I never found out for sure what was protected, but the Kaligandaki is a source for shaligrams - 200million year old fossils that have religious overtones.
Trip to Nepal
October 2006
Day 14- Muktinath to Kagbeni
The trail from Muktinath to Kagbeni was very easy, continuing to shed altitude but much more slowly. We were entering a breadbasket area of Nepal, known for its high winds. From 10am until 5pm, the wind blows very hard, maybe 40Mph. How the locals stand it is beyond me - in the winter it must be so hard. This is where the Kaligandaki River starts. It's a very wide river, but only during the rainy season is it filled with water from bank to bank. Now it was channels in the riverbed.
I stayed in the Annapurna Hotel here, which was spacious with nice polished wood and again my own bathroom. The guests included a Canadian woman who settled in Pokhara 15 years ago, who spoke at length about what was right and what was wrong with Nepal.
Right
Wrong
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On the way to Kagbeni, the Poplars were changing color, for an unexpected touch of Autumn. |
| The clouds often seemed to be at our height or even below us. |
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Looking down at Kagbeni while approaching from above. The river bed is at the upper left part of the picture. |
| From the Nepal Ministry of Tourism, thank you - a map of the town and a listing of the places to stay - not drawn to scale. |
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The wheat in this picture has not
been cut; it's been blown down by the wind. The riverbed is mostly
exposed except for some channels. I wanted to go walking down
there, but was told that a permit was needed as it was a protected area. I never found out for sure what was protected, but the Kaligandaki is a source for shaligrams - 200million year old fossils that have religious overtones. |
| The main road into town. |
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Taken around the middle of town, where a stream runs down to the river. |
| The literacy rate in Nepal is low, and there's an international effort to keep children in school longer. I spoke to an NGO who said they were very well-funded and were making inroads. This is a school room in Kagbeni. It had two posters: one of the English alphabet, one of the Sanskrit alphabet. But that was it - benches to sit on, benches to write on, not much light coming in (this was taken with a flash). It's so different than a classroom which I walked into recently in the US, which had so many stimulating items. |
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These goats would be taken out of town in the morning to feed and return in the late afternoon. |