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, if temp was 10 degrees warmer. Walked to Ulleri, then down 3280 steps (in 2001 we walked UP them! Ugh! Down is bad enough!) to river and along to Hile, where we stayed in a dodgy guesthouse where the floor of the room leaned at an alarming angle and the roof was propped up by lumps of rock balanced right above where our heads were when we slept. Never mind.

Day 12, easy 2 hour walk along a new (incomplete) jeep track to Birethanti, got a 4WD to take us 80 mintues back to Pokhara and the same hotel room. Big non-veg lunch with our trusty porters, Kiran and Mahru, who both did a great job looking after us and 2 of our packs, and playing with Zoe and hanging out with Mitch, who played lots of cards with them during the trek and learned a few new games including Tidgy Midgy and Doombal(?).

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 stars were out when we left the hotel and the sky was cloudless as the first rays of the sun lit up the peaks. Very cold, we each had about 6 layers of clothing plus gloves and beanie. But spectacular view.

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 have to go all the way down another hill to cross a river, and then walk up the other side to the top of Chhomrong, using a seemingly endless staircase, several hundred metres vertical climb. Slow going. Very tiring. But at Chhomrong we had our first (and hot) shower of the trek. Luxurious and reenergising. As was the apple pie.

Day 9, Chhomrong to Tadapani. Easy flattish start to the day, then down down down to a river, up up up the other side, almost 800m vertical, to Tadapani. Cloudy, no view. Had a rat in our room that night but we got it out.

Day 10, Tadapani to Ghorepani. Generally uphill 500m vertical to Deurali Pass (not the same Deurali we had been to before… Mitchell counted 8 Deuralis on the map!). Relatively easy going along cool forest trails in the clouds. Then down to Ghorepani. Easiest day so far, until Dave strained ligaments behind his left knee and limped most of the way with two hiking poles as crutches     (But ok the next day.)

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 the mountains all glow bright in happiness.

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 managed to locate the beginning of the trail, leading to the top of the hill. It was peak hour at the time we walked up and that soon resulted in a traffic jam, until one large group stepped off the side of the path to let us through. I lead for a lot of the time, and whenever I looked back to see where the others were all I could see was a line of headtorches bobbing up the trail behind me.

In total we had to go up approximately 300m vertical, so the path was steep and there were a lot of rough stone steps to climb. From all the puffing and panting, we quickly heated up and some of us took off their gloves and undid their raincoats as they walked. Roughly an hour later we reached the summit of Pun Hill, and the sky had begun to light up. And we watched as the first rays of light touched some of the highest mountains in the world.

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 Mountain Sickness) can be a problem but we experienced no ill effects, apart from lots of puffing in the thin atmosphere. Spending the night at Machhapuchhre Base Camp (3700m) the night before helped acclimatise. We came across a 20-something Australian suffering AMS and being helped descend as quickly as he could, after rushing to high altitude too quickly.

We arrived at ABC lunchtime Day 6, and spent the night there, getting up before dawn to watch the sunrise strike the peaks. Pretty cold (-5 celsius, or lower?) but we had good gear and is was a spectacular place to be and see the sun rise.

Kids built a snowman, called Bob. Next day, many other trekkers found the snowman and were queued up to have their photo taken with Bob, who was coerced into holding flags of various nationalities, even though he was an Australian snowman!

Here are some pics:

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 to Chinu (hot springs) before 400m of steps up to Chhomrong, at 2170m, where apple pie awaited. Long day. Tired. But made it to Chhomrong in 2 days (thereby keeping to our shortened schedule), rather than 3 (as had been proposed by some).

Next day down LOTS of steps, then up LOTS of steps, and through forest clinging to side of steep terrain, arriving at Bamboo in time for late lunch and relaxed afternoon off.

Day 4 walked to Deurali (3200m) and all managed to have a reasonable wash (warm water in a bucket), first of trek apart from hot springs. R&R in the afternoon.

Day 5 walked to Machhapucchre Base Camp at 3700m. Not many steps anymore, thankfully, just trail. Uphill, of course. Nice sunset on mountains from glacial morraine above guesthouse.

Day 6 climbed final 400m up to Annapurna Base Camp at 4130m. Snow and ice about, but nice sunny weather, not too cold, during the day. About minus 5 (or lower) at night.

Over the 6 days, we had increased our altitude by over 3km.

Here are some pics: