April 2023 Khopra Ridge Trek, Nepal

Today (10th April Monday) morning Yogesh, Shubra & Bany were scheduled to take an early morning flight to Khatmandu. The others had booked seats in a luxury bus. After tea & breakfast at the Hotel we reached the bus stand by 845 AM & boarded the luxury bus. The bus left at 9 AM sharp. The drive from Pokhara to Khatmandu was a repeat of the same trip we did on 1 April 2023 from Khatmandu to Pokhara. Except that this was a luxury bus against the semi luxury bus which we had taken on our onward journey. We were 7 of us in the return trip - Swamy, Sumathi, Aditya, Alekar, Karmakar, Sridhar & myself. After a long journey punctuated with bio breaks, tea breaks & a lunch break we reached Khatmandu by 5 PM. The hotel which Swamy had booked for our overnight stay at Khatmandu - Backpackers - was a short walking distance from the bus stand. But we had luggage with us. Alekar was agreeable to travel to the hotel in a motorised vehicle with the luggage. We hired a cab and loade...

  Ever since the trekkIyers successfuly completed the Markha Valley Trek in May 2022, as a group we were on the look out for a suitable second Himalayan trek. Something that was neither too hard nor too easy; Moderate level - to use the technical lingo! On 5th January 2023 Dr Swamy sent a message in our WA group. He was checking out the Khopra Ridge Trek in the Annapurna range area of Nepal. Swamy had talked to the orgainsers TTH - Trek to Himalayas who required minimum 5 people to confirm the trek. Swamy himself, his wife Sumathi & his nephew Aditya were planning to participate. The trekkIyers group was promoted by & the founding members were : (1) Dr Narayanaswamy (2) my BIL - jijaji - Dr Ramesh Raman (3) my younger brother Vaidhyanathan (4) our school friend Sridhar & (5) yours truly. At the time of writing this blog (April 2023), three of us were 52 years old, one was 55 & the eldest 57!   Shankar (A CA friend & also an Iyer) who was aware about our mai...