Blogs from Annapurna, Nepal, Asia - page 3

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Asia » Nepal » Annapurna » Annapurna Circuit December 18th 2018

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

Asia » Nepal » Annapurna October 17th 2018

Today, I woke up at 4:45 (or rather, 1ish, couldn't really sleep after that) and got out at 5:00. The objective: dawn at poon hill, 3210m. There was a whole slew of people. Lighting was not a problem, but the hike was 400m up up up! The results? See for yourself :) ... read more
Getting out in the dark, at 5
Rush hour in the dark
There's a whole train of people

Asia » Nepal » Annapurna October 17th 2018

The way down was deep. From ghorepani ('horse-water' ) to tadapani ('far-water') to ghandruk. A 1000m down, but first 45m up and more down. Probably about 2km down all together. This was by far the most beautiful part of the trek. Just check out all these sweet photos :) ... read more
Up to tadapani
Mountain master?
The mist

Asia » Nepal » Annapurna October 17th 2018

Todo: * climb the planned 800m from today * climb 550m we had not climbed yesterday * start with a 3500-step stairs (269 stories) Going 'alone' with the guide enabled me to go full speed. Some bragging is in order: * Normal time to climb the stairs: 2.5h * guide's record time to climb the stairs: 1.5h * our time (to where the guide measures): 45m * our time to the total end of the stairs: 1h And the rest of the way to ghorepani took us about 4.5h Check out the nice photos! Oh and what I find incredible is the Porters. Those are the people that will carry your backpack for you. Porters have a whole pack on their back, consisting of multiple backpacks, sacks, weekend bags and sometimes even coffers. Where most people ... read more
Porters carrying rediculous amounts of stuff up
Porters left, guide right. Steep stairs still here
Up up up

Asia » Nepal » Annapurna October 16th 2018

A strange day, without Mark. We went by car, 2 hours (40km) to burethani and from there walked the route at the bottom, to tikedhunga. Most of the road was still accessible by car, so not the most interesting road, but what a view! I'm going to do the hike days mostly in photos, so feast your eyes below :) The most interesting things: itenerary said 1000m up, bu Simon's knee was not so good and we stopped at the foot of a 3500 - step stairs,where the guide shared some wine and I had some nuts. The owners added a couple of tree tomatoes, that tasted surprisingly good. We hopped stones and played around near the waterfall close by after that. Simon, however, decided not to risk his knee, and go back (by car) the ... read more
The path of the hike
Tims is the rescue system paperwork
First river

Asia » Nepal » Annapurna » Annapurna Circuit May 24th 2018

Leaving the village we had a mountain dog escorting us as has often been the case in small rural areas. We had our trekking passes stamped and crossed the river. There was a lot of rain the night before and so we were now walking in very humid rain forest. The paths were mainly big stones jumbled together to make stepping stone stairs and we walked along the side of the valley following the river down through tiny villages with only 3 or 4 small wooden houses. One old lady in one of the villages was selling tea so we stopped and rested as none of us wanted to rush through the last day. After tea we continued on and past 5 school kids on there 2 hour commute to school. They spoke amazing English and ... read more

Asia » Nepal » Annapurna » Annapurna Circuit May 23rd 2018

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

Asia » Nepal » Annapurna » Annapurna Circuit May 22nd 2018

Tommy and Jaap were keen for a lazy morning and so after we had breakfast we went out to explore the village. There were lots of local shops selling home made cider and a restaurant called “Yak Donalds”! We walked up some steep stairs at the back of the village and found ourselves in terraced allotments all sunken into the hillside. The villagers were very green fingered, there was corn, potatoes, onions, apples and cabbages all looking like very healthy well looked after crops. We sat over looking the valley for a while before retiring to wake Tommy and Jaap. This was the nice part of the day, the walk on the other hand was totally shit. We knew it was going to be a boring day scenery wise as the track was along the jeep ... read more

Asia » Nepal » Annapurna » Annapurna Circuit May 21st 2018

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

Asia » Nepal » Annapurna » Annapurna Circuit May 20th 2018

Today we thought we deserved a rest. As if the hangover wasn’t enough of an excuse there were many temples and stupas around the area that we wanted to see and our bodies were beginning to feel worn out. We had a lazy morning and moved to another hostel “Bob Marley” as the place we stayed had no hot water and we were in desperate need of a hot shower. Tommy and Jaap soon joined us, said bye to Pilu and Alberto as they were headed to Pokhara and set off on an explore. We visited a monastery that still was functioning and saw many pilgrims walking around the stupa clockwise and blessing themselves from the fountain of holy water. We saw a HUGE black Buddha statue overlooking the view of mountains and the valley below. ... read more




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