Trekking 5: Ghorepani to Pokhara

Day 11, after early morning hike up Pun Hill, we returned to relaxing breaky at Ghorepani Hotel before heading downhill on the last leg of the trek, through oak and rhododendron forests, beside mountain river flowing through a narrow gorge with crystal clear water  cascading into beautiful ponds that would be great to swim in, [...]

Trekking 4: Pun Hill

Day 11: 300m above Ghorepani, a 45-60 minute hike, is Pun Hill, where everyone heads up to in the dark to watch the sun rise light up the Annapurna and Dhaulagiri ranges, containing 2 of the highest 10 mountains on the planet. After a couple of days of heavy cloud cover, we weren’t real confident, but the [...]

Trekking 3: ABC to Ghorepani

Day 7, up early to see the sun rise on the Annapurna peaks, then retrace our steps to Bamboo. Took 3 days up, but only 1 day down. Approx 1.5 km vertical. Day 8, Bamboo to Chhomrong. In theory, easy, but in practice, Chhomrong is spread across/down the side of a rather large hill. You [...]

View From Annapurna Base Camp

Darkness spread over the night sky. The bright stars twinkle like angel’s eyes. All calm and peaceful in the gentle breeze. At dawn, the first rays of light shine on the tops of the mountain, as if a little golden fairy has tapped the mountains to glow. Finally the mountains light up in colours of fire and [...]

Pun Hill Sunrise

It was dark and the air was chilly as we gathered together outside the door of our hotel. We wore almost all the clothes we had with us; thermals, travel trousers, 2 t-shirts, 2 long sleeve shirts, fleece coat, rain coat, boots, beanie and gloves. Using only the light from our headtorches and following one of our porters we [...]

Trekking 2: Annapurna Base Camp

Annapurna Base Camp (ABC) is situated at an altitude of 4130m, about twice the altitude of the top of the highest mountain in Australia. It is in a bowl surrounded by huge peaks including Annapurna I (8091m), Annapurna South (7219m), Machhapuchhre (6997m), Annapurna III (7555m) and other peaks around and above 7000m. Altidude sickness (Acute [...]

Trekking 1: Phedi to ABC

With 2 porters to carry 2 of our 3 backpacks we went by minivan to Phedi, about half an hour away, where we commenced our trek by walking up about a thousand steps and steep trails towards Dhampus, then through Pothana to Tolka, where we stayed the night. Walked all day. Tired. Next day through Landruk [...]