28.10.2007 - 1.11.2007: Besi Sahar - HumdeAfter some days in Pokhara, waiting for Barbara to arrive I decided to make another climb. Finally, she left one day in advance because I had to organize some more things. The taxi ride out of Pokhara brought us (Nima, the sherpa, some porter - they don't get called by their names, so I apologise about not knowing it - and me) to the start of the Annapurna Circuit trek. Wondering about where the second porter we agreed on got lost, Nima answered that because there was no more seat free in the taxi (sometimes they got quite fancy excuses ;-)) he inteded to organise one on the way. I insisted on finding another one and had lunch in the meantime. The day ended where I actually expected Barbara to wait for us. Our communication model looked like the following: leave a message at the first lodge in the villages we discussed and tell me where you stay or inform me about your plans. The first message I got was saying that she left already, but would be waiting the next day. So I tried to plan the following days based on her messages in order to catch her as soon as possible. After three days always finding messages about changed plans and with evening programs like playing cards with Nepalis or watching Maoists playing football or cowboys (nowhere else I saw people riding horses...) and one day of letting the porters run for almost nine hours... I gave up and decided to continue at a more porter-suitable-speed. The next morning just before leaving the village we stayed, I saw her running out of the lodge that I was passing still asleep. Together we spent the next two days, going from Thanchok to Humde where she went to the Tilicho Lake in the meantime of my four days of climbing. We had a good time, nice talks and died laughing about the Nepalis' road construction sites which often pass quite recent landslides or the roads that have gone already.
6.11.2007 - 11.11.2007: Humre - Thourong La - BeniAfter the we met again on a view point near Manang about a hundred apple crumples followed... one bakery in Nepal's Zermatt selled real good yak cheese and an even better apple pie (a recommendable combination by the way). Walking the next morning was therefore a little bit less fun than else, but after a garlic soup for lunch I felt much better again. It took us another day to get up to Thourung Phedi, the last stop before we intended to go over the world's highest pass (5416m). The weather was still quite good, but after the sun set it was clouding. The next morning we got up just before 4 am to have breakfast (no apple pie for once). It was still dark when we left with most of the other people that wanted to pass Thorung La that day. Unfortunately it was too dark to take a picture but the trail seemed to be illuminated, so many people were on the way up wearing headlamps. Nima told us that it takes about five hours to reach to the pass, but after less than one hour (including pee break) we arrived at Thorung High Camp, the last lodge before the pass. It was getting lighter, but also more clouded so there was nothing else to see than the queueing on the trek. Either I was still asleep or remembered too much the heat in the snow at Chulu Far East High Camp in the afternoon when I put on my light weight summer trousers and Salomon Trail Running shoes that morning. I guess their soles were not designed for that much isolation and the slight-mashed upper did not keep the freezing air away from my feet, even at that low air pressure. Having quite cold feet, I started going pretty fast which was no problem after my acclimatisation program. After a 2.5h walk I reached the pass begging for the most expensive cup of tea on the whole trek and waiting for the others to arrive. The pass was still in the shadow and a fast wind was blowing... nothing like 'we should leave early because later it's getting too warm'. My warm cloths were all packed in the duffel bag one of the porter was carrying and I did not want them to unpack everything. I remembered to have some hand warmer pads in my rucksack and finally managed to grab them. After all of us had made it to the pass and taking the summit pic I started heading down because I still felt a little cold. In Muktinath were we arrived around noon, the weather was changing worse and while having lunch we saw the winter arriving again. The following shower was just warm enough and after another apple pie for Zvieri we felt great again.
The next day we looked forward to arrive in Jomson where we saw 'Sauna' indicated on the map, but there was nothing alike to find. Finally, after having a chat with a Nepali in the street we found out that the sauna was in his hotel. That was the highlight of the day since due to the bad weather there was not much to enjoy for once.
One the following morning it was again time to say goodbye. Unfortunately my time in Nepal was about to end and I had to get back to Pokhara, unlike Barbara who had another two weeks left. Because of the cloudy weather there were no flights from Jomson to Pokhara and we had a lift in a jeep (which was actually booked by a Dutch doctor for his team and a lot of money... and who nearly started fighting with the Nepali driver because my sherpa did some cheap Nepali deal) on the part of road to Lete. On the trek back to Beni we stayed one night in Tatopani where I spent the evening at the hot spring.
