Besisahar marks the beginning of our hiking journey. Lena and me first enjoy our first Dal Bhat, to gather some energy for the upcoming days. And let me tell you that tastes amazing, diverse, and no Dal Bhat is the same all around Nepal. Every time, your senses enjoy a new variation of it, a new combination of tastes.

We pass at the checkpoint to get our permits verified, and head on the way. We are pretty confident, go on walking, take a wrong road, lose one hour, struggle to find the right way and end up stopping our first day way closer than expected.

Even though we didn’t make much progress, making our morale drop slightly when we look at the global task at hand, we still were blown away by the vivid green landscapes and rice fields we went through. The weather is quite warm, sunny, humid and dense in vegetation. And we were even warmly welcomed in Nepal by a group of Nepali women, in the middle of the rice fields, happy to share some words and smiles with us.

Day	From	To	Distance	Positive elevation	Altitude change	Time
1	Besishara	Bhulbhule	11km	420m	+20m	3:00

The second day, we head towards Jagat. Motivation is present, and we kind of overdo it, skipping the midday break and pushing towards our objective, as it seemed very close on our map. Well, that’s what you call learning a lesson the hard way. Just before Jagat, we have to climb up never ending flights of stairs that really makes us dig in our reserves, and have a hard time. Not the most pleasant, but with some sweat and time, we overcome it and enjoy a good evening and night of sleep in a lovely Lodge.

Day	From	To	Distance	Positive elevation	Altitude change	Time
2	Bhulbhule	Jagat	14km	560m	+560m	6:15

Easy day ! This time, we feel like flying through the landscape, and our objective arrives in sight sooner than we expected. It’s reassuring for the coming days that some stuff can feel easy and accessible to us. The landscape here begins to shift from very green and dense to a more mountains and rocky feeling. 

We enjoy a cold beer, joke around, as the sun sets on the mountains. It’s getting very cold suddenly, when the sun disappears, and I decide to take a hot shower as this is still available up here. Well, it feels wonderful when you’re under the hot shower, but as soon as the water stops, the cold air that was kept at bay is prompt to bite, and the drying becomes a challenge of speed and efficiently, as I rush, trying to get in my hot clothes as soon as possible. Lesson learned: shower as soon as you get to the lodge, if you want to shower, to avoid the evening cold.

During the evening, we meet Mariana and Boi, a Dutch couple travelling around. We get along very fast, and spend the evening getting to know each other in the candle light, as the power seems to run out frequently here. They are accompanied by Shrada, their guide, who is a lovely young Nepali girl, full of energy, smiles and passion for the mountain. She describes some trekking itineraries for us, gives us advice and gift us with her lively presence. That, added to the already lively mood of Boi and Mariana, transforms our evening in a laughing contest and a very memorable moment. I hope we’ll see this group again in the following days, because they’re just amazing.

Day	From	To	Distance	Positive elevation	Altitude change	Time
3	Jagat	Dharapani	15km	600m	+600m	5:30

We leave today, surrounded by many trekkers. They come mainly from Germany, France and England, and evolve in tight packs, led by a guide and followed by porters. We keep our pace, overtake them, and after some time enjoy a relative loneliness on the track again. We walk again through amazing mountains, deep valleys and open spaces the whole day. I don’t think I’ll ever get enough of it.

We end up in the same hostel as Boi, Mariana and Shrada, and continue spending very nice moments. First on the roof of the hostel, drinking local alcohols, sharing discussions with a big Israeli group that joins us there. Then the sunset attracts all of our attention at it sets the mountains on fire with bright orange lights. And finally we decide it is time for some card games around the fire heating, as the evening slowly slips by.

Day	From	To	Distance	Positive elevation	Altitude change	Time
4	Dharapani	Chame	16km	810m	+810m	5:15

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