So I finally made time to go trekking up to Muktinath, which is a holy pilgramage site in the North of Nepal near the Tibetan plateau. Having only trekked in the more leafy and tropical areas in the valleys, I was really excited to see the bleak vast open arid space in the Lower Mustang area.
The views were incredible, all around mountains, with fantastic colours and tones in the scenery. At 3800 metres, it is a little bit short of air up there! We passed through the village of Muktinath, Kagbeni (the gateway to Upper Mustang), Tukuche, Marpha and more...
This was the main route for the Salt traders who exchanged Tibetan wool and Himalayan Salt for Rice with the Thakali people in the area.
More recently, Marpha and the surrounding area has been used for apple farming, making this a popular local fruit - we tried the local Apple cider, sat in the sun one afternoon!
Higher up, we saw lots of women with these home made weaving machines, where they would make these very brightly coloured scarves and shawls.
I just really enjoyed the complete change of landscape from bleak arid mountain tops to the lush green valley, as teh route follows the Kali Gandaki river, which runs from Tibet down to India, through one of the worlds deepest gorges - surrounded by 3 of the world's 14 highest mountains over 8000 m - Dhaulagiri I, Annapurna I, and Manaslu - of which we had fantastic views of all on the way down!!! Epic!!
I took my parents on this trek this month, during their first visit to Nepal so my recent job has been as a tour-guide alongside AURA QUE work!! It has been great to show them Nepal and the people I work with - more blog posts to come on this!!
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