Trekking

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Hello everyone,

A lot has happened over the last few weeks. Kathmandu, in Nepal, was very busy and full of travellers. I met up with a guide called Shankar, who was to help me on my trek through the Annapurna Sanctuary.

First we went to a place called Swayambunath, which is a Buddhist temple just outside Kathmandu. It has 365 steps leading up to the temple, one for every day of the year. It is said that if you climb all the way to the top then all of your sins for that year will be washed away. It is also known as a monkey temple due to the large amount of monkeys who live there.

We then travelled east to the city of Bhaktapur, which is another world heritage site. We saw a lot of the city and also visited Durbar (Palace) Square. The building are all very old, but very well preserved.

The next day we took an eight hour bus ride to Pokhara. It's a very beautiful city and has a lake where you can take a boat ride or go fishing. We started our trek the very next day. Shankar found us a porter to carry our bags up through the mountains. Porters are very strong and can often carry up to 40kg! Also there are no roads in the mountains, so food, drink and medicine all has to be carried up by mule or by porters.

It took 6 days to reach our first base camp. It was the base camp of Machhapuchchre, Nepal's most sacred mountain. It is so sacred that no-one is allowed to climb it. The base camp is at and altitude of 3,700 metres above sea level and it was very cold at night. We were up so high we had clouds underneath us, which was very strange!

We then made our way to Annapurna base camp which was at an altitude of 4,130 metres. Anyone can become sick at high altitude. We were told to drink lots of garlic soup so we wouldn't get sick. We explored base camp and stayed there overnight. In the morning we made our way back down the valley.

On our last night in the mountains, we celebrated the Hindu festival of diwali with a local family. It is the happiest of all the festivals. It is a celebration of the victory of good over evil; the uplifting of spiritual darkness.

We finished the trek where we started, back in Pokhara. I am now off to the birth place of the Buddha in Lumbini.

Speak to you all soon,

Your friend, Foxy.

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