I made a decision a couple of days ago that I would go up to the peak of Sarangkot when I felt was the right moment. Sarangkot is a view point that I can see from the UDTC campus, and it’s said that from up there you have a great view over the valley of Pokhara, with the lake to the south and the mountains to the north. So, this morning was the right time for that short “trek”.

  And of I walked into the “unknown”. Well, it wasn’t so hard to find the road up the ridges, because I had my best friend with me (that is the guide book), and there were big signs along the road, so it wasn’t so hard to miss it. It was easy in the start. I left at around 7.30 in the morning and I had planned that with that time span I would be able to make it back until “breakfast” at 10. Well, being optimistic is one thing, and reality is something else, as we all know. Sometimes I just prefer to be optimistic.

  It was a nice walk up the ridges and I had water and photo gear with me in my back pack. When I came closer to the end I just wondered when I was going to reach the peek. Some people at the office said it was 5 km up to the top, but afterwards, I measured it and then it was more to 7,8 km one way. And as you might have guessed I crashed my own time planning.

  But when finally reaching the peek, damn it was beautiful up there. The high level of humidity in the air makes it a bit difficult to see the city of Pokhara in a good way, but I did see the lake and the mountains to the north. The big sharp peek is the Machhapuchhre (which means “Fish tail”), 6993 metres high. As you can see on the photos there are clouds towards the mountains, which nowadays often makes it hard for me to see these peeks from the guest house I’m staying in.

  And then after relaxing at the top, I “just” had to walk down. Both when I walked up and now when I was walking downwards taxis honked their horns as soon as they saw me and wondered if I wanted a ride. But that would spoil the entire idea of walking up and down, so I declined their offers all the time. If I had wanted to keep to my time table, then of course I would have taken a taxi down to UDTC. As it was now I came back about 1 hour later than planned, and I was totally super tired. I can tell you that I’ve never felt that hard and intense muscle pain in my ass before as then. Not to say that I know what will come in a few days. Just wait. I will not be able to walk for days as it feels right now.

  It was a great way up there, and down as well. Perhaps I’ll use that road as a practice distance for my running in Göteborg after I return to Sweden. The total distance here is about 15 km, so it’s shorter than in Göteborg, and I will never be able to run it, but it can be a good exercise to go up and down there. As soon as my ass-muscles have adapted…