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Published: March 24th 2008
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Hi everyone.
Well after a break of about two weeks we have returned from our trek in Nepal. Our much awaited train tickets spirited us up to Gorakhpur, a biggish city acting as a transport hub and popular jumping off point for the Nepalese boarder.
A pretty slow bus trundled us up to Nepal, and an even slower creakier bus took us on to Pokhara our main base in Nepal.
After a busy day rushing around town we found ourselves a guide/porter to carry most of our gear and make sure we didn't get lost, as well as sourcing some hire gear for the trek ahead. Simon's trick knee got some welcome support from a pair of Leki Sticks and we both picked up some extra warm stuff for when we got above the snow line.
We had ten days to play with so decided on a run up to Annapurna Base Camp (ABC) sitting at just below 4200 m, followed by further trekking to the west to Poon Hill, a great vantage point for viewing the whole Annapurna range of mountains.
We headed out onto the trail on the 8th March with "Bob" (name changed
to protect the innocent/guilty from adverse publicity).
Day 1 from Pokhara to our first village stop in Ghandruk started with a hour or so taxi ride to the start of the trail (including a stop to change a tire which was punctured by the pretty bad road conditions). This day was a nice warm up, with the track following a river for the morning, before hitting our first set of stairs :-( Our lack of fitness was telling a bit here, with the sun streaming and the sweat dripping down. However regular stops for water, cups of tea and biscuits kept us going. At Ghandruk, we were pleasantly surprised at both the quality of the accommodation and food - the only hardship was having to share a bathroom with the other patrons on our floor.
The areas we traveled though were mostly terraced 'farmland' for the first two days, and we passed many trains of donkeys carrying supplies into the villages, along with porters, carrying just as much....
Day 2 started with a clear morning, so some of us were up for sunrise and taking in the early morning view - our first proper view of the
mountains since setting out. We then set out for Chhamrong - on the top of the next 'foothill' (most approx 400-600m down and then up the next 'foothill'). The way was quite steep with a steady zig zag climb up the other side of the valley, then traversing a rather large land slide to arrive at Chhamrong.
Bob said he had a few mates in Chhamrong, and lead us to his favorite guest house. Soon after he went off to see his mates, resurfacing again around dinner time in an excellent mood, with lots of energy and enthusiasm... he nipped off again for another hour to sort out his dinner, then came back to see us rather the worse for wear, having received a further number of helpings of free Millet whiskey from the guest house for our patronage.
Bob's conversation grew harder to follow as the night wore on, what with English not being his first language, the effects of the whiskey, and his habit of chewing tobacco. However he did make sure that we heard his warning that booze, pot and hanky panky were no-no's above 3000m.
After Chhamrong, days 3 and 4 saw our
Sunrise at Ghandruk
Annapurna South in the background climb up to Annapurna Base Camp (ABC) began in earnest - heading up a ravine and into the cold above the snow line.
We made good progress, stopping at a small outpost called Himalya, which unfortunately was sitting right in the middle of a big cloud :-(. It also had the luxury of a hot water bucket shower, which did help to keep away the cold for awhile, as did the excellent heater under the main table which is then covered in a blanket so you can sit with your legs in the warm and a blanket on your lap.
One more day of steady climbing (day 4) took us through Machhapuchhre (commonly referred to as Fishtail mountain) Base Camp (MBC), and onto ABC, the highest point we would reach on our trek. A long lunch break at MBC to ensure we were having no ill effects form the altitude was taken before setting off on the final leg. We arrived at ABC in the late afternoon, climbing through the snow while keeping our heads down to avoid getting wet by the new snow falling on us.
It was very very cold up at ABC, with everyone
in the vicinity crowding into the dinning room of the lodge to enjoy the paraffin heater under the table.
However, we awoke to a lovely clear morning to find ourselves surrounded on all sides by towering mountain peaks. A great view was enjoyed by all of the surrounding mountains from just above the base camp - quite a few of these are attached to prove this! Lots of snapping of photos took place, with only a couple of clouds in the sky (stubbornly hiding the peak of Annapurna I), however this did not significantly hinder the view.
We then set off back down the track to Chhamrong (days 5 and 6) again for a well deserved stop - this was a lot easier than going up :-) Like most days, we generally found that first thing in the morning was always the clearest and best time for scenery viewing, as the cloud would normally roll in around mid-morning, sometimes with heavy rain showers and thunderstorms hitting at around 3pm (usually just after we had arrived at our destination for the day).
Back at Chhamrong, Bob went out visiting again, coming back (again, rather enthusiastically) keeping us entertained
with a number of "pen & paper" puzzles he had picked up from tourists over the years.
For the next two days we continued west from Chhamrong, through terraced farmland and fields of ripening wheat (like the first two days of our trek) until we reached the Rhododendron forest - seeing more and more Rhododendrons coming out into flower and taking up huge patches of hillside. The Rhododendron forest looks really old, with huge trees, many of which are draped in a flowing green moss. Occasionally we would come across troops of local monkeys in the trees, with some of the adults being pretty large, and not too worried about the human traffic wandering through their feeding grounds. We stopped for the night at Tadapani, which had great morning views of both the mountains and the Rhododendron forest.
On our 8th afternoon we emerged from the forest onto a ridge line to see Poon Hill looming above us, with Ghorepani (our destination for the night) nestled into it's base.
Bob snuck off and surprised us with the key to the "Edmund Hillary" room as soon as we reached the guest house for the night. It was a
really flash room - it even had it's own bathroom :-)
We started the next day at 5am, and were walking by 5.30 to reach the top of Poon hill before the sun rose over two chains of mountain ranges. The coming light chased us up the hillside, leaving us at the top with probably a couple of hundred other tourists :-/ Photos attached of the views on offer which speak better for themselves.
We were glad that we had gone up to ABC, as the trail was much less crowded - with many more locals than tourists, however once we neared Poon Hill/Ghorepani we were besieged by lots of large tour groups (of up to 20+ people)!
The rest of day nine was taken up coming off the flank of Poon Hill down to Tikhedhunga via a set of stairs which could have served rather well as part of a "back door into Mordor". 4000 steps down were before us - mostly made up of large flat and smoothish stones (a bit of a problem for Simon with his dodgey knee). However we made a successful descent and parked up in Tikhedhunga for the night -
just in time to watch an awesome rain/thunder storm sweep into our valley and bucket down for about a couple of hours :-)
Our last day on the trail was pretty short - just 3 hours going over pretty flat ground saw us back at the road and our Trek completed. We both enjoyed the change of pace, and the trails we did left us with a sense of accomplishment.
In the last few days we have been running around a bit getting back to India to make it to Varanasi - more next post.
S&S
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Super article. Annapurna Base Camp Trek Ultimate Guide · Cost · Route· Weather · Difficulty