Our first attempt to leave Pokhara for Phedi, the launch point of our trek to the Annapurna Base Camp, was thwarted by another transport strike. We did get away the following day though and within 30 minutes of leaving we arrived at a set of very steep steps leading up into the unknown. According to our map we had 500 mts of this to tackle, no sense in breaking ourselves in easy! We were accompanied by our slightly begrudging guide, Dilu, and our short but well-abled porter, Bishnu. (It became clear early on that being a guide wasn't Dilu's life long ambition which was fair enough but not when we'd paid for an all inclusive trip for 10-12 days up front. He was great at the guest houses and we all got along very well but
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