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Published: January 8th 2015
Tuesday 7th October - Ghorepani (2875m ) to Poon Hill (3200m ) back via Mid Ghorepani (2800m) to Deurali Pass (3090m) to Tadopani (2630m) In summary - altitude gain of 335m, descent of 400m, ascent 290m, descent 460m - all in one day!!!
What a day! Up at 4.30am to make the pre sunrise trek to Poon Hill - 3200m with an amazing sunrise view over the Annapurnas - Annapurna South, Annapurna, Dhaulagiri and Hinchuli - the top peak being 8000m (Kosciusko is 2200m). Luckily we woke to clear skies; otherwise it wouldn't have been worth the trek.
Trudging up the steps in the dark, head torches lighting the way, we marched up more relentless steps, slowly like a line of ants - with the mass of other trekkers making the same early morning journey. It took us around 45 minutes to reach the top of Poon Hill, and wasn't a walk in the park. However, the last time Gav & I had made the trek to Poon Hill in '97 it had taken us 1.25 hours from lower Ghorepani, where we not only got lost on the way and ended up scrambling up the hillside on
hands and knees, but had also both been crook in the days before, so found this so much easier!
Unfortunately for me (Shell) the urgent call of nature came about 10 minutes from the top. Arghhh - not good! Gav asked with all seriousness why I hadn't gone before we left... Der! I had - but when your tummy starts rumbling what can you do? I held on with all my might, not easy, and luckily there was now a 'toilet' at the top. As soon as we reached the peak, I dumped my bags and ran the 50 metres down to the loo on the other side, bum cheeks squeezed ever so tight, and just made it! I must say it was the second worst loo I had ever had the 'pleasure' of using. The first had been in the outskirts of the Wadi Rum desert in Jordan where I had no choice but to use an outdoor squat dunny which looked like Mr Whippy had delivered an enormous soft serve with millions of flies enjoying their lunch... This was only slightly better. Still an outdoor dunny - big hole in the floor with Mr Whippys all around
the edges where trekkers had missed! Just lovely - BUT I've never been so happy to have a loo handy and at least there were no flies!
Anyway, moving on...
We spent the next hours and a quarter up on Poon Hill, watching the sunrise over the Annapurnas. For Gav & I it wasn't as spectacular as last time, but Mia absolutely loved it! Last time we were here in spring with masses of Rhododendrons adding colour everywhere you turned and with hundreds less trekkers. There is now a tower built to get extra height for photos and we also had literally hundreds more group trekkers around. It was still lovely but not quite the same. I suppose that will nearly always be the way in that the second time around, years later with development; things just don't have the same glory and shine.
As the sun slowly rose, it began highlighting the peaks. We had to laugh when the sun finally came up in full behind us and the masses of Chinese group trekkers cheered like nothing I've heard before!
After taking literally hundreds of photos we made the descent back down to our lodge
Back at Ghorepani
Heading back down before up again!to have brekkie (more chilli egg chapattis and masala tea!) and repack before continuing our days trekking to Tadopani.
We knew we were in for an up and down day so to speak in terms of altitude but were looking forward to it. My memories were of nice jungle areas and it didn't disappoint.
After descending to Ghorepani village below, we began a full hours climb through the jungle up steady 'goat trails'. It was a steady climb only marred by the amount of large trekking groups we had around us making the trek at the same time. The thing is they'd all rush pass us (and literally push us out of their way) then stop in the middle of the tiny track and start taking photos. Not just a quick snap, but a few minutes trying to get the right snap. We'd then nicely try and make our way around them only to have them then rush on past us again pushing us out of the way. They were also very loud, sometimes singing songs so loudly (only one person actually) that it wasn't funny. We've had similar situations in the past with some trekkers playing music
out loud from their ipods at ridiculous volumes but this was even worse. You're in the middle of an amazing country, surrounded by the most beautiful nature and sounds and we know that yes, you may be happy, or bored (hence the need to play loud music) but do you really need to do it at a volume so all can hear you from 100 metres in every direction?
Moving on...
After the hours ascent we made it to Deurali Pass at 3090m. From here we had awesome views as well as the amazing opportunity to once again see small planes flying below us (Reading back on our past trip here we had experienced the same thing in awe!) It's also pretty cool to look across the valley and see the top of Poon Hill where we had ascended to earlier that morning! AND we new it was all downhill from here (or pretty much all downhill anyway :-)
Along the way we had kept bumping into the English family - the dad Stuart and four of his sons: Cameron, Oliver, Adam and little Jonathan. At the top of the pass we finally met properly and would
On the way to Tadapani
As expected, meeting up with the English family! continue to pass each other over the rest of the day. At this point, Dende decided to go ahead so he could score us a decent room in Tadopani. It's only a small village and as it's at a crossroad with the Annapurna Sanctuary/Base Camp trek it fills up quite quickly.
From here we had a couple of hours of steep descent along slate steps and a waterfall (nice!) to the tiny village of Banthanti. We stopped for a quick drink of juice before continuing on for the 1-2 hours to our nights stop at Tadopani.
This is where it starts to get interesting... In '97 we arrived here about 1pm (same as this time) when it started pouring rain and hailing. We had then decided to stay put until it stopped. We'd considered staying overnight where we were however the lodges were not good at all (wet, musty and just not good) so we'd continued on at 4pm after the storm had ceased. We'd then had an unforgettable but never want to repeat experience, of making our way to Tadopani in the half dark, soggy rainforest with would be robbers/murderers following us... (I'll be posting our old
On the way to Tadapani
Half way between Banthanti and Tadapani - just before the hail storm hit travel blogs from '97 once I have finally got up to date posting this trip - feel free to read more it you want to then!)
So, with our past experience still vivid in our memories, as it started to drizzle while we were having our 20 min break, Gav said 'Let's keep moving so we don't get stuck here for 4 hours like last time'. I wasn't keen (no one else seemed to be moving, and I didn't like the look of the incoming weather but Gav was not to be persuaded).
We put out socks back on that had been drying out in the sun and continued on our way. The trail was a rugged path of small ups and downs for about 20 mins until the trail opened up with a large drop off to one side and the most beautiful views of the jungle on the other side of the valley. I'm not great with exposure to heights so was a little uneasy but stopped Gav & Mia so I could take a photo of them. Just after I did, Gav nearly shat his pants when local herding donkeys came around the corner and
obviously decided it'd be fun to scare the heck out of him with a massive 'Arghhhhhh!!!!!' It was absolutely hilarious (for some obviously!)
After Gav had pulled himself together, and his heart rate had come down, we moved on with the trail now starting to descend to the bottom of the valley. As we did, the rain started coming down hard just as our favorite (not) singing man passed us but decided to keep only 10 metres or so ahead of us. We stopped and put my backpack cover on put didn't have one for Gav's or ponchos handy as Gav had sworn 'We'll be right mate - no need" when packing that morning. Thanks love! We continued the descent into the pouring rain and soon it began to hail quite hard. We still had the singing man in front of us and Gav was ready to throw a rock or two... It was also at this point that I saw a leech ready for attack. Not something I was going to mention to Mia - I did however just advise her to walk in the middle of the path so as not to get too wet...
As
we reached the bottom of the valley we tried to take cover under a tree but gave up when we realised the weather was only getting worse. At this point we were absolutely soaked and freezing cold. I asked Mia how she was and she said 'ok- just cold, but I'll be fine'. We kept smiling and knowing it was an adventure we'd never forget started making our way up the valley to Tadopani. About 10 mins after, who do we see? Our angel Dende, coming towards us with a poncho on and thongs grabbing my backpack off me and asking if we were ok. We were so incredibly thrilled to see him at this point! We knew we only had about 20 mins to go so marched on through the freezing hail with determination. Lo and behold, as we were about 5 mins from the top the trail of stairs turned into a deep, fast flowing river with dense jungle encapsulating it on either side. We took shelter under a large fallen branch wondering what to do. The bunch of Chinese trekkers in front of us had decided to head through the steep jungle off the trail (now white
water rafting river) in order to make it to the top. This wasn't so appealing to us as they were slipping and sliding up the steep slope and it looked absolutely treacherous. Dende said he'd go up a bit further and check things out. After a few minutes he returned saying the river on the path subsided a bit about 50 metres up and that he'd dumped my bag there. He wanted to piggy back Mia up the 'path' and suggested Gav (who was still wearing his heavy pack) and I to go off trail through the jungle and meet them up further. I wasn't keen on the idea - even though I trusted him I could just picture one small slip would send him and Mia sliding down the now river into who knew what or where. Also the jungle off trail now looked so wet and muddy that it could send either one of us on the same path. Leeches were also in the back of my mind but at this point I didn't really care.
We ended up having trust in Dende and going with his plan. Watching him wade through the steep, uphill river with
Mia was so scary but we quickly focussed on getting ourselves through the jungle to meet them. Gav went in front of me and I was so scared he'd slip and fall (he slipped badly a few times but regained his footing) but we made it in the end. (As I'm writing this I'm now only wondering for the first time why he wasn't behind me ready to catch me... Ok...I'm sure it was to check out it was a safe passage first!).
After about 5 minutes of fear we finally caught up to Dende and Mia who were on safe ground. My heart rate quickly went back to sort of normal knowing our girl was safe and ok! The path was still a river but much shallower and we were able to navigate our way to the top.
At this point the storm had stopped and we made our way once again to the highest lodge in Tadopani. Along the way through the storm we'd promised Mia that we'd find a nice, clean, comfortable lodge to stay the night in....
After a final assault on the last leg of stairs leading to ‘Magnificent View’ Guesthouse, again,
the highest lodge in the village, Dende led us to the room he had managed to score for us.
Dripping wet and freezing cold, Gav went up to check it out and came back with some pretty bad news that the room had great views but otherwise was tiny and decrepit. Unfortunately this was our only option as the village had pretty much run out of accommodation and we had been lucky that Dende had even managed to hold this room for us, otherwise we would have had to sleep in the common room.
We all went up in the hope of getting a hot shower but had to get changed first. We opened the door to our room and Mia burst into tears (I was close!). Our room had three singles beds in it, two pushed together on one wall, then a gap of no more than 30cm between the last single pushed against the opposite wall. The gap between the feet of the bed and the entry was again no more that 30cm, with a small table wedged in between reducing the space even more! The floor was ripped up and as soon as Mia and
I wedged ourselves into the only available space with our two soaking wet bags, the floor was also a huge puddle. I managed to quickly strip and dry Mia to the best of my ability and get her dressed in some dry clothes. By this time I was shivering so badly and just wanted to dive into a hot shower. (This didn’t end up happening as by the time we had all dressed we didn’t want to undress again!). I shouldn’t complain and there wasn’t even room for Gav to get changed so he went out into the hall to do it – I feel for the poor American girl who passed him! This is also when Gav realised, after noticing blood gushing out of a small, circular hole in his calf, that he'd earlier had a bloodsucking leech attack him! Lucky though that it had obviously dropped off by itself!
As soon as we were all dressed, we gathered all our wet clothes and came downstairs to the common room with them, our fleece jackets, beanies, warm socks and sleeping bags (we were still shivering). The staff had just lit the ‘kettle style fire’ for us so we
hung our clothes out above that and settled onto a large mattress near it and snuggled up as we finally started to get warm.
By now the sun was coming out again and Mia was beginning to feel a bit better about the situation but only because we had no choice! We wandered out to the front of the lodge and started to take in the views of the peaks (Machupachure) and the village of Tadapani below. Mia spotted Stuart and the kids below outside one of the lower lodges and wanted to go and see them. We wandered back down the steps towards them (me already dreading the thought that we’d have to go back up them again!). By the time we got down there we couldn’t locate them so just wandered around a bit admiring the views some more. We later found them in their lodge and went it for a chat. Their porter had also found a room for them but they had one the size of ours but had to fit the five of them in there! Mind you, Jonathan was the only little one, Cameron, Oliver and Adam were all fully grown! We hung
Back at Ghorepani
Ready for another days trek! out with them for a bit and planned that tomorrow night we’d all stay in the same lodge at Ghandruk –our next stop. It’d be nice to have some company!
The rest of the afternoon/night we sat around the common room, playing cards, enjoying some more yummy dal baht for dinner (Shell and Mia that is – Gav doesn’t go for it!) and had fun people watching. We’d met a trio who were also playing cards next to us – the girl was the American girl that had passed Gav getting changed in the hall – funny, but she didn’t recognise him dressed J, her nepali/American husband and his sister. We all had a bit of a laugh as a group of 5 young girls (low 20’s) had arrived and were sitting out the front of the lodge in the cold doing yoga with their yoga master. It was quite a funny scene to watch and I didn’t envy them out there in the cold! We met them later and they were lovely – they were doing a private yoga trek!
Once dark, Mia and I wandered out to the front of the lodge again to join the
yoga girls who were out enjoy the spectacular, clear evening views over the valley leading up to ABC (Annapurna Base Camp - or Annapurna Sanctuary trail). The girls were all singing Christmas carols which may have seemed weird in October but it looked like a scene from a Christmas film - with the lights of Charming and other small villages twinkling in the valley below the snow capped peaks.
An amazing end to an adventurous day!
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