Mustang Trail Race 2017 Day 5

Really great mroning to wake up to a view of Nilgiri like this.

We were meant to meet the other runners at 8am arriving from Pokhara by plane but of course the flights were late. So eventually we had met up with everyone for a cup of coffee by 10 o'clock and had a briefing from  the organiser Richard Bull.

 Today it was a walk to the start by a circuitous route to gain altitude and get some acclimatisation in. We climbed for about 90 minutes to get to 3,400 metres before dropping down to a lovely Mustang village. The houses all had walled courtyards to keep the animals in winter and flat roofs where firewood was stored. We were guided to a snack spot by Lizzie Hawker, no less, who is one of the course organisers and will be marking the course for us each morning. The walk was a chance to meet the other runners and there are some serious runners here who have done some major tough races. Luckily there are others who are not super hard and are more Iike us. We are not even the oldest! The second half of the walk was more adventurous as we, along with most of the other runner did not follow the correct route which resulted in an exciting traverse above the river on rocks and scree. 

The village of Kagbeni is lovely and our lodge for the night is great. We even have an en suite with hot water.