Traversing the Jomsom to Pokhara Road in Monsoon Season: Our Experience
In this travelogue-style post, we’ll take you through the journey that is the unpaved road from Jomsom to Pokhara in Nepal. Expect twists, turns, and a near-death experience!
GETTING FROM JOMSOM TO POKHARA IN MONSOON SEASON: OUR EXPERIENCE
Type in Jomsom to Pokhara in Google Maps. 155 kilometres. A journey time of just under 7 hours.
“Let’s take the bus again. How bad could it possibly be?”
We’d decided to finish our Annapurna Trek in Jomsom. This new road, which connects rural Jomsom to less-rural Pokhara brings many benefits for the Nepalese mountain communities. But it cuts the Annapurna Trek short, turning the last section of road into a dirty, dusty trail that’s dominated by jeeps and tourist buses.
As ethically-minded, budget conscious travellers, we wanted to avoid an extra flight. It wouldn’t have mattered anyway as the low-lying fog filling up this side of the mountain range meant that all Pokhara-bound planes were grounded.
“It’ll have to be the bus then”, we agreed as we scheduled two tickets for the next day. We boarded bright and early and settled into our seats for what we thought would be the next eight hours.
“Why have we stopped? We’ve only just set off? What’s going on?”
I’d assumed the bus had just stopped to pick up passengers but it had been sitting a while. I hopped out to see what was the problem, landing in a puddle of mud. A landslide and the heavy monsoon rains had destroyed a bridge crossing and the river was flowing too fast for vehicles to ford it.
A flood wipes out a bridge over the Kali Gandaki River (captured by my terrible old 2018 camera!)
A Jeep driver changes a tire at the side of the road in the monsoon rain
“Finally, we’re on our way now”. The road was muddy, but we managed to trundle on, tires almost skidding over the cliff edge at points. I looked down (big mistake) and saw the wreckage of two jeeps on the cliffs below. Shit.
We experience two more landslides before we stopped for the night. The first had pushed piles of mud into the road further down. We stopped for lunch at a roadside restaurant: tucking into a hot plate of Dahl Bhat sat on plastic chairs under a tarp.
The landslide wasn’t cleared until night had fallen and we had to push the bus out of the knee deep mud as it attempted to traverse. Another landslide further on led the bus to stop for another few hours. It was almost midnight now. We’d set off at 6am.
Floods on the road
Rain fell in torrents, turning roads to rivers, but the road quality was finally improving. After 20 hours on the bus, we were nearly there! At 2am we were stopped by police. The main road to Pokhara was closed, it was too dangerous for vehicles. “Too dangerous, ha!”, I thought to myself.
Of course, the monsoon didn’t put a stop to the fun we had in Nepal after our Annapurna Circuit Trek. We carried on to Pokhara, experiencing the craziest bus ride on the way. We spent time in Chitwan National Park learning how to be elephant friendly tourists on an Elephant Happy Hour. And of course we explored Kathmandu on our return.
Alice
Alice is a UK travel blogger who advocates sustainable travel and being more eco-conscious on a budget. She loves coffee, her houseplants and summiting mountains.
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