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Published: December 7th 2009
Photo 1
We spent the first night of our trek in a bamboo hut sitting on a little grass clearing next to this river.So campers, here we go with our first blog entry. We have been gone some eight weeks already & it almost feels like we have never been home from our last trip.
From London we flew into Delhi & spent four days seeing the sites. We had a brilliant tuk-tuk driver who took us around the city & spoke about nothing other than "making the sex", I think this guy must of wrote the Kama Sutra!!
Our hotel in Delhi was located in the Main Bazaar, which is a chaotic, grimy narrow strip lined with guest houses, cafes, tailors & souvenir stands. It really shouldn't have traffic going through it but has every imaginable mode of transport passing through, along with cows, chickens & other livestock. You really are running the gauntlet every time you walk down the street.
From Delhi we caught an overnight train north & crossed the border into Nepal. We then caught a local bus, driven by what looked like a boy of about 12, with Avril Lavigne posters pasted all over the ceiling & full of all the drivers mates, most of which were wearing Britney Spears t-shirts (something that seems to be
Home for the night.
This is a typical hillside village on the first few days of the trek. very
We arrived in a small, dusty township called Lumbini. This place is recognised as the birth place of Buddha & as a result there is a huge park with temples & monasteries represented by every Asian Buddhist country...& a couple, bizarrely, from France & Germany. We hired a couple of bikes to explore the miles of dirt roads within the complex, which was tough going due to the heat & the fact that both bikes were permanently stuck in about 28th gear & the saddle was like sitting on a sack of squirrels!!
After a couple of days we felt ready to start our mammoth trek, so headed for the gateway city of Pokhara. Once there we actually realised that we wasn't quite ready & decided to chill out for a few days. The city is hugged on one side by a huge lake & the other side is lined by the towering Himalayan Mountains.
Eventually we muscled up the energy to adorn our hiking boots & hit the trail. A bumpy, ball breaking bus journey lead us to the starting point. Once there, we again realised that we weren't quite ready, so checked into a
Hungry???
Herdsman, preparing yak head stew for supper. hotel & watched movies & ate somosas & momos (Tibetan fried dumplings). The next day we knew it was now or never so got up raring to go, shouldered our backpacks, sharpened our walking sticks & off we jolly well trolleyed. After about 1 hour we were aware we had packed far too much stuff & realised this was going to be tougher than we thought..(turned out between us we were carrying over 35KG!!!-that's 26KG by Rosey & 9KG by me).
Basically the trek involves walking 300km around the Annapurna mountain range, through various types of terrain. It's one of the world’s classic walks & offers fantastic scenery & cultural diversity. The walk begins through grassland & pastures of rice paddies & marijuana fields, alongside a roaring river. Eventually the path becomes rockier & passes through pine & fir forests, gaining altitude all the time. Along the way you reach various ethnic villages where there is always somewhere to get some food & a bed for the night. After a few days the mountains come into view & the valley sides become littered with yaks & mountain goats. The vegetation starts to thin & the landscape becomes more alpine.
Tibetan boy...or girl... we wasn't sure.
This child knew one word of english...."chocolate". After 10 days we crossed the snow capped Thorung La pass at a ridiculous 5416 meters (about 4 times the height of Ben Nevis, 600M higher than Mount Blanc), where every step draws the last atom of oxygen from your lungs & it feels like you are breathing with a plastic bag over your head. From then on it's down, down, down as you descend into the desert like Tibetan style scenery & eventually into apple orchards & millet fields only to have your heart broken as you reach the end of the trek & face the biggest single climb, an elevation gain of 1700M up to Poon Hill for the most amazing panoramic views.
After 18 days we completed our trek & headed back to the city for a very well earned beer, steak & massage.
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keeley
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Hello Darlings, your trip looks amazing. The photo's on facebook blew me away. So Jealous. Me and Orrin are off on Wednesday so look hopefully we'll have a few adventures of our own. Hope we find a 'talk about the sex' Tuk Tuk driver ;0) xxxx