on it’s western side.

 Our plan for Day 4 was to catch a bus south from Jomsom, so after a night in Mukinath we had to turn around and retrace our steps. As we knew we’d cover the same ground twice, we allowed ourselves to do some of the things we didn’t have time to do on the first pass: fossil hunting and more fossil hunting.

Fossil hunting ground

Since the Himalayan mountain range is made up of ancient sea floor, the riverbed that links Jomsom and Kagbeni is rumored to be littered with ancient crustacean fossils. That’s just the kind of thing that I can get really nerdy about, so Martin and I spent a good hour combing over the area. Our spoils, or what I like to call the world’s greatest (potential) fossil weighed in at two pounds; two extra pounds that I proceeded to carry for the next nine days. And that’s just one of the four other rocks I hauled around. So, even if we break this rock open and there is nothing in there but black nothingness, we’re displaying the d*#m thing with pride. My back still aches for carrying a bunch of rocks around for nine days.

The day’s trekking time was five hours, all downhill. Once in Jomsom, we treated ourselves to a nice guesthouse and a hot shower. You learn quickly on one of these treks that if you find a guesthouse that offers 24 hour hot showers, you take them. You never know when your next chance to clean yourself might be.

You can check out some of the photo highlights of the day in the gallery below, or click here to check out all photos of Day 3.

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