Blogs from Annapurna, Nepal, Asia - page 44

I am now sitting in an internet dungeon in Pokhara after completing the two week circuit of the majestic Annapurna range. I am clean now and my feet are finally recovering. My legs feel strong and my body feels like I really actually carried a 40lb pack up to 5440 metres! So last night I did yoga on the rooftop of our family guesthouse at the shanti end of the lake and got to watch the sun go down. Reflecting on the last two weeks has been amazing for my heart. I met up with Drew from Revelstoke (a friend of Jennifirs) and we were three that started together. We ended up running into some other wonderful people from Canada and other parts- funny enough a beautiful Rachel that is a friend of a good friend ... read more

Although my sojourn into the pristine nature of the Himalayan mountains was only 15 days in length, it felt like an eternity, exploring the timeless expanse of my inner nature. And on those occasions when the stillness of my soul reflected the austere beauty of my surroundings, I found myself above time, dwelling on that threshold between the apparent separation of spirit and creation. These were the pinnacles of my adventure; the marriage of philosophy and experience of wisdom, but they would not have been possible, nor are they less important, than those troughs of loneliness, anxiety and despair that I first had to cross. Waxing lyrical aside, the practicalities of embarking on a solo trek around the Annapurna Circuit were previously few, owing to the existence of tea-houses along the length of the trek and ... read more

The story continues. So sorry to everyone about lack of regular updates but I fell behind as expected in my 3.5 weeks in Nepal and the planned webblog recovery time in Thailand somehow did not transpire . I sit here now in a Internet Cafe in Cambodia and update the blog as follows: Hello Nepal. What can I say, I leave India to go to visit one of the poorest countries in the world and what greets me is one of the nicest countries in the world. The scenery and the mountains as you would expect are stunning, the people polite and friendly and the city clean. Katmandhu which has been a very popular destination for trekkers for a long time for obvious reasons is certainly oriententated towards tourists but this is ok as the locals ... read more

The first thing we noticed when we hopped off the bus at Besisahar, the road's terminal point, was a large group of mules being loaded with bags of cement and boxes of everything a village could need up in the mountains. Little did we realise how these mules would become such a regular and mainly welcome sight to us. when we were unsure if we were going the right way, mule dung became the beacon that we were on the right track and if it was fresh then all the better! Lucy and I had taken the option not to take a guide or porter (which you cannot do now owing to new rules introduced 2 days afte we left) as we were keen to be independent and carry our own gear. Having whittled our bags ... read more

Just a few pictures from a recent trek to Annapurna Base Camp a couple of weeks ago. To start it was necessary to hire a guide or a porter due to new regulations since my last trek - no more independent trekking. At first I was not too thrilled because of my 2 treks last spring the one to Everest Base Camp that I did on my own proved to be much more enjoyable than the Annapurna Circuit with a guide. I trekked with a porter, Raju, which proved to be a smart move since I had a nasty cold the extire trek. The trek was good but EBC is still the gem of the entire 9 months so far. We really lucked out with the weather which was slightly abnormal for this time of year. ... read more