Terraced fields cover the gentle slope from Jharkot up to Muktinath and Thorung La.

A morning stroll around Jharkot leads to its Tibetan Buddhist monastery,
known as a gompa.

In the early afternoon, I set off down the trail towards Jomson, which sits at the base of the Kali Gandaki Valley midway between Marpha and Kagbeni.

Soon I have to yield the right of way to a donkey caravan that lugs supplies to the villages above.

Continuing downhill, the wind blows in my face like a wall, driving small particles of dirt into my skin.  Towards evening, I meet a happily drunk man on the trail, which is now a precarious ledge twenty or thirty feet above the valley floor.  I try to warn him to be careful as he staggers past, but he is oblivious to danger in his unsteady swagger and appears to know where he is and where he's going.  He staggers on down the trail.  I reach Jomson and find a cheap hotel room.