Blogs from Annapurna, Nepal, Asia

Inevitably, though slowly, departure day arrived. Mavis ran the Settle contingent to Manchester Airport, and after a brief leave-taking we wandered into the terminal where, as expected, Helen was waiting. Check-in was quick, and the wait didn’t seem too long, particularly as the flight left on time. I failed, yet again, to get any sleep, and I was not alone in this. As the cabin lights came back up Helen ran a survey of what we had been watching / listening to: she’d been watching ‘The Life of Pi’, Merrilyn had watched ‘Hitchcock’, Alan had been listening to Mark Knoffler, I’d heard the Beethoven Ninth (twice !), and Linda had dozed. No conclusions can be drawn ! Our sojourn under the blue dome of Abu Dhabi wasn’t too protracted, and after another relatively pleasant flight we ... read more

Continued hiking along the valley from Ghorepani on undulating scenic paths through colourful pink and red rhododendron forests. Passed green hillside terraces filled with spinach and potato crops greeting friendly locals along the path with calls of "Namaste", and playing competitive "Uno" card games into the evening with an international mix of fellow hikers. Gradually started climbing again, spotting buzzards circling overhead as the weather closed-in. Hiking through chilly rain and crossing the snowline at around 3400m, we slipped and slid our way in the snow towards Machhapuchhure (Fishtail) base camp, watching avalanches thunder down cliffs on both sides of the steep valley. Quickly warmed up in our first heated dining room over a hot chocolate, as we watched the snow gradually piling up all around. Waiting for the snow to ease the next day eventually ... read more

D12 Thorung Phedi to Muktinath (3,760m) There were no doubts that it was going to be a difficult day – not only it would be a pretty long one, as we were waking up at 3am and were supposed to be walking 9 hours that day, but also it would be quite challenging altitude-wise as first we had to climb 1,000m to Thorung-La Pass and then descend 1,700m all the way to Muktinath. Quite a difference in altitude that was for sure! But I think everybody was happy that we would be sleeping that night under 4,000m. It was a huge relief, despite the devilish hour, to wake up and realise that my headache was finally gone. I didn’t really have the best of nights as had to get up a couple of times and run ... read more

D1 – Kathmandu to Bandipur Just like on the Everest Base Camp trek my Annapurna Circuit trek started with an organisational meeting the day before. Again the majority of people in my group were Aussies – 5 out of 9, add to it an American, Chinese, German and a Pole (that would be me of course) and you get quite a mixture of nationalities and cultures. Looked like a nice bunch of people from the very beginning so was very happy with that especially that we would be stuck with each other for the next three weeks. ;) No trekking on the first day, we just hopped on a bus and set off for Bandipur. On the way we stopped for lunch at an Intrepid rafting place on Trisuli river. I was glad I did my ... read more