- Gandruk – Tadapani
Today we continued our uphill trek to gain more height before the tackling major stage to Ghorepani. Our first encounter was with a group of mules laden with stones presumably for building purposes. Mules do not seem to be used for transporting tourist luggage. The route took us through forest up a gorge with a waterfall to an intermediate stop at Baisa Karka. Soon after this we entered our first rhododendron forest with huge trees with reddish trunks. However the flowers were, apart from being high up and almost out of sight, already past their best. We were hoping for better luck at higher altitudes on the following two days.
The most interesting plant on the dark forest floor was a type of arum lilly. We reached Tadapani at 2595m in time for lunch which was just as well since there was a thunderstorm again in the afternoon.