A slow look across the mountains before another day on foot.
The journeys / 05 Nepal · Solo · March 2025
KhopraRidge.
The view was along the way.
Walk into the story My first trek outside India
76 photographs / 17 moving memories
76 photographs / 17 moving memories
March 2025 / On my own, somewhere new
A country away.
A little closer to myself.
My first trek outside India began with a last-minute decision. Nepal, on my own. I went looking for rhododendron forests and a ridge above them, and found a different way of walking in the mountains.
There were clear skies on the way up and cloud at the ridge. I came back glad I had gone. This is the whole walk, including the parts that did not go quite as imagined.
- 01 / ArrivingKathmandu
- 02 / A flight, then a nightPokhara
- 03 / The walk beginsGhandruk
- 04 / As far as I wentKhopra Danda
01 / Kathmandu → Pokhara → Ghandruk
A last-minute yes.
Then, Nepal.
I arrived in Kathmandu without a finished plan. After checking into my hotel, I worked out the next move: a domestic flight to Pokhara. Most of the arrangements came together in a window of ten or twelve hours.
A night in Pokhara. A taxi to the bus stand the next morning. Finding the bus to Ghandruk, then finding my feet on the trail. One small decision after another, until I was walking.
02 / Finding my feet
Finding my feet.
Finding the quiet.
I was nervous that first day. I stopped just outside Ghandruk and found somewhere to sleep. Going on my own also meant being able to give myself that time.
The next morning, I started again. Soon there were trees all around me and long stretches without another person. The air was cool without being harsh. There was very little to do except walk and pay attention.
No one to keep up with.
No need to rush.
For long stretches, there was no one else on the trail. My attention had somewhere simple to go: the next bend, the trees around it, the ground beneath my feet.
03 / A different kind of trek
A bed at the end
of the forest.
Until Nepal, trekking had meant tents and carrying a small version of home on my back. Here, each day led from one teahouse to the next.
After hours on an empty trail, there would be a warm bed, a clean washroom, good food from a small menu, even Wi-Fi. It took a little getting used to: all that quiet during the day, and somewhere comfortable to settle into by evening.
Between one teahouse and the next
The day, reduced
to a path.
Some of the quietest hours were under the trees. A cool trail, a little colour at my feet, the occasional opening across the valley. There was plenty here before the big views.
The mountains kept appearing between the trees. I had time to look.
The forest in mist, and the trail close by. The day had slowed to this.
04 / The mountains open
And then,
all this.
A couple of days in, the views began to open. Snow above the trees. Ridges behind ridges, softened by the morning haze. Clear peaks appearing between the branches.
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More clear peaks above the trees. Another pause before I kept going.
A clear sky did not mean a still valley. The cloud was moving beneath me.
The colour I had come for
Spring,
beside the trail.
I had come for the rhododendrons, but I kept stopping for the space beyond them. Some days I walked under a blue sky for hours. There was no reason to hurry past any of it.
05 / Towards Khopra Danda
More sky.
Less shelter.
Higher up, the forest fell away. Grass covered the open hills, and the wind had nothing to slow it down. The trail kept climbing under that crisp blue sky.
Somewhere on the way to the ridge, my trekking shoes began to fall apart. The soles were crumbling and coming away. I could keep walking, but it changed how much further I was prepared to go.
Khopra Danda / The ridge
A very large
place to arrive.
The Annapurnas across the valley. I stayed for a few more seconds of it.
A wider view from the ridge, before the light changed again.
A last-minute plan.
A country I was still learning.
And here I was.
The last warm colour on the snow. I stayed outside to watch it leave.
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One ridge / Afternoon to the next morning
The light went.
The morning changed.
A clear afternoon. Warm light at sunset. Cloud by dawn.
Three photographs across the evening and the next morning.
Some clear peaks, some cloud. I was glad to be up here for the changing light.
See the full frame ↗︎Some clear peaks, some cloud. I was glad to be up here for the changing light.
The sun dropping through the haze. I had nowhere else to be that evening.
The next morning, before the sun reached the ridge. The hills were clear; the highest peaks still had cloud.
06 / Khopra Danda
The morning had
other plans.
Cloud and mist came in at Khopra Danda that evening. By then, I had already seen clear mountain views along the way. I hoped the ridge would give me one more in the morning.
I went out before dawn. Cloud lay over the peaks. I could look across the ridges, but the fully clear panorama I had hoped for never arrived. On a clear day, Khopra takes in Dhaulagiri and the Annapurna mountains; that morning, I had to leave some of it unseen.
With my shoes breaking down, I left out the extension to Khayer Lake. The ridge was as far as I went. I was ready to head down.
A turn across the morning. The mountains, the cairn, and the hills falling away.
I went out for a clear panorama. The cloud gave me a different morning.
The peaks had cloud above them. Below, the hills went on and on.
07 / The descent
Further away.
Clear at last.
I descended the other side in a single day and slept in a village below. The following morning, Dhaulagiri was clear. Further away than it would have been from the ridge, but there it was, its summit properly in view.
I was glad to see it. I did not feel that the cloudy morning above had taken anything away from the days before it.
Dhaulagiri / 8,167 m / The world’s seventh-highest mountain.
The morning after I descended. A view from below, rather than the close panorama I had hoped for at the ridge.
A note on the mountains and the lake
In clear weather, the Khopra panorama takes in Dhaulagiri and the Annapurna mountains, including Annapurna South and Nilgiri. Khayer Lake is a separate extension beyond the ridge; I did not hike to it. Dhaulagiri’s height and ranking are recorded by the Nepal Tourism Board. The wider vista and lake extension are documented by Indiahikes and Royal Mountain Travel.
08 / A shared jeep. The road home.
Back among
other lives.
The journey finished with a jeep ride alongside local Nepali people. After the quiet of the trail, I was back among other lives, going somewhere together for a while.
This was my first trek outside India. I had worked out the travel, found places to sleep, and kept moving through somewhere unfamiliar on my own. Each part had fallen into place. That feeling came home with me.
00:33 · Sound in the player
After the quiet trail, a place in a shared jeep. The road had other company.
The mountains from above, after days of finding my way through them.
The moving memories / March 2025
Stay a little
longer.
Seventeen films, from the first mountain views to the road back. Open one for the complete clip. Original sound is available through the player.
A slow look across the mountains before another day on foot.
The mountains kept appearing between the trees. I had time to look.
The forest in mist, and the trail close by. The day had slowed to this.
Dhaulagiri, the Annapurna mountains, and the long blue space between. Some views were already here along the way.
More clear peaks above the trees. Another pause before I kept going.
A clear sky did not mean a still valley. The cloud was moving beneath me.
The Annapurnas across the valley. I stayed for a few more seconds of it.
A wider view from the ridge, before the light changed again.
The last warm colour on the snow. I stayed outside to watch it leave.
The light leaving the mountains, kept in a few seconds.
A turn across the morning. The mountains, the cairn, and the hills falling away.
I went out for a clear panorama. The cloud gave me a different morning.
The peaks had cloud above them. Below, the hills went on and on.
A little light at the edge of the mountain. I was still glad to be here.
After the quiet trail, a place in a shared jeep. The road had other company.
Me and the people sharing the ride down. Different lives, the same stretch of road.
The mountains from above, after days of finding my way through them.
The selected photographs / March 2025
Seventy-six frames.
Every part of the walk.
The peaks and the paths between them.
In the order I travelled.
Open a photograph to see the full frame.
76 photographs
Khopra Ridge / March 2025 / Solo
I was glad
I had come.
There had been blue skies on the way up and cloud at the ridge. By the time Dhaulagiri appeared again, I was already down in the village. I was glad I had come. I had walked somewhere unfamiliar, worked things out for myself, and returned with a little more trust in my own company.
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