By around 7 o’clock the next morning, words from Nayapul were trickling in that there had not been any vehicular movement so far, and only a few taxis operated on the previous day. That meant we would have to walk all the way to Pokhara, which, otherwise would have been a 30 min walk followed by a bus or taxi ride of no more than two hours. The highway distance was 45 km, and I knew it would be next to impossible to make it to Pokhara that way in a single day. Fortunately, one of the guides came to our rescue. He agreed to let us follow his group through shortcuts and assured us that we could reach Pokhara the same day as long as we maintained a reasonable pace. He was leading two beautiful young ladies from Singapore, and addressed them as Jethi and Mahili. Our departure from Birethanti was delayed for a few minutes as a huge flock of sheep had blocked the bridge. The shepherds soon cleared the roadblock and we proceeded on the same trail we had taken from Nayapul on the opposite direction. Our shortcut began just before the suspension bridge to the highway. After a steep climb, we followed the highway for some time. The only signs of vehicular movement we saw were some tire marks left on roadside dust. Then we saw some children on a tricycle. It was a tough climb on a sunny day, but it was softened by the friendly company of our new friends. Singing songs and playing dhunga ko football, we soon passed Lumle and reached Khare around 11 am. The highway distance from Khare to Nayapul was 20 km, and if we had entirely followed the highway, it would have taken at least 5 hours. That is also where we saw the first vehicle of the day. The owner was doing some minor maintenance work on his taxi. We made a brief stop at a roadside shop, and had lemon fanta (the only soft drink still in stock) and radish. An ambulance from Baglung zoomed towards Pokhara. The shop owner told me that the same ambulance had made a trip to Pokhara the previous day, carrying some Japanese tourists after they paid an outrageous sum of money. I am not sure how far it was true. Meanwhile, I wondered who was riding this time. Hopefully, it was some needy patient but could it be another group of tourists again? Khare marked the entry to the Pokhara Valley, but the city itself was another 25 km away. To our relief, the guide stated that we would completely bypass the highway and take another route from Naudanda. We had an option between descending to Pame, and taking a boat from there, or walk all the way via Sarangkot. We walked for an hour longer and reached Naudanda. Part of the way included passing through the proper village of Naudanda that used to be on the trekking route before the highway was constructed. One interesting fact about trekking that I have found is meeting the same trekkers again and again at different points along the trail. During my first trek in 1997, we met the same people on the bus from Pokhara to Kathmandu that we had met in Muktinath and Kagbeni. On the beginning of this thread, I had mentioned about the chain smoker that we met at different points on our bus journey (the chain smoker and we were on separate buses). Well, we never met him again, but as we were having our lunch at Naudanda, I suddenly heard the voice “C Man!!” The Canadians and the Japanese we had met at Ghorepani were there. They had also spent the night at Birethanti (in a different lodge right across the bridge) and asked us if we were the noise makers. Sure we were :) KRAMASHA