Today was the start of the second half of our Annapurna trek, after the luxury of two days traveling by jeep and bus.

In a way, it felt like the beginning of a whole new trek, since everything was so different from the high country we had left in Muktinath. This is low country with banana trees and a tropical feel, completely different even from the similar altitudes on the other side of the mountain where we began. It was also heavily populated, with many local people using the trail as a way of getting from one place to another.

The trail up from Tatopani is a huge rise of 1800 meters (6000 feet) to Ghorapani. Although we were game to do it in a single day, Sonam wisely decided to have us spend the night in Chitre an hour and a half short of the top. We were definitely tired in the final ascent through town to our guesthouse.

This trail attracts a wide range of fellow travelers, although the great majority are young people. We passed a large group of Japanese that looked like an extended family up to the grandparents who must have been in their eighties. They were steadied by porters, but doing it all under their own power. At the other extreme was a French family who had paralleled us round the whole circuit with their four-year-old boy. He too was walking the whole way – considerably faster than Marcia and me!

By the altitude of our stopping place, the tropical vegetation had given way to a rhododendron forest. In the late-afternoon sun, the trees across the valley looked like they had red trunks, but these were actually the dead leaves of a deciduous climbing plant.