Day 1: Meet at airport, transfer to Hotel Norbulinka in Thamel. Were supplied with welcome flowers, Nepal/US friendship pins, trekking maps, then drove through the color and noise and bustle of Kathmandu to the quiet and serenity of Baudhanath, a compound of Buddhist temples and monastery to listen to the chanting of young monks.

Day 2: Sweet milk tea at 6 am. Met some of the staff. Walked through the misty early morning streets of Kathmandu, watching the whole city waking up, to Swayambhunath, the Monkey Temple, up a long series of steps through a grove of gnarled fig tree and religious shrines and monkeys. At the top, below the huge dome under the eyes of Buddha facing the four cardinal directions, prayer wheels spin, huge bells bong, prayer flags and pigeons flutter, monkeys squabble and scratch and swing on the prayer flags. Listened to Newar chants for awhile, then back to a place near Northfield for good breakfast. Later in the day we visited the Kathmandu Zoo and the Tibetan Refugee Camp where the world’s most beautiful people make those beautiful thick Tibetan rugs. Then to Patan’s Durbar Square. Crazy mix of architecture, lots of it old, from the Malla Dynasty. Chinese, Indian and Victorin buildings are all crowded together. All kinds of people filling the square, sadhus, pilgrims, merchants, shoppers, us. Back to Norbulinka for a shower, and then cycle rickshaws to the Moti Mahal for one of the all time great Indian dinners.

Day 3: Stowed unneeded gear at the Norbulinka, picnicked at the airport on leftover Tandoori chicken and flew to Baglung. The town is a 3150 m, up above the Kali Gandaki River which, up higher, forms the deepest gorge in the world, around 20,000 feet. At this elevation we are surrounded by banana and papaya and banyan trees. Our camp is beside a grove of Chir pine with flowers blooming everyplace. Met the rest of our staff and lots of friendly locals.

Day 4: Trekking at last! Dropped to the Kali Gandaki and followed it upstream, crossing somewhere below Baglung, and followed a relatively level trail past villages and terraces, water buffalo and caravans of donkeys to camp to Beni.

Day 5: Left the Kali Gandaki and headed up a tributary, the Mayagdi Khola, through more villages below limestone cliffs with waterfalls plunging over. The bird life along the river is tremendous, especially raptors; hawks, eagles, kites. Camped just beyond the village of Tatopani (hot water) where there’s a hot spring open to the public, gents before 4 pm, ladies after. Got some good nepali lessons from the local kids. Some are so small, but so grown up; tiny little girls responsible for even tinnier brothers and sisters slung on their backs.

Day 6: Iridescent white breasted kingfisher on a branch over the river as we started out. Continued upstream, stopping for lunch at Darbang, past the remains of a huge landslide that buried a whole village just a few years ago. After lunch, we finally did some climbing through a pretty oak woodland with wonderful views down the river valley. Camped in a schoolyard at Dharapani, aboute 5100 feet.

Day 7: The clouds that surrounded us last night were gone this morning and the Dhaulagiri Ranges was revealed. The view is spectacular. Its just beyond any kind of scale we’re used to. Its’s so big, it must be a Hollywood backdrop, but its real! Below the peaks are tiny toy villages surrounded by geometric patterns of brilliant green and yellow terraces (mostly wheat and mustard.) the trail does some serious climbing from here. We gained about 1500 feet to camp at the Magar village of Muna. From here, we will leave the main trail that goes to Dhaulagiri Base Camp to explore some lesser known routes.

Day 8: Fairly steady uphill climbs (about 3000 feet.) reached the famous rhododendron forest. The color of the enormous blooms is incredibly intense. As we climb, the village becomes fewer and smaller, and finally disappears altogether. We climbed through a magical silent forest huge with epiphytes and lichens among big mossy rocks lined with bunch of delicate lavender primroses. We camped in a little ravine where there were a few patches of snow on the ground and a troop of langur monkeys in the trees nearby. There is enough down wood here for a small campfire, very welcome ups this high.

Day 9: A short, stiff hike brought us to the top of Deorali Pass at 10, 200 feet. The hoped for views were obscured by clouds but we’ll be back this way later for another chance. We had a hilarious slipping, sliding descent through the snow down the other side of the pass. There were occasional tantalizing glimpses of the Gurja Himal through the clouds. We dropped to the Darsings Khola, than climbed back up to the village of Gurjaakhaani, just too picturesque to be true, huddled beneath the peaks. It looks like a Swiss postcard.

Day 10: Only a half day hike today, up a narrow river gorge to Darsinge Kharka (Meadow) at 9400 feet. The Gurja Himal towers right over our heads. We spent the afternoon doing laundry and hair-washing, watched a Thangka being painted, kibitzed over the preparation of another fabulous dinner. We hoped for a view of some Blue Sheep on the mountainside, but no luck so far.

Day 11: Retraced our steps back down Gurjaakhaani and were invited into a Nepali house. Visited with villagers awhile, and then returned to cross the Darsinge Khola and back up the base of Deorali Pass to camp at a little herder’s hut in the forest.

Day 12: Back up Deorali Pass. This time the clouds were gone and we could see all the way to Annapurna on one side and the Gurja Himal on the other. We made the long descent down to Lumsum and camped at the river below it at 7000 feet.

Day 13: Started right back uphill again toward Jaljala. Fabulous hike through swirling mist and clouds partly through more primrose forest, partly along ridge-tops through firs and junipers and pines up to the pass at 11, 000 feet. It’s an open, windswept place, wild and exhilarating. There is a row of little herder’s shelters here too, one of them made a cozy kitchen.

Day 14: This is the high point of the trek in every sense. The morning clouds lifted to reveal a 270 degree panorama of glistening Himalayas. We could see Churen Himal, Mustang North and South, Dhaulagiri, Annapurna, and even Machhapuchhare. Shot rolls and rolls of film. The hike down to the Dhorpatan Valley was equally spectacular. First there are snowy plateaus and mountain meadows, and then the valley walls narrow and drop down the gorge of the Utter Ganga, past cascade after cascade, through rainforest, then pines and firs, then rhododendrons until the gorge opens up into the Dhorpatan Valley. It’s a huge flat-bottomed bowl; you can almost see the long-gone Pleistocene lake that formed it. The town is quite large and spread out; it even has an (unused) airstrip.

Day 15: Crossed a meadow that bounced and jiggled like Airctic muskeg underfoot, climbed a little pass( about 600 feet) with prayer flags flying on top, then down another tumbling stream, the headwaters of the Bhuji Khola. The human traffic picks up again here. Lots of pony caravans and people with loads of firewood or animal fodder at least twice their own size. Flowers reappear, among them, incredibly sweet-smelling daphne. We finally camped just above Burtibang at 4600 feet.

Day 16: Burtibang is a big town with several schools, a tiny new hydroelectric plant, missionaries. Lots of interesting activities to watch on the streets; spinning and weaving, woodworking, blacksmithing. We ‘re back in subtropical country now. Fresh papaya for lunch! Our camp is on the Bari Goa River at 3000 feet, just above kara Bazar. The river is a birders paradise with kingfishers, chats, redstarts, dippers.

Day 17: we followed the Bari Goa all day, stopped for a swim in the river at lunchtime. Spring plowing and planting is going on all around us. Camp at Bachitti.

Day 18: Bachitti lies at the end of a rough tractor road, so the walking is easier and there are luxuries available like Coca Cola, but we would all just as soon not have the road. We camped beside a little temple above the Ourli Khola.

Day 19: Followed the Ourli Khola to its confluence with the Kali Gandaki with its beautiful turquoise glacial water, and then hurried on to RiRi Bazar. Celebrated the end of the trekking part of the journey with dal bhat at a cool and pleasant hotel overlooking the main street while the staff hunted up transportation to take us a Tansen. We found a beautifully painted truck with tinsel and tassels and brakes in good working order. The paved road begins here. Wild ride (about tow hours) to Tansen on top of the truck’s cab, crunching mango candy, serenaded by drums and tambourines and songs along twisting ridge-top roads. Slept just outside town and tried to adjust to the sight of electric lights in the distance.

Day 20: Tansen, we found a bus and set off again to the music of drums and tambourines south through towns and forests of sal trees toward Chitwan. Camped on the banks of the Narayani River across from the Island Jungle Resort, and were admiring the egrets and storks and ducks on the river when a rhino ambled through camp. That afternoon we were paddled across the river and climbed aboard an elephant for a ride with a very knowledgeable and charming Park Naturalist. We got good looks at, and lots of information about, rhinos, barking deer, spotted deer, rhesus monkeys, dozens of species of birds, and even some gharials(fish-eating crocodiles) in the river. Returned to camp for dinner to honor and thank the porters. Singing and dancing in the lamplight.

Day 21: After a short bird walk with our naturalist through what must be one of the best birding areas in the world, began our day-long drive on the perpetually-under-construction Chinese/Nepali road. Arrived back in Kathmandu in time for a little shopping, a luxurious hot shower and pig out at Third-Eye Restaurant.

Day 22: Walked one last time through the morning Kathmandu streets to breakfast at Mike’s breakfast and had a little time left to explore the Yak and yeti Hotel in all its gaudy opulence before returning to the Hotel Norbulinka for tearful goodbyes and the flight home.