My trek around the Annapurnas was 16 fabulous days of Himalayan adventure. Well, most of the 16 days were fabulous... Here's a summary.
Day 1 KATHMANDU - BESISAHAR - KHUDI Pissing down, I bussed it to Dumre, then bussed it - on the roof! - to Besisahar, watched a Maoist demo then walked to Khudi, home for one night with a rat in my bathroom!
Day 2 KHUDI - GHERMU White, snowy peaks flanked by lush, green, terraced valleys - THIS is what I wanted to see! Into the routine already of up at 6, bed at around 9, and about 15 km walking a day!
Day 3 GHERMU - DHARAPANI Leeches!! The famous Nepali jukha DO exist, and I got bitten. Splattered the bastard on the tiles though... More fantastic scenery, and 200 foot waterfalls every 10 minutes have become the norm.
Day 4 DHARAPANI - CHAME Brutal climb to start the day, enormous lunch of dal bhat (rice and lentils), and things are getting cooler as we go higher. Now travelling with two Spaniards, Juan and Pablo.
Day 5 CHAME - UPPER PISANG Stunning views of 7000 metre-plus Annapurna 2 from Chame. Wonderful weather, superb scenery, including fields of marijuana! Mountains of the stuff, which Pablo was more then happy to collect on his way...
Day 6 UPPER PISANG - MANANG Woke to the spectacular mass of Annapurna 2 towering over us, and Annapurnas 3 and 4 came into view during the walk, along with Pisang Peak and the amphitheatre-like glacially eroded Pangdi Danda.
Day 7 ACCLIMATISATION DAY IN MANANG Having reached 3700m we chill out for a bit, in the rain, eating pastries, playing guitar, and looking over Gangapurna glacier.
Day 8 MANANG - LEDTAR Still raining, leave the Spaniards and set out alone. Snowing by the time I get to Ledtar, where a freezing night is spent playing UNO - Israeli style - and huddling round a fire fuelled with Yak shit.
Day 9 LEDTAR - HIGH CAMP Set out through the winter wonderland of Himalaya in roasting sunshine. It doesn't last. Cloud comes, blocking out all the beautiful scenery, and it gets cold. It's a tough, slippery climb to High Camp, at 4900 metres above sea level.
Day 10 HIGH CAMP - THORONG LA PASS - MUKTINATH Up at 5am to set out for the Thorong-La, at 5416m the highest pass in the world. Made it in 2 hours - fantastic time - but still covered in cloud, and occasionally snowing, there wasn't much to see. From the Pass was a punishing 1700m descent through cloud and over snow, then rock. First shower of any description for 4 days in Muktinath. Heaven...
Day 11 MUKTINATH - MARPHA Got lost in muddy Jharkot, which cost me time but rewarded me with the sight of half a dozen vultures and a hyena (?)ripping a cow to pieces! More knee-jarring descents down to Marpha, a lovely village of apples and apple brandy. Hic.
Day 12 MARPHA - GHASA Torrential rain all day, and things are becoming a lot less fun. Crossing the Kali Gandaki - the world's deepest valley - was monotonous rather than spectacular, given the cloud cover, and as the rain continued rocks began to fall around us and trails were washed away. We scrambled over some landslides before reaching Ghasa, a now blacked-out village with a nasty guesthouse.
Day 13 GHASA - TATOPANI Finally, SUNSHINE!!! Woke up to a fine day, but worried about landslides. Neededn't have worried - Puna, the porter of Nicole and Sue who I tagged onto, took us on an alternative route to avoid them. The flipside of this was a killer of a day, up and down rocky slopes, jammed with endless packs of horses. Annapurna South watched over lunch, the best dal bhat on the circuit - with coriander! - in pretty Dana village. Tatopani is home to hot springs! Very, very hot,and phenomenal after a long day and sore, sore legs!
Day 14 TATOPANI - GHOREPANI Another gorgeous day. The morning was slow, and the afternoon had us climb a brutally hard trail to Ghorepani. The uphill literally didn't end until the room,on the 3rd $&*#ing floor.
Day 15 GHOREPANI - POON HILL - GHANDRUK Left for Poon Hill at 5 (!!!) on a crisp, gorgeously clear morning. Another killer of an ascent, but worth it for the magnificent sunrise over the Himalaya. Dhaulagiri, Annapurna 1 (both 8000m plus peaks), Annapurna South and Machhapuchhare - sacred Fish Tail mountain - just lined up in front of us. Back to Ghorepani for breakfast, then a descent through jungle, where we saw monkeys, to Ghandruk.
Day 16 GHANDRUK - NAYA PUL Hot, clear day once again. Shepherded along our route by Annapurna South and Machhapuchhare, we descended first abruptly, then gently, into Naya Pul, and the bus to Pokhara.
An adventure it certainly was! Pulling a leech out of my skin, seeing a monkey family, watching Nicole have her ribs fractured by a stray rock thrown by a shepherd, dodging landslides, drinking the local plonk with guides and porters in a dank Nepali shed, singing and playing guitar in a bakery accompanied by an Indian-looking guy playing a bizarre mouth instrument sounding somewhere between a digeridoo and a video game, having tea and biscuits at 5000m, sweating in the heat and freezing in the cold in a matter of days. All to the sound of insects, birds, villagers, "resam piriri" and complete silence, with the greatest mountain range on earth a constant companion.
