Advertisement
Up at 5AM to make the 45 min trek up to Poon Hill. In the past, I have been so disappointed by anything that required me to get up so early. I have yet to see a sight that was truly worth getting up this early. It had poured rain the day before, but the weather was clear this morning. I wasn't really sure what we were supposed to see from Poon Hill. I thought we were supposed to watch the sunrise, and while we started out in the dark, the sun soon rose and we were only 15 min into a crowded 45 min trek. I struggled with the uphill in the beginning. A lot. And I was secretly wishing I'd just stayed in bed a while longer.
I soon understood why so many people make this trek. It was not a disappointment. Not at all. The point of this trek is not to see the sunrise. It is to see Annapurna when the sun hits it after sunrise. Nabin knew this. We were standing at the top off Poon Hill with hundreds of other people, and he didn't even say anything. He just smiled and pointed in the
People on Poon Hill
It wasn't really crowded once we got to the top. opposite direction of where everyone was looking. And then we saw it. The clouds had cleared, the sun had risen, and we saw it.
Annapurna. There are four Annapurna peaks and we were looking at Annapurna South. It is totally worth the 45 min trek up Poon Hill at 5AM. Wow. I have never seen anything like it. It took my breath away.
www.adventurediscoverytreks.com/annapurna-ghorepani-poon-hill-trek.php After some milk coffee and more pictures, we headed down the hill, back to the hotel for a hot, spicy Nepali breakfast, and then we began our 7 hour trek to Ghandruk. We packed up after breakfast and left around 8:30AM. Our first couple of hours was uphill and I struggled, but not as much as yesterday. Megan was faster on the uphill, I was stronger on the downhill even though it hurt my knees. We had morning tea, but Nabin got us up and moving again pretty quickly. I swear he can sense rain. We stopped for lunch, which took a long time for us to get served, and then we were off again. More downhill. Today was about 2 hours of uphill, and 5 hours of down. There was a lot
of thunder, but no lightening, and it didn't actually start to rain until we were about 30 minutes from Ghandruk. And there was some hail. I was glad I was wearing a hat. Megan wasn't so lucky. She was in front of me and I heard her saying, 'Oww.' We were laughing, but I know it must have hurt!
There are beautiful stone steps, hundreds of them, leading into Ghandruk. I have to say thank you to whoever built those steps because they made it much easier to get to the village, especially in the rain. I wish it hadn't been raining so I could have taken some pictures of those steps.
Our hotel is pretty nice. This is a hotel, not a tea house. I think the tea houses were full. Our hotel is great though. It even has a western toilet and the shower was so hot I had to turn on the cold water. After we showered and rested a bit, Nabin came to get us for dinner and of course, we played cards after dinner. I'm getting better at beating Madhur, but he is sneaky! He has a good poker face!
For dinner
we had momo, which is similar to postickers or Chinese dumplings. They were yummy. Definitely have to have that again.
Last day of our trek tomorrow. Back to Naya Pul to complete the circuit.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.077s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 11; qc: 28; dbt: 0.0399s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
-R.
non-member comment
Some beautiful pictures here. Looks like a great time.