Today's trek criss-crosses the valley, wide and flat at this point with the Kali Gandaki River cutting its twisting, emaciated dry season course along the rocky riverbed.  The clouds come early, obscuring the mountain peaks from view.  Pete and Kaji have gone on ahead, so I trek alone, a miniscule dot on the valley floor.  The alpine forests of the southern part of the Kali Gandaki River valley are slowly giving way to a more desert-like landscape.

As darkness falls, I reach Marpha, an oasis where green farm plots meet desert.

It is the apple capital of the world -- apple trees, flowering fragrant white in terraced fertile fields, yield apple pie, apple brandy, dried apples and pulpy delicious apple juice.

On the outskirts of town stands a painted green and white stone structure, dubbed the "Vegetable Seed Conditioning & Testing Unit", with a 21st Century garden out back that shelters white metal-framed tented rows of plants and apple trees growing contentedly on either side.