Blogs from Annapurna Base Camp, Annapurna, Nepal, Asia - page 2

Spent a relaxing week in Pokhara getting fat on good food with a couple of mates, before undertaking a 7-day trek to Annapurna Base Camp (ABC). I wonder if anyone's counted the steps, because there were a hell of a lot of them. The panoramic views were well worth it though. The photos will tell the story, but I wanted to make special mention of the FOOD. Like Kathmandu, the food in Pokhara has really improved. Whilst everyone seems to do the usual Continental fare (anything from Nepali to Chinese, Thai, Indian, Italian, Tibetan, Mexican, etc), there are a few notable exceptions. Moondance Cafe - great desserts, especially the apple crumble & ice-cream Olive Cafe (same owners as Moondance Cafe) - good salads; and mint lemonade Caffe Concerto - one of the waiters (or owner's son?) ... read more

Denne dag rejste vi fra Kathmandu for at goere os klar til at gaa en lang tur op i bjergene, vi skulle gaa i 12 dage op, og ned. Hvis det bare havde vaeret op, men det var op ad det ene bjerg og ned af det naeste, for at gaa op ad det naeste og ned igen, 500 meter op og derefter ned igen. Man faar gode ben af det, det er meget bedre end dampen af kold te. Den foerste da gik vi til et lille tehus i 1300 meters hoejde for naeste dag at gaa til Ghorepani, overnatte og naeste morgen gaa til Poon Hill. Poon Hill er beroemt for fantastiske udsikter over hele bjergregionen, men der var naesten totalt overskyet. Vi fik heldigvis meget mere at se gennem dagen og i saerdeleshed ... read more

This is it then, the final mountain installment. As we are both now done with trekking over mountains we took the easier option of walking to Naya Pul which is downhill all the way rather than heading for Dampus which is closer to Pokhara but involves more of the undulating terrain we are now so familiar with. Climb 500m to the top of the hill, down 500m the other side, cross the river and repeat again and again and again. That's the name of the game in Annapurna but it's a great game and I couldn't recommend it enough! It is hard work and their are no 5 star hotels here but when you wake up and the first thing you see is a 7-8000m snow capped peak against a crisp blue sky it is well ... read more

I am writing this from Annapurna Base Camp (ABC) the very place Chris Bonnington's succesful 1970 expedition to the South Face of Annapurna was sited. The rain is beating down outside although we can now at least see out of the window, the 'whiteout' seems to have passed. The relatively easy climb from Deurali via Machapuchare (MBC) base camps took me about 5 hours. The views early this morning up to MBC were fabulous. Machapuchare stands at 6993m or just a fraction under 23,000ft and is regarded by the Nepali's to be a holy mountain. As a result no permits have been issued to allow her to be climbed since 1957 when a Jimmy Roberts expedition turned back within 50m of the summit. 2 hours after leaving MBC I arrived at ABC where visibility was diminishing ... read more

I woke at 6.15 this morning and dashed outside to check out the view of Fishtail. Hmm. not great. Broken cloud even at this hour. Annapurna's south summit is visible but I can't see Fishtail at all. The ABC trek will take us through the jungle and into the heart of the Himalaya. We descended from Tadapani deep into the jungle, it's quite wet underfoot and the first couple of hours is a steep downhill section. During a short break Hari noticed a poorly looking cow in the foilage. It was very poorly indeed, it had been decapitated and half eaten. I asked what could have done this. 'Oh probably tiger'. was Hari's casual response. Great! Hari spoke with the lodge owner 5 minutes away and they said it had happened a couple of days ago. ... read more