ANNPURNA CIRCUIT: DAY 6

Manang was about 6 or 7 nights into the trek – the very sound of it like Shangri La – this is where we’d get a rest day to acclimatize to altitude.  By this stage I was getting fitter, the odd blister aside I was doing quite well physically.  Not so much luck for Caro who got the mother of all blisters on the back of her foot, turning into massive hole.  At Pisang we parted ways, promising to meet in Manang the next day.  She took the low road – the easier route - and Lawd Help Me I decided to take the High Road, climbing up to 3310m to stay the night.  My companions were Oz, Liol, Mike and Jen.  The High Road promised spectacular views but on the map had one of the steepest climbs we’d tackled so far.  I don’t know what made me do it, but I figured I risen to the challenge so far, I’d probably never be back that way, and hell it was one day out of my life where I had to really push myself physically.

The climb to Upper Pisang was bad enough.  We bounced up over 150m of steep stairs but where we stayed had amazing views of one of the Annapurnas (I have no idea which) and the valley and Lower Pisang.  Bloody freezing night though, and our first glimpse of snow.  The next morning we set off early, our hearts dropping as we descended down the track.  See, the thing is if you go DOWN on the Annapurna Circuit trail, you have to go UP even higher. The ideal is flat, or gradual ascent, but this rarely happened.  We descended almost to the level of Lower Pisang and then after an hours walk through lovely forest, we hit a suspension bridge and a mountain of steep switchbacks climbing over 500m.  And man, was it tough.  The increased altitude made it hard to breathe, and I’d take about 30 steps, stop to get my breath, push on.  Or I would pick a rock or a bit of mule shit or a rock, and walk to that.  I had a little walking song where I couldn’t think about anything more than putting one foot in front of the other:  “Chick-chick-chick-chick-chicken, lay a little egg for me.  Chick chick chick chick chicken, I want one for my tea.”  Please don’t ask me why, for some reason this song would pop into my head every time I saw a chook and it seemed a good hiking song, although I think I got it confused with the Cadbury's “Finger of Fudge” tune as the second verse would go:  “It’s full of Cadbury goodness, and very small and sweet…”.  I guess altitude and physical fitness does weird things to the brain. The 22 year old lads I was walking with all had walking poles – I didn’t (probably stupid in retrospect) but I gradually made my way up and up, switch-backing past the treeline, my gaze drawn upwards as I wished  desperately for the top.  An hour and a half later we were collapsed at the Stupa at Ghyaru, 3730m above sealevel and surrounded by the most beautiful vista I have ever seen.   We snapped our obligatory pics at the top, completely elated by the achievement, hugging people we knew and full of beaming smiles.

The day didn’t stop there however.  I had to get to Manang to meet Carolyn which meant at least another 4 hours.  The trail was decent though.  The Israeli lads and I said goodbye to Mike in the next town after lunch (best mushroom pizza I’ve had to date) and we pushed on the dusty trail, muscles aching in protest, ascending a couple of hundred metres, although the trail was easy compared to what we’ve done.  As we stumbled into Manang about 4pm – the longest day on the whole trek – Carolyn popped out of the Yeti hotel, looking remarkably fresh and clean, where she’d been sat all day since she arrived bless her, wondering if I would wander down the street! 

ANNAPURNA CIRCUIT: DAY 2 - DAY 5

Day 2: BhulBhule to Ghermu – 840m – 1130m – 5hrs

Day 3: Ghermu to Tal – 1130m to 1700m – 5.5hrs

Day 4: Tal to Chame – 1700m – 2700m - 6.5 hrs approx

Day 5: Chame to Upper Pisang - 2710M – 3310M - 5.5 hrs approx

And so the hike had begun in earnest with no going back. The first two days were actually quite difficult.  The trail wasn’t really a path, instead there was a fair bit of scrambling over rocks, stepping on slippery stones across gushing streams and sliding down dusty hill sides which is hard enough on its own, let alone with a pack I wasn’t used to.  Steve, Helene and Caro had far more hiking experience than I did and seemed to find it much easier.  I had to grow some serious hiking chops during my first two days:  I found that actually I could navigate steep tracks quite well and was fairly quick – kind of like a bouncy miniature mountain goat - whereas I was slow going down, wary of where I could put my feet in case I rolled my ankle.  

Gradually the landscape changed, and our eye was constantly on the tree-line, knowing we had to eventually get above it.  We walked through evergreen forests, avoiding mule trains which would come thundering past.  This is dangerous when climbing steep tracks (which, as Sod’s Law would have it is where we always seemed to encounter them) as they carried wide loads, and if you were on the wrong side of a mountain track you were in danger of getting shoved off.  I eventually learned to climb in between them on the paths – they are clever animals and will stop to let you go past, using their sure-footedness as a guide and watching where they put their feet.  It actually made climbing a little easier although sometimes I would run smack bang into mule butt if they stopped for a nibble on a tree!

As our path climbed steadily upwards we were rewarded with breathtaking views of the Annapurnas.  A normal day would consist of a breakfast of coffee and muesli, strapping on the packs around 7am.  We averaged 4-6 hours a day, stopping for lunch along the way or planning to arrive for lunch at our next destination.  The towns had enchanting names:  Tal, Chame, Menang, Yak Ka Ka, Let Da, each one at higher altitude than the last.  The journey was peppered with prayer wheels, stupas (Buddhist shrines) and suspension bridges.  Prayer wheels are metal cylinders about a foot high and half a foot in diameter, each with a prayer written on them.  They are housed in long structures which can contain anything between 10-40 wheels.  You walk clockwise round them, turning the wheels as you go by running your hand along them.  Stupas were perched on mountainsides in the middle of nowhere, mystical and eerie.  Each town had a gate-like structure often containing 3 or 4 prayer wheels, the sight of which would herald a sign of relief as they signal the end of a day’s hike.  We walked past gushing rivers and waterfalls of glacier green.  The weather was boiling, and with a pack on it was like being enveloped in a constant bear hug, so I was consistently soaked in sweat.

We did luck out with the weather, it wasn’t until we started to get to altitude that we would get the occasional snow storm blowing in at night, leaving the morning crystal clear with fabulous views.  The wind would pick up by midday and as we got to Menang (3400m) the weather started to really cool, prompting thermal-wear during the day.

Guest houses were hit and miss.  Generally the beds were hard as nails and you could have replaced the pillows with bricks and not known the difference.  Sloughing off the dust and sweat of the day became all we could think about in the last hour of a day's hike, willing the town we were staying in to appear behind a bend, and heaving a huge sigh of relief as we saw clusters of buildings in the distance, clinging precariously to the mountainsides.  Showers varied in heat, strength and cleanliness.  It wasn't until Upper Pisang that taking a shower really became an issue - after that you were offered a bucket of hot water to throw over yourself in freezing conditions (bear in mind this is still considered a 'hot shower' by Nepalese).  After that 'showering' became less of a priority to staying warm.

ANNAPURNA DAY 1: Besi Sehar to Bhulbule – 820m to 840m – 2.5 hrs

I love walking, but when someone asked if I fancied tackling one of the hardest treks in the world, described as ‘strenuous’ by even seasoned trekkers, and to do it without porters or guides and carrying all my own stuff, up hills and over mountains, my mouth formed the words ‘yes’.  My brain must have been on vacation at the time.  My friend Kath did the trip years ago, and I remember marveling at her photos of the beautiful snow-capped Himalayas – like nowhere I’d ever been – but the stories of the extreme hike made me wonder if I’d ever get up the guts to do something that adventurous! 

Buoyed by the enthusiasm of my travel buddy Carolyn, I found myself in a hiking shop in Kathmandu several months later, purchasing all sorts of trekking gear that would get me through the range of extreme conditions we may experience.  Carolyn is an avid trekker and has wanted to do the Annapurna Circuit for many years and had come a little more prepared.  To the delight of the Nepali staff I grabbed thermals, a rucksack that clipped round my hips, gloves, a hat, a down sleeping bag that could handle freezing temperatures, and decent hiking socks.  Packing was an interesting experience – when you know you have to carry everything yourself all of sudden your essential toiletries become luxuries that have no place in your bag.  By the end I was carrying about 8-9kg, probably the same as most other people, but considering my diminutive (and much reduced since I left Oz) weight and size this was about a 5^th of my body weight at the time we set off.

I spent a lot of time in denial.  I heard the words snow, altitude-sickness, heard that we had days where we would have to hike over 1000m UP steep tracks.  I ignored these horror stories like the monkey with his hands over his ears.

As usual in Nepal, everything starts with an early morning, bumpy dusty bus-ride.  We had spent 2 nights in the picturesque town of Pokhara, surrounded by the peaks of the Annapurnas and on the banks of a pretty lake and it was from here we started our journey, yawning along with all the other trekkers in the bus station.  A beautiful, slender girl with a big smile helped me hand my pack up to the driver on top of the bus, and Helene and her boyfriend, Steve, would become firm friends on our trail – an incredibly fit Aussie/Irish (with a splash of French) couple who had more energy than a fleet of Energiser bunnies.  Luckily this seemed to be catching as Caro and I managed to keep up with them for at least 2 days!  To me this was the heart of soul of the trek –meeting and bonding with people along the way – all united in a quest to finish and complete a tough physical and mental challenge.  Quite unlike anything I’ve done before really.

We headed up into the mountains, to the small town of Besi Sehar.  From here we could take a bumpy bus ride to the town of Buhlebule or we could start the hike proper.  We opted (me still in denial) for the hike, finally getting that pack on, trying to adjust it properly around my hips and shoulders, and setting off on our 120km hike that would take us over 5400m above sea-level, arriving in Muktinath 10 days later.

One of the reasons it is so easy to do the Annaupurna Circuit by yourself is that you can stay in tea-houses, or guest houses, in the towns along the way.  Depending on your schedule and physical fitness you can make the journey as long or slow as you want – towns are normally no more than 1-2 hours apart.  Most guest-houses charge about AUD$1-3 a night, on the premise that you take all your meals there.  This was the hardest part for me – trekking means carbs carbs carbs to give you energy and my digestive system is not really up to scratch to handle carb-heavy food.  Mind you it’s a great bloody excuse to eat cheese and chocolate as you just burn it all off!  By day two we’d started meeting more players in our journey:  John and Freddie – two 19 year olds from Sheffield who were on a gap year.  Martijn and Marit – a Dutch couple who unfortunately had to part ways when Marit had issues with an existing injury.  Jennifer, a sweet Swedish girl who was doing the hike on her own without porter or guide.  Oz and Liol, my companions for some of the journey, Israeli lads who nicknamed me the freight train and were dal bhat (a substantive Nepali dish) crazy.  Mike, a 22 year old from the States, who had planned to do the Circuit and the Sanctuary in record time.  Amber and Steve, from Kingscliffe in Australia.  On the way we met up, parted ways, hung out, played cards, bemoaned injuries, compared what we’d seen in the day and talked travels and trekking.  Age, background and beliefs all coming together in a common goal:  to get over the Thurong-La Pass!

Kathmandu

Last time I blogged I was in Delhi, musing on my Indian experience.  It seems a world away from Nepal, a troubled but incredibly beautiful country.  The snow-capped peaks of the Himalayas and stark, breathtaking landscapes are in contrast to the warm and accommodating Nepalese.  Despite political unrest, poverty and harsh living conditions the people are happy and smiling.  Cries of ‘Namaste’ follow you down the street.  I felt more hassled in India, the Nepalese are easy-going and it’s not in their nature to push an issue.

Probably the largest downside of travelling in Nepal is load-shedding, meaning that electricity is only available for a few hours a day, and sometimes not at the most convenient times.  Having to charge up electrical items, or even grab a hot shower if your hotel is dependent on a water pump, means that you have to be flexible, planning your day around the possibility you might have to race back to the hotel to grab a shower and charge up the iphone.  There are lots of reasons for load-shedding depending on who you listen to, but it seems to be political – to the point that the electrical company in Kathmandu has armed riot police outside the gates to protect the workers from the understandably disgruntled public.

Our first experience of Nepal was Kathmandu.  The very word itself conjures up romantic images of dusty winding streets, but actually Kathmandu is a dirty, sprawling metropolis, surrounded by mountains which trap the haze of pollution.  We landed two days before Holi, a Hindu holiday where people throw bags of coloured water or powder on each other.  We were advised by our hotel to stay in unless we wanted to end up with bright pink skin.  Apparently a lot of the powders used contain toxins and people have been known to go blind if they get it in their eyes!  This didn’t stop the hundreds of tourists and kids who ran shrieking with delight through the streets like small flocks of birds of paradise, pelting each other with small plastic bags full of colour.  Carolyn and I didn’t have any clothes we could just dispose of and having blond hair I was a bit worried about ending up like a walking rainbow.  We watched the proceedings enviously from the safety of our rooftop at the hotel whilst kids on rooftops all around us targeted those below.  By the end of the day people, dogs, houses and streets ran fuchsia.  Two weeks on I still see the odd pink cat, or a blond tourist with a spot of blue in their hair.  

We stayed at the Yellowhouse (not recommended) in the neighbourhood ofTramel, a hodge-podge of windy streets and guest houses with hundreds of hiking shops, bars and restaurants.  Most people start and end in Kathmandu, and it made a nice change to be surrounded by a plethora of tourists in every shape and size, all in Nepal for one reason:  to get their slice of the Himalayas.  

Our next stop was Annapurna - more on that exciting adventure next!