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Published: October 7th 2007
Trek Day 4
Beautiful waterfall on the face of a mountain on our way from Sinuwa to Himalaya Hotel.We arrived in Nepal after spending a night laid over in Bangkok. We spent a couple of days in Kathmandu to get ourselves organized for a trek to the Annapurna Base Camp. We got info about what we would need, rented/bought our supplies, got our trekking permit & a plane ticket to Pokhara (closest town to the start of the Annapurna Sanctuary treks). Kathmandu is very crowded & polluted. We didn't actually spend any time sight seeing, just took the time we needed to set up for our trek & then went on our way.
We both liked Pokhara a lot more than Kathmandu. It's much less populated, polluted & noisy, but our hotel room was VERY stuffy & hot, it didn't get any air circulation at all. Ashley actually had trouble sleeping because it was so hot!
We spent a couple of days relaxing & getting last minute supplies before heading off on our 12 days in the mountains. The day before we left we had some teaser views of the snow capped mountain tops. So beautiful!
Trek Day 1: We rode a cab to a small town called Phedi to start our trek. The beginning was
Trek Day 5
A half hour break in the clouds at MBC, it's our first glimpse of the peaks since the first day of our trek! pretty much straight uphill with a long stone staircase. We were sweating & out of breath almost immediately. Many people recommended that we hire a porter for the trek (someone who would help guide & carry our packs for us) and at this point we were wondering if we should have. We knew we would be able to get one along the way if we decided to, so we just kept hiking & seeing how we felt. It took us about 2 hours to reach the next town, where we were rewarded with amazing views of the peaks we would be trekking towards. Little did we know at the time that this would be the only views we would have for the next 4 days! It started raining about 30 minutes before we reached our stopping point for the day. At first we were hoping it would just be a light rain, but it started coming down very hard within seconds. We hurriedly put our rain gear on & hiked as fast as we could to our destination, Tolka. Just before we reached the first Guest House in town, about 5 minutes out, we passed through a very muddy patch
Trek Day 7
We watched some porters gear up to walk in the rain/snow down the mountain from ABC in their slippers with the bamboo baskets strapped to their heads. Insane! of trail. When we finally ducked under the cover of the Guest House, Laura felt something on her ankle & looked down to see a leech on her. Ashley didn't actually believe it was a leech until she looked very closely & then realized that she had a few on her as well! We both started freaking out & spent the next few minutes rubbing salt on the leeches to kill them & taking our socks & shoes off to make sure we got them all. We even did body checks because there was a European couple that had gotten there before us & the girl had found leeches on her back (they can drop down on you from the leaves of the trees in the forest). Ewwww!
Trek Day 2: We woke up around 6 AM to the sound of rain. We had planned to wake up at the crack of dawn every day & start trekking early because if you get views of the mountains at all, you will get them in the morning (sunrise to about 11 AM, when it starts getting very cloudy). Also, there is often an afternoon shower around 2 or 3 PM,
Trek Day 7
Winter wonderland at ABC. Snow covered all the lodges and made things very slippery. so we wanted to try & be done with the trek for the day by then. However, with the rain starting during the night, we were very unmotivated to start to the next town & hoped that maybe while we ate breakfast, it'd stop & we could leave after that. By 9, we decided the rain might never stop, so we just headed out. We were hiking through tropical forests and saw many beautiful waterfalls along the way, but we didn't really stop to appreciate any of it because it was raining & we also kept seeing leeches along the trail. We just kept moving forward intent on reaching our destination for the day. The last hour an a half was very, very painful because it was more stone staircase, straight up a face of a mountain. But we were very happy to make it to our destination, Chhomrong, because there was a nice hot shower waiting for us, our first in 2 days... 😊
Trek Day 3: Rain, rain go away! It was pouring when we got up & again, we tried to wait it out. Finally around 10:30, we decided that we just needed to go or
Trek Day 7
Chilling in the communal dinning room of the Guest House at ABC with our new friends. we would lose the whole day. We only made it as far as the next town, Sinuwa, about 2 hours away, but the trail dropped steeply from one mountain top to the valley floor where we crossed the river on a suspension bridge & started straight up another mountain to about the same elevation. We were hoping that the monsoon season would be over by the time we started our trek, but unfortunately we caught the tail end of it. Even though it was pouring, we were sweating with our rain jackets on, so we were literally soaking wet by the time we reached Sinuwa. There were no hot showers in that town, so we had our first hot bucket shower experience. We also needed a way to dry our clothes, since with the rain & chill at night we knew nothing would be dry by morning. So, we ordered a kerosene heater to be put under the large communal dining table & strung our clothes on string under the table to dry. It actually works like a charm!
Trek Day 4: We woke up straining to hear the rain drumming on the tin roof, but were pleasantly surprised
Trek Day 8
View of Annapurna South at sunrise from ABC. You can still see the moon out... to see that it was actually looking like it might clear up altogether. We rushed to get ready & hit the trail by 7:30 AM. We wanted to make up the distance that we didn't get to complete from the day before & we were able to hit our destination, Himalaya Hotel, before it started raining again. We had another hot bucket shower, this time we were better at it, & ordered another heater under the table since the cloudy weather & higher elevations make it cold at night.
Trek Day 5: Again we had no rain, but no views of the mountains either. This was the first day we actually felt the elevation, we were much more easily winded & our legs were burning from all the uphill climbing. We reached Machhapuchhare Base Camp (MBC) just as it started raining again. The rain didn't last too long though & we were amazed to see our first glimpses of the Annapurna mountains since our first day on the trek. We were a lot closer & the views were really incredible, but it didn't last long as it started clouding over within half an hour. We kept hoping it would
Trek Day 8
Us at sunrise at ABC. clear again, but no such luck... By this time in our trek we had tried most of the different types of food items listed on the similar menus in the Guest Houses - tuna, veggie or egg filled momos (dumplings), pasta dishes (macaroni, spaghetti, lasagna), pizza, noodle soup and such. The one thing we hadn't tried was a chocolate bar filled "spring roll" (more like a hot pocket shell). We tried a Snickers Roll for the first time that afternoon & it was delicious! The limited menus are due to the fact that porters need to carry all the supplies up the mountains to get them to the Guest Houses. They strap bamboo baskets filled with up to 75 pound of supplies to their foreheads & trek up the mountains (many times in sandals). Therefore, the higher up in the mountains you go, the more expensive things get.
Trek Day 6: Again more rain, on & off all day long. Luckily we only had 2 hours to hike that day to our final destination, the Annapurna Base Camp (ABC), which is at an elevation of 4,130 meters (13,550 feet). We waited for the rain to let up & headed
Trek Day 8
Avalanche on Annapurna South just as we were leaving ABC. out on the gradual uphill hike from MBC to ABC. Although we only had to go 2 hours, it seemed like much longer since both of us were actually feeling the elevation. We had headaches on & off & we were very out of breath. We just felt "off" all day long, slightly dizzy, a bit nauseous. We just tried to focus on getting there so we could eat lunch & see how we felt. After sitting for a bit & getting some food in our bellies we decided the elevation wasn't affecting us too much, so we would spend the night in hopes of getting amazing views of the mountains in the morning. We spent the rest of the day playing cards with some new found friends (a Portuguese guy, an Australian girl & a Danish couple).
Trek Day 7: What? It's snowing??? Wow, we really weren't expecting that. We woke up at 5:30 AM to try & get views of the mountains at sunrise, but were amazed to see that it was snowing/sleeting. It was a very wet, very icy snow & Ashley was very disappointed. We decided that we would wait out the storm & stayed
Trek Day 8
In the valley on the way down from ABC to MBC. the day playing more card games all day long with our new friends from the previous day. At times the kerosene heater would go on the fritz & spew out nasty smoke & we'd go outside to get some fresh but freezing air. Finally we decided that we were inhaling too much kerosene & retired to our room to read a bit. A little while later, our friend Jose knocked on our door to tell us that you could see the mountains! We grabbed our camera & started shooting the views we came to see. It wasn't long, though, before it got dark & we weren't able to see much once again. We had high hopes that the storm might finally be over & that we would be able to see the clear blue sky the next morning.
Trek Day 8: At 5:30 AM we climbed out of our sleeping bags to find a beautiful sunrise waiting for us. The rain/snow storm had finally passed! The sky was clear & we could see all the mountains surrounding us on the plateau we were standing on. The sun slowly lit each peak turning them from golden yellows to bright white.
Trek Day 9
View of Machhapuchhare mountain (Fish Tail) on our way from Bamboo to Chhomrong. After an hour of picture snapping & admiring the views we ate breakfast & began our long decent down. It took us a couple hours to hike back down to MBC, through the valley, because we were in awe of how beautiful the morning was, and of course we kept stopping every few minutes to take more pictures. We even got to see an avalanche on Annapurna South just as we were leaving camp. The trail was straight down all day & by the time we reached Bamboo, our stop for the day, we could barely walk because our legs & knees were so sore. Laura wanted to stop in Dovan (about 1 hour from Bamboo), but Ashley pushed for Bamboo because they had a hot showers. We hadn't washed our hair in 5 days or our bodies in 3 days! 😊
Trek Day 9: Our legs were still sore from the previous day & even though it was a short distance from Bamboo to Chhomrong, it was of course straight down & then straight up again on a long stone staircase. We were having great sunny weather for a second day in a row, so we were able
Trek Day 9
Laura walking up the endless stone staircase to Chhomrong. Man that was tiring! to enjoy the views while we hiked, which was nice since Laura kept stopping along the way because of her sore muscles & shortness of breath. Oh, we also had a bit of excitement when we came upon an abandoned stone structure. As we approached we saw a grayish white monkey with a black face jump out of the building across the trail & down into the trees below. As he jumped he looked directly at us & scared the crap out of us!
Trek Day 10: No walking today! We decided to spend the day relaxing in Chhomrong because we were too short on time to take the longer route back due to the snow day when we were stuck at ABC, and had an extra day to spare for the shorter route back. We laid around reading, playing cards & playing with the little boy who lived at the Guest House (we spent 3 nights in total with this family) while taking in views of our favorite snow capped peaks, Annapurna South & Machhapuchhare (translation Fish Tail, named for it's twin peaks). We even got half hour massages each. What a treat for our sore bodies! 😊
Trek Day 10
Annapurna South from our Guest House in Chhomrong. Trek Day 11: Yes, another beautiful day! We hiked from Chhomrong to Ghandruk, which is the second largest Gurung settlement in Nepal with about 270 families. We were much less sore after our day of rest, which helped because our route was a little longer than we anticipated due to having to trek around a huge landslide! As we were getting further & further away from the Annapurna mountain range we were getting different angled views & more panoramic shots. We didn't really enjoy Ghandruk as much as our other destinations because it's a much larger settlement & so much less personal.
Trek Day 12: It's our last day. We made our way down to Naya Pul & even though we went down 1,000 meters (3,280 feet) it's a very gradual decent & so was a nice easy way to end our trek. However, since we were on our way out to the major road there were many more people & way more trash on the trails. It was a bit disappointing to end on this note, but an overall amazing experience. Once we got to Naya Pul, we grabbed a cab back into Pokhara.
Back in
Trek Day 10
Laura playing with the Chhomrong Guest House son. Pokhara we had dinner & drinks with the friends we made on trek. And we spent the past couple of days relaxing, getting our clothes cleaned & getting up to date on email. We're in Kathmandu again & fly out tomorrow to Thailand for some well deserved time on the beaches!
Over the 12 days we hiked approximately 77 kilometers (50 miles) in total distance, up & of course back down 5,100 meters (16,830 feet) in elevation, & the highest elevation we reached was 4,130 meters (13,550 feet). Believe it or not we loved every minute of it, even with all the rain, snow & leeches! We are actually glad we didn't hire a porter because it was nice to be on our own & we feel like it's an even bigger accomplishment to have carried our own packs the whole way. It was an amazing experience & we met a lot of great people along the way.
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Emma
non-member comment
Amazing!
What a wonderful adventure! I thought we were tough when we hiked up 2500 feet in Banff. Makes me wonder if I could do it - even with a porter.