Day 1 - Annapurna Circuit - Syanje (1095m) to Tal (1700m)

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HAPPY BIRTHDAY JACK!!! He was living the dream, waking up at 5:30am in the Nepalese mountains in the dense forest. Where a little girl greeted him holding a puppy with snowy mountain peeks in the background. We all set out eagerly awaiting the views and sights to come. We were greeted 50 metres down the road by a torrent of water cascading down 4 or 5 hundred of metre high cliffs down into the rushing river.

The rest of the trail was awesome. The trail generally follows the Marsyangdi river around the Annapurna Himal range. Yes, it is as good as it sounds. If the height of the “smaller” mountains wasn’t awe-inspiring enough the sheer amount of them blew your head off. We crossed suspensions bridges covered in multicoloured flags, we passed through brightly painted villages and friendly locals exchanging Namaste’ as we trekked. One of the first things we had noticed however, were the wild marijuana plants growing on the side of the trail by the bush load! It was so refreshing to see that a normal, natural plant so controversial is still a simple “weed” somewhere in the world. Jacks birthday just got a whole lot better..... that is until we noticed that none of them were “ready to harvest”.

We continued on and it was getting to the hottest part of the day. We had taken regular rests as some of the crew were struggling. We were feeling pretty good however so we pressed onto our destination just so we could rest! As we walked over the last hill we saw ‘Tal’ our home for the night. It was a small village on a flat plane at 1700m surrounded by towering mountains. The buildings were all colourfully painted and as we got closer we decided to chill by the river and soak our stinky feet in the glacial river - that was a shock!



One after the other Kerrie then Tommy closely followed by the Spaniards appeared over the horizon and joined us by the river. Everyone was in high spirits and feeling pretty accomplished by the day. We walked into Tal and bagged ourself a Tea house with free accommodation, hot shower (ensuite) in turn for buying dinner and breakfast. Jack went out into the village and drunk them dry (seriously, there was only one shop selling 1 beer in the whole village). We ordered some delicious grub and during dinner met our newest member of the ‘Annapurna Crew’ a Dutch philosopher called Jaap. Everyone sang Happy birthday to Jack and he blew out his singing flower candle on his apple pie and custard pudding the kitchen had whipped up. We then went to bed in our relatively luxury lodge in the mountains with the river for a soundtrack. This birthday is going to be hard to beat!

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