Day 7 - Annapurna Circuit - Manang (3540m) to Tillicho Base Camp (4150m)

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We woke early to set off on the trail but Pilu and Alberto were injured and Kerry felt she needed another rest day before attempting the difficult trek. In Manang the sky was grey and drizzly but their were patches of light blue appearing and so we set off. The trek followed the river up towards the mountains. We started at the same level as the river but were soon climbing way higher up the steep mountainside. Due to the previous days bad weather we weren’t sure if the path would be safe all the way to base camp but locals in the first village encouraged us on. We were all really starting to notice the altitude and becoming short of breath. Char felt a headache coming on as we approached the village of Sri Kaka and so we all stopped for tea. Just as we were all recovering from the climb and the magic mountain medicine that is Snickers had eliminated Chars headache, we saw Stefano in the window and he had somehow caught up with us! What a MACHINE. We all caught up, filled our waters and made the last push to the base camp. We were making good progress and then we’d turned a corner.... the dreaded path was upon us. It was a landslide area where the trail was 500 or so metres above the river below and if this wasn’t bad enough, the trail was in the middle of almost sand like rocks where the trail was pretty much just foot prints most of the way. We carefully made our way through the first stages of the path where the sheer depth and steepness of the curve made the blood rush. We thought all was going well and we passed another woman who had a porter with her. Then when we were all on the side of the mountain about a few metres apart we heard the sound of rocks hitting rocks, we looked up and saw rock looking like objects heading straight down towards us. We all shouted and everybody ducked down and tried to see them in order to avoid them. Jaap came close when a rock the size of his head went past him a metre or so behind him, about 6 metres in front of Jack who could hear it fly down the cliff sounding like a chopper taking off. Thankfully Stefano (machine) had made it to some cover and acted as spotter so we could make a dash for it when the rocks were coming down. That was the moment when we all had a new found respect for the mountains and definitely switched on to where we were and what we needed to do. Whilst we caught our breath and drank some much needed water we had a chance to actually admire where we were. We had found ourselves on the side of the mountain where we could see the vast valley below with the river and the other side with huge peaks poking through the clouds. The added feeling of the wind rushing through your body and the faint sound of the river in your ears made it an awesome experience. Something we feel like we deserved after what we had just done!



We ploughed through the remaining track with a few small rock showers but nothing as bad as the previous episode and finally arrived at Tillicho base camp. It was very small with 3 guesthouses in total and pretty quiet when we got there as we’d been the early birds once again! We found a room with Jaap and got some well earned grub. The base camp had a great vibe as people starting arriving from their treks and the views were pretty awesome with the river running through the camp and peaks higher than 7000 metres surrounding us with ice capped peaks that looked only a hop, skip and a jump away. The nights were getting colder now at a higher altitude and so we wrapped up warm in our sleeping bag liners and hit the hay for the early start the next day.

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