Annapurna Circuit walk

Pokhara Lake

Paragliders on the house thermal at Sarangkot above Pokhara

The bus station in Pokhara, 6am on the first day of the Annapurna Circuit walk

At the pass - 5416m.

After spending a few days soaking up the sun, eating well and watching the paragliders in Pokhara we began our trip to the beginning of the Annapurna circuit. A pretty uncomfortable bus ride followed a very early moring; the first of many. The first day we walked only a couple of hours in the sunshine to our first night's very basic accomodation where we had our first taste of the basic shower and toilet facilities to come......We trekked the next couple of days, meeting some really cool people, enjoying the sunshine and the amazing views. Our porter (Manoj) was already proving to be a bit of a legend by this point as he was so friendly and helpful and was like the pied piper for children because every village we came across he soon had a trail of children following behind. My birthday arrived on the 10th so we took it easy that day with only a three hour walk. I got a few unexpected presents and a nice birthday message from some of our new Israele friends. Marc had a beer to celebrate my birthday that evening, and we had a Nepalese Dal Bhat for dinner as usual (there isn't much choice of traditonal food in Nepal). The scenary by this point was changing every day and we couldn't help but constanly stop in awe at the wonderful sights around us; the pictures only begin to capture the scenary, you have to see it to truly believe your eyes. Again, the Himalayas make the Alp's and the Rockies look very small. The villages we were staying in and travelling through became more and more sparse and the people more and more dirty, some of the children in particular looked like children from the ice age......dread locked hair, muddy clothes and wind-burnt faces. The accomodation also became very basic and the weather had turned by about day 6 to rain and grey clouds, but still we trundled on! The highlight of our 'rest day' when we stayed in a village called Menang to acclimitise at 3540metres above sea level (the highest we'd ever been) was a piece of hot apple pie which was such a treat. By this point Marc and I couldn't eat enough as we were burning off so many calories with the walking and keeping warm. None of the accomodation had heating and most of the time there was no hot water as it was solar heated, so few showers were had (I'm now convinced I could manage Glastonbury having not showered for five days on the circuit!). As we got higher it got colder and we began to walk in mountains covered with snow. At this point we also saw the famous Nepalese yaks, which are huge, hairy, scary looking cow-type beasts which you can eat, but we choose not to; still vegetarians at this stage. Finally we made it to High Camp at 4850 metres which was our last stop before the high pass, where we stayed in pretty filfty accomodation. At this height we had 50% less oxygen than we would normally have at sea level and it was starting to take its toll. The next morning we set off in the dark at 5am in -15 degree temperatures to make the pass. It was steep, icy, dark and quite frightening. On the way to the pass which took about 2.5 hours to reach I started to really suffer from acute naseua and breathlessness, Marc had also had heart pulputations during the night. When we finally made the pass (after our porter had also suffered from altitude sickness) the relief overcame me and I burst into tears. It was truely the hardest physical (and at times, mental) challenge I have ever had to face. Marc was also pretty happy at that point too! We then faced a 5 hour 1600m descent which was steep and icy and a challenge to our knees. The rest of the trip was spent mostly going downhill or along the flat windy valley towards Jomson where we caught a small plane back to Pokhara to recover after 14 days of trekking. Arriving back in Pokhara was an amazing feeling; warm, sunny weather, hot showers, clean accomodation and the feeling of huge accomplishment!