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Published: March 12th 2007
Snowy mountain
One of the rugged peaks seen from our room in Pisang.Back a week earlier than planned, we were caught in rain and snow, witnessed rockslides and avalanches, Tonielle was knocked on her ass by donkeys no less than three times and Sam fell off a bridge. We met some great people and saw some beautiful things but the weather that made the trek so memorable prevented us from completing it to plan.
What follows is a day by day but hopefully not too exhaustive account of the trek 😊 It was absolutely incredible, if the reading bores you just look at the pretty pictures!!! Enjoy 😊
p.s. - I kept a little journal during the trek so it tends to change from past tense to present and back fairly randomly. Also! Again with the slow and/or interrupted internet here... we've managed to put up most of the photos we wanted to but they're out of order and stuff... so yeah.
Day 1 - Pokhara to Ngadi
We woke bright and easrly for a 6am bus from Pokhara to Besisahar, the start point of the Annapurna circuit if you're walking counter-clockwise. Over 200 km of Himalayan trekking ahead of us! We've decided to go it
Welcome to Khudi!
A little bit excited to reach one of the first real towns on the trek :-) alone, no guides or porters and carrying our supplies for three weeks on our backs 😊 At a guess our bags weigh around 10kg each, plus a couple of litres of water. We arrived at Besisahar, checked in at the counter where we show our passes for the conservation area and headed off down the road! The walk today was fairly easy, the first two hours were on a dirt road we could have travelled by bus, but what's the point of that when you're supposed to be trekking? The bags are weighing pretty heavily but not unbearably so, and it's easy enough to put them down for a few minutes at water breaks 😊
We arrived in Ngadi after 4 hours of walking and stayed at a nice little hostel with basic everything 😊 Following the advice of a guide we chatted to in Pokhara, we asked for the room free on the proviso that we eat dinner and breakfast there which was no problem - these places make their money on food anyway. We hung out in the garden with a couple of locals - explained to the hotel owner how to use his new digital and met
3 local kids
Cute kids at one of the villages we passed through. a great kid 'Raja Pariyar' who works at a hotel nearby. Chatting to him was quite eye opening - his family life (which seems a fairly common story) consists of an injured father, a mother who doesn't work, and half a dozen younger siblings. He, at 18, has been supporting the family for the last few years through guide/porter services for trekkers and has managed to finish high school at the same time. His views on the Maoist insurgency were fascinating as well; like many lower caste people he is supportive of them and sees the violence as necessary (though not good). The perspective in these countries is completely different to that in western countries; where we place a huge value on individual life ("How many people were hurt?") they seem more aware of the effect of a mismanaged government on the populace - how many people has this countries economy killed in the last 50 years? A very brief summary of things in terms different to those used in the conversation, but it has definately provided some food for thought.
Anyway, he's a great guy and would be a great guide if we had the money for one -
List of towns, times and altitudes.
On this list we walked the whole left side of the board, to Pisang which reaches to something over 3300m. The right side was where we didn't make it due to snow :) maybe next time! If anyone's interested, he works at the Hotel Sumam in Ngadi, anyone around there will know him 😊
Day 2 - Ngadi to Syange
We had eaten and were on the trail shortly after 9 for the walk, the trek seemed a lot more like trekking today! Bamboo bridges and steep climbs up trails with more donkeys on them than people... I'm so glad there are donkeys! It just wouldn't be living up to my mental image without them. The climb to Bahundanda was tough for our unaccustomed bodies but anything is possible with enough rest stops! The walk follows a valley so at any time a glance down shows a beautiful set of rapids; there are plenty of waterfalls falling down the other side of the valley and the air's fresh so long as you're not passing a donkey piss-stop. I don't think the smiles left our faces the whole day! We stopped for lunch after 4 hours at Ghermu Phant, which has incredible fried rice and veg momos if anyone's interested 😊 15 minutes down the side of the valley got us to a bridge with a couple of lodges looking
The bridge Sam fell off
I don't know how high it is exactly, but I can walk under it without ducking with a bit of clearance. Lucky I didn't land wrong! right over the river - we were planning on heading onto Jagat today but it looked nice enough we decided to stop here, at Syange.
Day 3 - Syange to Tal Phedi
Today was a litte more... interesting. It started fairly easy, with a tough 15 minute climb and then a great stroll for another hour or so to reach Jagat. It was our first real change in scenery, with the forest getting much thicker and greener and looking superficially for all the world like a tropical rainforest. We're sweating nicely wearing t-shirts and pants and having a great time, some waterfalls are on our side of the river for a change and the bags are starting to feel like they weigh a little less! After Jagat the trail turned up again, another fairly steady climb to reach Chamje 3 hours after we left Syange. My favourite waterfall thus far was across the valley just before Chamje 😊 We had a bite to eat there and it started raining lightly; hardly more than a spitting drizzle so we lifted our bags again and set off for Tal, supposedly around 2.5 hours from Chamje. This turned our
Fancy rooster
Sam was slightly obsessed with the roosters on this trek... so shiny and cocky to be a bad decision.
The first 15 minutes or so were fine, we started getting vaguely uneasy as the rain started getting slightly heavier and stuck plastic bags over non-waterproof bits (this means everything when you purchase 'waterproof' gear in Nepal). 10 minutes after that we were soaked through, nothing torrential but a very, very steady soaking. We must have made record time during this bit of the trek stopping once under an overhang and otherwise pushing on regardless - to the point of stubbornly passing a couple of guesthouses on the way! When we reached a cute little purple place with 'Tal' on the sign we piled inside, stripped down and ordered hot chocolate. the place was actually Tal Phedi (Phedi - 'Foot of the hill') but there was no way we were climbing half an hour up a mountain in our current states. It was a great little guesthouse, complete with puppy in our little cottage! Perched on a steep hill looking down over some falls in the river it was dry and filled with enough blankets to give it a semblance of warmth. Saved 😊
Day 4 - Tal Phedi to Danaque
Golden cock
One of the many other colour varieties. The day started with a pretty tough climb to Tal proper, which made us very glad we hadn't tried it the day before! We reached the top to see Tal, entered through a stone gateway (
chorten with a few buddhist prayer wheels to spin; apparently we'll be seeing more of this as we head further north and the villages become more Tibetan influenced. We spent a fair while playing around with photos here - Tal is in a wide, flat rocky valley formed by ancient landslides and the scenery was again completely different (though with the ever-present snowy peaks in the distance!) Bagerchaap was our destination for lunch and at 2160m ASL was our first meal over 2000 meters, kinda fun! it was a short half hour from there to Danaque where we stopped for the night, about 5 hours of walking today. Here the clouds started building around the peaks again and rain was falling by 4, still to warm for snow apparently! When we woke in the morning the mountains were dusted with snow to within a few hundred meters above us.
We've been avoiding thinking too much about the pass until now... about 2 weeks
Icicle at Pisang
A bit of melt overnight and a breeze left this naging outside our room. ago there was a huge amount of snow here; Kathmandu had snow for the first time in 62 years! The pass was closed for a fair while, but reports seemed to indicate that it woul dbe open by the time we got up there. With the rain the last two days though doubts have started creeping in... if it's raining here it's snowing higher, and more snow will not mean good things for us. Let's hope the trend doesn't continue!
Day 5 - Danaque to Chame
Suprise suprise, the trend today was again uphill! The first hour was steep, the next 3 were relatively easy... and we saw our first real snow! It wasn't falling on us but was on the ground, and looking beautiful - for Tonielle especially it was a magic moment - the first snow she's ever seen! The trees turned to mossy pine forests and are definately my favourite views of the trip.... a part of me is hoping for more snow because pine trees and snow are a great combination! The air is noticeably colder as well. The last hour before Chame (blessedly easy) offered more snow underfoot and fantastic views
Donkeys on a cable bridge
We were held up by this line for nearly 10 minutes! of Annapurna II; a very impressive mountain stopping just shy of 8000 meters.
Day 6 - Chame to Pisang
Brrr!!! I'm sitting here hunched over a gloriously warm pot bellied stove in Pisang. The walk wasn't too bad despite us climbing 500m in 4 or 5 hours, it seemed to be fairly well spread out over the day and was really nice! the first hour or two was dry and gentle but after Bhratang we entered a really snowy area! The trails were packed snow which was the only thing that made walking slightly more difficult. About an hour from Pisang a few tiny lonely flakes (3 or 4) drifted by which I pointed out to Tonielle; she was so excited!! "There's another one! And another!!" They gradually picked up into a full fledged tiny flurry and we passed a small glacier over the valley shortly before Pisang. We entered to villiage and it was a real little snow fall and now (45 minutes later) It's properly snowing outside! It's fantastic, I haven't seen snow in ages and it's really making me quite nostalgic; Tonielle's in heaven! It's sticking to the woodpiles and roofs first, and
Donkey station
The first donkeys we saw! This looked like a loading station near Khudi. already trees and the fields over the valley have turned from green to white. We're heading outside for some happy snaps of Toddi playing in the snow 😊
Our thoughts concerning Thorong La continue to evolve. Two days ago we had almost written off the possibility of making the pass, but yesterday we met a Dutch couple who seemed fairly optomistic and our opinion started to drift their way... After all, a pass is only impassable until someone passes it right? There's also a package tour of ~15 Germans who have a well organised trek with multiple guides and porters; with the money they've spent they'll certainly make an attempt if it's at all possible and we can just follow their tracks 😊 This snow now though is almost as inconvenient as it is beautiful! If it continues overnight it could be knee deep even here, and we may be forced to turn back less than 3 days from the pass. We'll push on if we can - we'll see what it looks like tomorrow!
Day 7 - Pisang to Chame. a.k.a. "Thwarted" or "Avalanche!"
We woke this morning not sure what our plans were,
Full moon at Chame
It's hard to show in pictures how big and clear this was! A beautiful night. but were leaning towards spending the day in Pisang to see what panned out. There was no more snow overnight (only about 3 inches last evening) so things were looking good until it started up again over breakfast. We sat around the fire doing little except being warm - they have a guitar too so I've been playing that a little! The snow seemed to be getting heavier rather than dropping off and looks for all the world like it's going to continue all day. By 9:30 the snow was 8 inches deep and we decided that this rendered the 'possibly possible' pass decidedly impossible. Some are heading to Manang to see the situation there, but I think it's a wasted effort which will be pretty uncomfortable wading uphill through knee-deep snow. To avoid being stuck here in Pisang we're heading back to Chame today.
So we rugged up and headed off down the rapidly dissapearing trail; though the snow was fairly heavy it's great fun! Just like walking through a winter wonderland 😊 The snow is light and fluffy and the temperature feels like it's hanging around just below freezing, really nice! We've been sliding down hills and knocking
The Himalayas!
The whole landscape is just really, really big. snow off pine boughs (often onto each others heads) - it's turning into the most fun we've had walking so far!
Before setting out there was one little issue we failed to consider... lots of light snow in comparatively warm conditions is prime avalanche weather on these steep sided mountains. The first couple of times I thought I was hearing thunder, it was only after talking to a lodge owner at Telekhu (where we had tea) that we realiased what we'd been hearing. After one roll of 'thunder' Tonielle was a little freaked out by a fast moving cloud that rolled across the path in front of us. We walked through it and it was like a mini blizzard with strong wind and horizontal snow for half a minute or so - again, though we didn't realise it at the time this is the cloud kicked up by an avalanche! As we were leaving Telekhu a pony neighed long and hard and the man we'd taken tea with ran out telling us to wait... sure enough, 5 seconds later we heard the familiar sound of an avalanche in the valley, though nowhere we could see. He assured us that the
Holy cows!
The cows in Nepal seem much holier than those in India... we think it has something to do with the green grass and sunshine! trail was safe, is has been shored up with some sort of wooden walls or something and is on the gentler side of the valley and so is less avalanche prone 😊 So off we headed again to Chame!
It was soon after Telekhu that we started getting a bit cold and wet. Again people - in Nepal 'waterproof' means something like 'water resistant so some degree'. We had plastic bags over our socks (a life saver) but our fingers were getting cold so our walking pace had picked up quite a bit! In one place the trail had dissapeared due to a series of mini avalanches, we actually saw a few fist sized rocks and a few buckets of snow roll down 20m ahead of us at one point. a short time after that I witnessed one of the coolest things I've seen in my life.
We heard the now familiar sound of an avalanche nearby and looked around to see one beginning to fall down the valley across from us. We were 50m up our side with a river in between us but it was literally 100m away from us and rolling straight down... I was captivated, while
Kids sledding
The most basic sleds you can imagine - these kids are cruising down paths with a steep drop on one side (the same trail we trekked along) steering with their heels and having a great time! Tonielle was pulling my arm trying to get me to move out of the way! The magnitude and power of these things is impossible to appreciate if it's not seen in person - they look incredible on television but there's no comparison. It's something we'll never be able to forget, and I'm incredibly glad to have been able to witness it from relative safety!
After that was a miserably cold and wet hour to get to Chame, where we sat down next to a fire with a pile of chocolate bars and a bottle of Nepalese rum 😊
Day 8
We decided to spend a day recuperating and drying our belongings in Chame, we're still on holiday after all! So we spent half an hour hunting down the best fire in Chame, we consider ourselves experts on the attributes of the different shapes of encolsed fires you can find in Nepal by this point 😊 It snowed all day again but in Chame the weather is warm enough that it's melting faster than it's accumulating. A fantastic, warm day 😊
Day 9 - Chame to Dharapani
A reasonably uneventful day, the snow
Orchid
Gorgeous little lithophytic orchid clinging to the rock surrounded by moss. had melted to the point that we were walking through more mud than white stuff which is much less pleasant! Much easier walking this stretch downhill than it was on the way up :-)
Day 10 - Dharapani to Jagat
At the beginning of the day the plan was to make it to Jagat, but half an hour before Chamje decided that we would stop there... Who said it was easier walking downhill than it was up? Knees were hurting and thighs were burning!! Our revised plan hit a snag that I think I have to claim responsibility for... You see, every decent little village has a few hotels planted 15-30 minutes away claiming to be in the town; to us, these have come to be known as 'fake Pisang' and 'fake Bagerchaap' etc. So as we're walking along the trail and a couple of hotels pop up, we kept right on walking until we got to the
real Chamje. Sometime we must have forgotten that Chamje lacks a real town center and is really a 10 minute collection of hotels spaced along the trail. This little blunder left us with an extra hour of downhill
Small falls
Some falls next to a bridge we crossed. stairs and our most painful day so far, 6 hours on this leg wasn't pleasant! Lucky we're young and recover quickly 😉
We started seeing some great flowers popping up in the warmer weather down here, we'll put up a couple of the pictures.
Day 11 - Jagat to Bahundanda
A short day, thanks largely to Tonielle's lovely blisters! We stopped at Lili Bhir for lunch - a veg/egg fried rice that managed to take an hour to cook and 5 minutes to eat. We stopped before 2, it's warm and sunny but very windy (Bahundanda is on a hill top that would be called a mountain in Oz) So we did a bit of much needed laundry. There's nothing else planned, which is a great feeling.
Day 12 - Bahundanda to Besisahar
It was an easy two hours to Ngadi, the most interesting point was looking back at a hill we climbed after leaving Ngadi on the way up. I remember looking at it with great trepidation, and taking two or three rests on the way up... the thing was tiny! Our fitness levels have shot through the roof. The first
Typical local worker
This is an average sized load you see on the backs of the locals walking the same trails as us - the size of some of the loads they carry are staggering. A fit young man carrying a 50 kilo bag of rice for 2 days will earn $9 USD - good money around here... but not the sort of work you'd choose otherwise. few days left us with sore shoulders and backs from our bags, but now the weight is barely noticable. We're walking over an hour before thinking about a rest stop and chatting away happily the whole time, it's great to realise that we've gained so much from this physically!
Oh... and today was the day that Tonielle was knocked over by donkeys for the third time, and I fell off a bridge. First the donkeys - they have packs tied to either side and neither they nor Tonielle seem to be able to judge the amount of trail they take up. A donkey is a being of inertia; once moving it doesn't stop until it decides to! As the donkey plodded off leaving Toddi on a rock both the donkey man and myself were pissing ourselves laughing! But she got hers back pretty soon after.
On the northern edge of Ngadi is a bamboo bridge (see pic) that I'm sure won't be around for much longer. The rail is above head height and the flooring slopes significantly to the left... I lifted my left foot, my right slipped off and I went straight under the rail into the water below.
Image in the pine forests
This was shot between Danaque and Koto, in beautiful pine forests with a bit of snow on the ground (the first we'd seen). Luckily (I attribute it to cat-like reflexes) I managed to land perfectly on my feet, one foot on a rock and one barely ankle deep in water! There's a little scrape on my left ankle and the cuffs of my pants are wet to prove it happened... that and the twenty school kids who witnessed it! The walk through Ngadi was great - every shopkeeper had a knowing smile on their face and a few laughed openly at me 😊
After Ngadi we got to Bhulbule where we took the wimpy route and got on a bus to Besisahar. Wimpy that is until you actually get on one of these buses on this road - it was a very interesting trip!
The next day saw us getting on an early bus back to Pokhara, where we've picked up our packs and are spending a couple nights before heading off to Chitwan N.P. to see a few endangered animals 😊
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Sara
non-member comment
I love your cocks!
Oh my Goddess, Chickens are my favourite animals and you found the boy chickens (roosters, whatever!) Your adventures are a great vindication of the crap existance I lead - my greatest trek recently was from the couch to the fridge (the loo was too far!) Keep us up to date. So jealous you bastards!!!!! lots of!!!!!!'s