Trekking Day 9: Jomson to Pokhara
Much of Jomson is the most modern settlement on the trek, built around the airport. It’s a legendary airstrip; if people tell you of flying up to the mountains in Nepal and landing on a hillside, this is it. Only tarmaced two years ago, the strip is just 2,000′ long and planes take a twisting, turning descent banking sharply right before landing on the threshold. Taking off, it’s full thrust and a drop off the end as if leaving an aircraft carrier.
The flights tend to land in twos or threes, perhaps for safety reasons. The Royal Nepal (RNAC) flights did not land at all, which sounds typical for this rarely-recommended airline. We were on the fourth Gorka airlines flight of the day, and besides Youg and I the rest of the passengers are Indian pilgrims. One of the older men asks me to take a photo of the women – I’ll email it to them – and also one of himself.
He looks like an Indian Spike Milligan, dressed in red balaclava and a red knitted tank top. “God has decreed that Pakistan will be destroyed” he tells me when discussing the Indian-Pakistan border dispute, and he plans to stand as an independent candidate at the next general election. His grandfather was the last Viceroy of India, and the only Indian to hold the post; an interesting character.
The flight was a cocky piece of aviation, darting between hills and over passes. I guess at one point we flew fifty metres over the crest of a hill (see right), moments later we are just under the cloud base. Hands on stuff. After a safe landing, I was back in Pokhara and my brief trekking life was over.
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