A Walk up the Mountain

Thirteen days in Pokhara and Bill and I still hadn’t gotten a view of the Annapurna mountain range. We’d only seen Machupachure (the “Fishtail”) peaking through the clouds. So we planned an early morning hike for Tuesday, our last day in Pokhara. We both spent the night in Mount Olive Village, me at the orphanage and Bill, a five-minute walk away, at the Frontier Mission Training Center.

We left at 5:45 and rode motorbikes up the road above Mount Olive toward the overlook. There were seven of us on four motorcycles: Bill, Ovind (from Norway), Yusef, Daniel, Singa, Raj Kumar, and myself. Singa dropped off Raj Kumar and headed back down to take his son, Samuel (age 10 months), to the doctor. As we walked up the trail the morning light was arriving and we could catch glimpses of the mountains. We also served as breakfast for myriads of leeches that jumped on our feet and legs and feasted between our stops to pull them off. Bill probably pulled off about 40. There’s a prevention for the leeches (socks and pant legs dipped in saltwater) but leeches are rare this time of year and Daniel didn’t expect them to be a problem. Bill decided that next time he won’t hike barefoot in his Tevas.

Arriving at the overlook we were greeted with a spectacular view of the Annapurnas. Here we stood a little above 6000 feet elevation looking UP at mountains that, I think, surpass 26,000 feet. Magnificent.

On our way back down, we visited a property that Mohan has purchased and Ovind is trying to develop into the Machupachure Yak Guest Ranch. The hope is to create an income stream for Frontier Mission Center to decrease the dependency on financial support from the West. Ovind and Mohan have great plans. I get the feeling that God has great plans too.