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After our ordeal making it over the Pass, it was pleasant to spend a night in the town of Muktinath, a famous pilgrimage spot for both Buddhists and Hindus. We remember it of course for its temples and monasteries, but also for its Bob Marley Restaurant or “Regge Bar” where we went to celebrate our achievement with a couple of other trekkers and our guide and porter. Here we had our first taste of meat (chilli chicken) in 10 days, and I had the “Thorung La Volt”, a potent mix of brandy, rum and a smidgen of lemon juice.

Fortunately the next day was an easy day. After a sleep in and a very late breakfast we wandered up to the white walled temples and monasteries at the top of town. It’s a very peaceful setting with a few pilgrims wandering around, and Tibetan prayer flags fluttering from the ramparts. The site is considered very auspicious because of the presence of a spring of holy water and the discovery of an eternal flame feeding off a natural gas source. The combination of water, earth and fire makes this a very important pilgrimage site.

The water spouts from 108 brass spouts shaped in the form of little cow’s heads. Pilgrims walk under the water (which is freezing) to cleanse them of their sins.

In a quiet Buddist monastery you can have a peek at the eternal flame, which looks and smells much like a gas stove. There used to be three flames - one of them was extinguished when a research group came and started taking photographs. No photography is allowed now. The second flame is a teeny faint blue light only.

During the next few days we descended through the windy Kali Gandaki valley. The winds howl with ferocious strength after about 10am. Fortunately the routes we took were all down hill and often flat. We often walked across dry river beds containing lots of rounded river  pebbles. Some of these contain ancient fossils of ammonites, some 140 million years old, a reminder of the fact that this high lands used to be at the bottom of the ocean and were pushed up and formed mountains when two tectonic plates collided. We got stiff necks from constantly looking at pebbles on the ground to see if we could find these fossils, called saligrams.

There were fantastic mountain views still, but unfortunately we faced away from these views as we were now heading south and completing our circuit.

We stayed in some lovely villages along the way. Kagbeni was a biblical looking town with cobblestoned streets, cows and chickens and goats everywhere, and very ancient looking mud houses. Marpha is the self proclaimed “delightful apple capital of Nepal”, and indeed there were lots of apple orchards there with the trees in full bloom, but as it was spring there were no fresh apples or apple cider for that matter! Ghasa was a tiny settlement of no more than 4 lodges. We stayed at the Paradise Guest House which is run by a very meticulous man with an ingratiating smile and slightly annoying manner, who runs the place like an army camp - Order dinner at 5pm, and sit in order of when you are getting your dinner! We were seduced by the offerings of chicken on the menu, and I ordered a Chicken roast and V ordered Fried chicken. We were then treated to the spectacle of our hen being decapitated and defeathered in the back yard!! Well at least it was fresh chicken….

Our hen being slaughtered in the back yard…

Yum, dinner!!!