Day Twelve: Jomsom-Beni
We thought our trek had ended after our chicken sizzler in Jomsom. It hadn’t.
Expect to get more than you bargained for if you choose to jeep out of Jomsom instead of paying the $79 to fly out (in 45 min). It’s a little like watching the uncut takes of a movie as the ending credit scrolls. Or as Des said, you might think of it as a bonus stage in a video game to nab more points for your next high score.
Jeeping out of Jomsom during the monsoon season involves countless changes of vehicles, quite a bit of walking and if you’re lucky, bashing through the jungle GI Joe-style.
A bridge had been washed away by the monsoon near Kalopani
We left Jomsom at 7am, and by about 11am, we had changed into our 4th jeep.
The first three hours was mind-splitting agony – a village loudmouth (who accompanied us on the first three jeeps)was trying to make himself heard above the blasting Nepali tune, while the jeep sputtered along the sorry excuse for a road. The Mahindra metal monster pulled up 500m from the village of Ghasa – it could go no further as a landslide had cut off the road.
The 4th change of jeep stopped us near Ghasa
After a delightful dhal bhaat at an unlikely venue (a ramshackle highway restaurant), we continued on foot to the village of Dana.
An hour’s trek past muddy mounds and rockfall zones took us to our 5th jeep. It was already 1pm when we started for Tatopani in the heavy downpour. The Mahindra brought us as far as it could – we were 1km from the next village by the time it died. At Bed Khola, we were told a landslide just occurred 5 minutes ago and the bus (our 6th change) would drop us halfway. From the landslide area we would have to trek to the next village to catch a jeep for Beni.
Desmond pretending to be hit by a landslide, after crossing a rockfall zone
We waited for what seemed like an eternity in the sweltering heat. At 415pm, the bus driver decided to move out, and took us on a one-hour ride to world’s end. The landslide was major – an entire chunk of the road had broken off, like Kit Kat, taking with it a section of the water pipe. Between us and the next section of the road was a good 50m.
A section of the road was swallowed by the landslide
It almost seemed like the other passengers were expecting it, but no one gave a hint of complaint or surprise. All of them simply alighted and made a beeline for a narrow hidden trail, up the slope to make a jungle hook to the other side of the road. The trail was 45 degrees up a slippery mud path.We grabbed whatever we could hold on to for support, including dubious looking vines and somewhat spindly branches. I tried not to press my feet too hard into the ground – the trail was full of deceptively firm-looking footholds which turned out to be loose rocks.
After a gruelling hike up the dense Myagdi jungle, we made it to the other side, where a row of buses waited some 200m from the landslide zone. We would get into our 7th change of vehicle. By 6pm, we reached Beni, where we stayed the night. Tomorrow, we would catch the first micro-bus to Kathmandu.
For now, we were just glad to have survived this bonus stage.
