We came to Nepal to do some trekking and hadn't decided which trek to do until coming to Pokhara. Bob had done the Annapurna Circuit in 1987 going around clockwise. Annapurna is one of the few treks you can do in the area without a porter or guide so we decided to do this one but going the more conventional way of counter-clockwise starting on the eastern end of the circuit. So renting a backpack and two sleeping bags and packing light with only a couple of changes of clothing we set off in a bus to the starting point - a few hours drive from Pokhara.
After checking in at the TIMS check point
for trekkers in Besishahar, we caught a local bus to Nadi Bazar to start the
walk. We could have started walking at Besishahar
but the track was made into a very dusty and busy dirt road (This we were to
discover is a reoccurring problem along the Annapurna Circuit – the cost of
progress?). Nadi Bazar is the
construction site of a big Chinese funded hydro-electric dam. It is unclear what effect this will have on
the valley. We started walking about 1pm
and reached Bahundanda about 3 hours later and stopped there for the
night. There was only one other trekker
in the village, a young French woman with her porter. It was drizzly and cloudy so we couldn’t see
much and with the usual power outage, it was an early night. But when I woke up the next morning, what a
sight out the window – huge snow-capped mountains looming in the misty dawn
light.
Out on the track early for another 5½ hours
to our next night stop, Chyamche, passing through the villages of Ghermu and
Jagat. On the way we passed children
walking the winding mountain track on their way to school, crossed our first
suspension bridge and marvelled at the villages on the steep hillsides.
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| On their way to school |
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| First of many suspension bridges |
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| Hillside villages |
Day 3 and the pattern is set. We wake up around 5.30 and on the trail by
about 7.30. The morning of Day 3 we had
a steep climb to the village of Tal passing magnificent waterfalls tumbling
down sheer cliffs.
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| Steep climb to Tal |
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| Approaching Tal |
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| Entering Tal |
Just outside the village of Tal we heard
and saw blasting occurring on the hillside above town on the other side of the
valley. We were watching this bit of
activity when suddenly a large rock the size of a football came falling down
the cliff we were under, narrowly missing me.
The first I realised what was happening was when I heard the thud and
felt the gravel spray onto my leg.
Needless to say we quickly got out of there. Funny after that I made a point to spin the
Buddhist prayer wheels at the entrance of every town.
Day 3 was exhausting - near death experience, walking 7 hours,
climbing 870m and covering about 17km.
Eileen is feeling it but the solace of a rum and coke eases the pain.
Day 4 we walked to Chame. A much easier day – only 10km and a 370m climb. We found a nice guest house with an attached
bathroom with a western toilet (not the usual shared squat toilet in a rickety
tin shed out the back) – bliss. We took
a rest day here to do laundry and relax.
The sight of the mountains out our bedroom window every morning quickly
restored the aching muscles.
Chame was a charming village with donkey
trains, cute kids and goat herds.
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| Goat herd crossing the bridge |
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| Pack train - note the chicken feathers in the cage |
We left Chame and the landscape turned into
alpine meadows and pine forests along with the now ever present views of snow
capped mountains. We were passing
through more traditional villages of stone houses.
We walked up to Upper Pisang only to find
the entire village deserted. Across the
valley we heard the chanting of monks and saw everyone in Lower Pisang
attending a big Buddhist festival.
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| Deserted Upper Pisang |
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| Buddhist Festival - prayer flags going up the mountainside and monks walking around the stupa |
We were intending to lunch at some tea house in Upper Pisang
but had to resort to finding a nice spot to have our emergency Snicker bar.
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| Not a bad spot for lunch |
Trudging along with nothing to eat but a Snicker
bar since about 7am we headed for the next village, on the map only about 3 or
4 km away. What we failed to notice was
the many closely spaced contour lines on the last 1 km. The killer hill of Ghyaru – 1000m climb over
about 1km distance. I thought I would
die. We wheezed and panted up the hill,
legs like jelly. Our only consolation
was that other trekkers 30 years younger were having the same difficulty.
Ghyaru’s accommodation was basic to say the least. It consisted of two very run down guest
houses, even by Nepalese standards. About a dozen trekkers and
porters stayed at the first one, unable to walk a step more. This guest house was being run by a slightly
stoned Rhasta man who couldn’t quite get things together and it was hours
before we got our dinner. At 3680m it
was getting pretty cold at night and since there wasn’t any electricity we all
went to bed directly after dinner to shiver. But as usual the dawn brings fantastic views
of the mountains and we were ready to start again.
The next stop for Day 7 was Manang. This is where the dirt road officially stops
and is the place to acclimatise before the big ascent to the Thorung La
Pass. Unfortunately because there now is
a rough road, which was carved out of the mountain about 5 years ago, many
trekkers take a jeep from Besishahar all the way to Manang and start their trek
from here. Besides bypassing some great
scenery and lovely villages, they do not acclimatise slowly, nor gain the
fitness a week of walking gives you. The
consequence being every day helicopters air lift trekkers who have been struck
down by altitude sickness. We had
already been over 3,000 m for a few days now but still had a rest day in Manang
to explore and do some laundry. Manang is
a town set up for tourist but also has the old traditional section where the
villages just get on with their lives.
Day 9 and still climbing up narrow alpine
paths to our next stop, Ledar. Now at
over 4000m the pine trees have given way to scrubby junipers and we are feeling
the reduced oxygen. Yaks and wild
mountain goats were grazing on the steep hillsides, lots of land slips and the
track was often along scree slopes. With
no more road, as poor as it was, there are now more porters carrying goods to
the remote villages and lodges.
Day 10 and getting closer. Hard climb to the Thoroung High Camp at
5350m. It was a pretty basic camp and quite cold. It snowed overnight and we had a dusting of
the white stuff to crunch through in the morning.
Day 10, the big day over the pass then down
to Muktinath. We started before dawn and
were slowly (bistari, bistari) walking up the mountain across patchy snow
patches.
This final ascent to the pass was probably
the most physically demanding thing I have ever done. We would take 10 or 20 slow plodding steps
then have to stop and try to gulp more aire and let our pulse slow a little
bit. After about 3 ½ hours of this we
reached the top. It was fantastic, clear
blue skies, brilliant sunshine reflected off the snow. The most fantastic mountain peaks all around
us. We were feeling pretty good. Lots of happy trekkers all around.
