Day 12: muktinath to kagbeni

After a less than great night sleep, despite stephen kindly lending me his super duppa sleeping bag, we started the day with an explore of Muktinath.

We were both achey and tired, with sore knees and I was up wheezing all night, thankfully Stephen had an inhaler with him. 

We hiked up to the temple of muktinath, a sight of pigrimage for both Hindu and Buddhist from around the world. Particularly bordering India and Bhutan. Our guide dependra broughta basket for the offering with us. We walked through thebeautiful grounds, and visited the main temple for a blessing from muktinath, god of nature. There were 108 fountains people when cleansing themselves under and two freezing pools in front of the temple.

We then went inside and gave our offering to muktinath, this involved dependra smashing a coconut over a rock and lighting insense. We then each received a thread necklace and a mark on our forehead. 

We then visited a second temple with a natural flame, which is suppose to burn eternally. It was a nice change for a morning. After a very late breakfast we hiked down for 2.5 hours to kagbeni. There was a new tarmac road built in the last two months we ended up walking along. Despite the road, the views were amazing. This area is know as the desert of Nepal. The surrounding area was desert and canyons with snow caped mountains in every direction. The further down we ascended the more mountains came into view. 

We then turned a corner to a beautiful green oasis below us which was the old town of kagbeni. We arrived at our lovely guest house to WiFi and warm showers, and a beautiful view down the valley. The food was also amazing. A much needed relaxed day after yesterday.