Blogs from Annapurna Circuit, Annapurna, Nepal, Asia - page 2

One of the main reasons Nepal has thousands of tourists flood in from across the globe throughout the year is for the many epic trekking routes which the country has to offer, including, but not limited to, Mount Everest! On a much smaller, cheaper and realistic scale for a backpacker (and a sane man), there is also the Annapurna circuit situated in Central Nepal. Today, the APC has developed into several different smaller routes that can accommodate travellers on a budget or tight schedule and even allow the trekker to partake in the adventure without a guide. After spending weeks researching which trek would be best suited to our limited experience of following a map, as well as our now somewhat questionable fitness levels, we had decided on the Ghorepani - Poon Hill trek which is ... read more

Happy Birthday to me in a not so happy way. I woke up around midnight feeling hot, cold sweats and like my insides were going to explode. For the rest of the night, I alternated between sleeping for 30 minutes, running to the bathroom, and putting on and taking off clothes as my body temp fluctuated. In the morning I was not top par and my breakfast was runny porridge which was no help to me. After some emergency meds, it was time to take off. It was a painful 30 minute start to the day with it being all uphill essentially Poon Hill minus 200 feet. But by the time, we reach the half way point of the climb, meds were kicking in and I felt like I had some control of my body again. ... read more

Going into the hike I knew: we’d climb approximately 2400 m in elevation, peak out around 3200 m, it’d take 4-5 days and have the option of a porter. What I didn’t know: most of the trail is used by communities in the mountains and they didn’t have roads. The only way to get supplies is by human porters or mule. They accommodate to rain and provide good surfaces to the mules by building thousands of stairs made from rock hauled from the river; our porter weighed maybe 120 and demanded to take our bags. The first day was physically challenging but doable (thanks Kevin for implementing an 18 month squat plan). What took more work was swallowing my pride which weighs 1,000 tons, by letting someone carry my gear when I am capable. Utsab, our ... read more

Another 6am start as we had a lot of ground to cover. We had a tip off that Tatopani was an awesome place to see and after that was Jeep track so we decided that that was a good place to finish our trek. It was a long day but the walk was a damn sight better than the previous day! The 4 of us set off and we immediately had to climb the side of the lush green valley and we were very happy! There was minimal wind, no dust and nothing but lush mountain to look at. We cracked on with Tommy a few hours behind the 3 of us and when we stopped for lunch Tommy caught us up. The four of us reunited walked on past open fields of Yaks and riverbed ... read more

We set off at a reasonable time of 7am. The landscape had vastly changed where we were walking out of a green bowl in the valley out into a dusty and sandy landscape almost like something out of the Middle East. We passed through a small village called Jhong with green lush plants everywhere you looked and smells to die for. We passed a military base where the Nepalese army were doing mountain training. We had seen huge groups of soldiers marching on the trail with full packs on previously. This time it was a bit harrowing with machine guns and MGs being pointed out towards you! They were very friendly though and we had a chat to one of the sargeants (we thought). The going was pretty easy without any major inclines or declines so ... read more