Ulleri (6,726ft) to Ghorepani (9,429ft), 9km / 5.6 miles
10/22/25
I practically fell asleep writing in my journal last night. I felt great walking but we took so long that the time on my feet with both backpacks on my shoulders (mine and my sisters, to give her a hand on the long uphill) began to weigh me down. We were dead tired and slept GREAT.
Some anxiety-fueled nightmares left me feeling relieved when my alarm went off before 6am and we both woke feeling relatively pain-free and refreshed. We quickly got ready, packed our bags, and headed down to breakfast as the rising sun lit up the hills behind us.
A quick breakfast of oat porridge with fruit and we were off by 7:10am.
More stairs! Joy.
Today’s trek is shorter than yesterday at least. After 20 minutes or so, we passed a sign for Ulleri school and a man at a booth collecting donations. We donated what we had and he gave us each a marigold which we tucked behind our ears for the rest of the day.
We climbed stairs for another 1.5 hours to reach the upper outskirts of Ulleri, taking a pit stop for a bathroom break and water refill before continuing on.
We started our day a full hour before everyone else; the only people we saw for the first hour or more were porters, carrying their trekkers’ belongings up the trail.
Fortunately the trail this time had stairs interspersed with flat sections and gentle uphills. 2 hours after starting we got our first view of Machapuchhre, fish tail mountain. On day 6 going up to Annapurna Base Camp, we will pass through Machapuchhre Base Camp along the way.
After walking on the road for a few minutes, we turned onto the trail again and this time had cover of the jungle around us, following along a narrow river full of waterfalls.
Little ups and downs – this was a lovely walk. Around this time I felt disappointed that a massive group had caught up with us. Today we kept a slow and steady pace, reaching Nangethati after 4 hours, including a stop for tea and a snack after crossing a bridge over the stream.
We paused for a minute to watch some monkeys jumping around between trees, snacking on fruits!
Lunch – veg fried rice (again). 2.3km / 1.5 miles to go to Ghorepani.
Full bellies and heavy legs. It was at this lunch spot that we had our first casualty – I’d foolishly gone to use the toilet and didn’t remove my sunglasses from my head, and they FELL IN. I gingerly pulled them out by the tip of an arm, careful not to touch anything, but there was no amount of cleaning that could convince me to put them back on my face, so in the trash they went. Luckily my sister had an extra pair of nearly identical ones that I used from then on, so you probably won’t even notice they’re gone!
Leaving the lunch spot I felt refreshed but ready to rest and relax, not walk for another 2 hours. At least we were all feeling the same.
We stayed on the road for a while slowly but steadily climbing up and up and up. After an hour or so, we reached the junction with the trail to Ghorepani – a signed noted it would be a quick 20 minute walk to town, but it was one long staircase the whole way and took us 40 minutes to reach lower Ghorepani. The motivation for today? Yak cheese pizza. Hey, whatever works.
Another 10 minutes up steps – pausing and moving aside to let a group of ponies and their minder pass – and we reached our tea house in upper Ghorepani with spectacular views somewhat obscured by clouds.
One last flight of stairs later and we were cracking open the door to our small but cozy room. We strung up a laundry line and opened the windows wide, then used an empty trash bin to clean the days’ clothes and hang them up. With plenty of time to enjoy a relaxing evening by the heater in the dining room.
Just as the sun was setting, the clouds cleared enough to see more of the mountains around us and we rushed out into the cold to take some photos before resuming our spot by the fire.
I was feeling very well overall but my stomach was having a hard time digesting the heavy meals we were eating at lunch and dinner. I picked at a bit of dinner before heading up to bed and calling it a night.
ADK Trail Tales 
Loving this. I did much the same trek c. 1999. Looks like there have been a few upgrades, like the fancy Poon Hill arch. Before the incredibly dicey flight from Pohkara to Jomson, the pilots were in the cockpit thumbing through the users manual and arguing over what a particular switch was for. When we landed by a thread, a Brit stepped off and said, ‘What an enchanting flight — all that discussion in the beginning about how the plane worked.’
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🫣 that must have been THRILLING when the plane landed and you were still alive! My goodness. I know there are some roads between the villages now that weren’t even here a year ago, so I’m sure there are lots of changes since the last time you visited!
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Another winner, Natalie! Absolutely loving these!!
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Thanks Gary!!
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