Lower Mustang Trek – to Tatopani

Travel Day 1049 – Complete Mustang Trek, NEPAL

18/19 Kagbeni via Jomsom and Ghasa to Tatopani (1190)

When I woke up this morning to the sound of falling rain, I knew immediately that this day would turn out differently that I had initially expected…

Crossing rapid, freezing Water, Mustang

My idea had been to enjoy an extended breakfast at the roof of my guest house in Kagbeni, then stroll back to Jomsom, check all my flight details for tomorrow morning and have a nice lunch in my local guesthouse there. In the afternoon I then wanted to go for a little excursion up to Thinigaon, Dhumba Dhumba Tal Lake and the ruin of an old fort. But I obviously didn’t want to do any of these things in pouring down rain…

Since my chances were quite slim to get flight out tomorrow in this kind of weather  and since I didn’t want to sit around all day, I made an executive decision before I even left the bed: I wanted to go to Tatopani today. It seemed reasonable to get to Tatopani by bus; there was a nice hot spring and a great guest house with good food and a sunny garden. So while having breakfast inside, I inquired about the option of taking a bus down to Jomsom, but as I found out, there was only one jeep leaving at 9am and I should be there early to get a ticket…

Fast Mud Slide cutting off the Road, Nepal

After waiting at the jeep stand for almost one hour, we finally left cramped with too many people in one vehicle for Jomsom. It was an adventurous, slow, bumpy ride up the gravel road, but I was happy not to be walking in the still pouring down rain, even if it had cost me 350 rupees to be rattled around. At this point everything was in best order and my plan to reach Tatobani in the afternoon seemed with reach. Only the normally calm Kali Gandaki Nadi river next to the gravel road that had become a roaring stream of wild, muddy water and with its four times larger size suggested the seriousness of the heavy rainfalls…

And in fact it was only about one turn of the road later, that we all of a sudden found ourselves in front of a gushing down mud slide, coming from the mountains and cutting off our road. Since big rocks kept being washing down in the muddy soup, the driver decided that it was too dangerous to cross it and we needed to wait. Finally after over one hour of sitting around in the cramped jeep and after some clearing of the rocks, the driver dared to drive trough the deep mud soup and we made it safely to the other side with pounding hearts…

Landslides covering the Road in Mustang

Unfortunately our joy ended already 10 minutes later when we hit a section of the road that was covered by a landslide and was threatening to break off at the river side. While we were still debating what to do, falling rocks started hitting the roof of the jeep and the driver just yelled at us to run as fast as possible across the landslides. He was calling another jeep from Jomsom to pick up at the other end while we were running in the rain, not knowing if rather to look up or down. Luckily that all worked out well and so I finally found myself three wet and adventurous hours later  in Jomsom, but from there it was still a really long way down to Tatopani…

Slightly concerned about the timing, instead of heaving lunch, I bought a snickers and jumped on the fist bus I could see to Ghasa. This was still only half way to Tatopani, but at least I was going in the right direction and the size of the bus suggested a bit more safety and comfort than the jeep could offer plus the road seemed to be getting better. Unfortunately this was only wishful thinking and after a section where even a jeep got stuck, the finally reached a point where the bus driver let us out and told us to walk for only 30 minutes. Only 30 minutes in the pouring rain? That was quite a long time but I soon found out why we had to walk…

Roaring wild Kali Gandaki Nadi, Nepal

The road was completely washed away in two places by gushing streams, coming from the mountains and bringing rocks and debris with them. While one of the fast flowing streams had at least a pedestrian bridge, the other had to be walked through on bare foot. And so I found myself in the rain and with my backpack on, wading through knee deep, freezing water that was flowing fast enough that it made me pray not to slip on one of the rocks I was stepping on below the splashing water surface…

30 exhausting and soaking wet minutes later, another bus picked us up at the other end and finally brought us to Ghasa. Unfortunately it was already 5.30 by the time we arrived and there was no bus continuing onward until the next morning. This seemed rather frustrating, but luckily some local pilgrims started negotiating a price for a jeep and about 30 minutes later we finally came to an agreement about the price, which meant we could all continue the bumpy journey along the roaring, muddy river…

Falling Rocks and Slides until Nightfall

Actually the pilgrims were going further south in the jeep, but I had enough of this crazy long day on and off the road by the time we reached Tatopani at 8pm. I had actually just enough time to order some nice dinner and jump into the hot spring for 20 minutes before they closed. Wow, this had really been a crazy day, but I somehow made it safely to my destination. And while I was enjoying the hot water after the whole day in freezing wet clothes, I was only hoping that tomorrow would be a better day…

Find all Day 18 – to Tatopani via Ghasa Photos here.