Helloooooo everyone, oh my can't believe it's been 3 weeks since I blogged feels like tooo much to say and such little time as always...ok so incase you didn't know I've been away trekking for the past 2weeks, the Annapurna circuit trek to be exact. Will do my best to summarise all the highs and lows of the past 15days!
Ok, so I went trekking with 2 other volunteers, Amy a nurse from Perth and Rin a geologist from Belgium. We also had a guide (Hem) and porter (Ram). I feel soooo thankful for how amazingly well I got on with both Rin and Amy, we really gelled as a group from day one which is lucky as I've been sharing a room with Amy everyday since! Oh will mention actually Rin is 85%blind, so for him I gues even more of a challenge although he had trekked many times before.
Day1 - We started at a place called Besisahar and walked for about 3hours to our first nights stop in Ngadi, this was a really beautiful day and idyllic guest house, quite lush scenery on the way. D2-3 we went up to Chamje and then on to Bargachap (2160m). On the way I passed two volunteers I'd met at the school i teach in (think Ive blogged about them, asaf and lisa!) what are the chances hey! Landscape wise the first two days were very pretty, D3 was ok but more road walking and rocky views. Its crazy actually as the long term goal is to have a road going all the way up to Manang, will completely change the trek and feels like a real shame but there's no stopping the development...
Ok back to D3, had a beautiful lunch stop in place called Tal and chatted to some travellers who had come down from Manang as there was too much snow to pass higher up. D4 was absolutely amazing walking, after a quick ascent to Danaque the views of the Manasalu range were sooo stunning then after lunch a glimpse of Annapurna2, our final stop for that night was in Chame.
Oh so far I've not really mentioned much about our guide...Overall he was responsible and knew his stuff but he was quite unprofessional towards me and Amy, which put a downer on things a first but in the end I think it made us more determined to enjoy the trip and rally round as a group. Our porter Ram or Rambo as we liked to call him, carried two big bags for most of the way, totally mountain machine, really lovely guy though.
D5 we arrived in Upper Pisang, Amy felt really rubbish all day, had caught some sort of stomach bug so was really hard work for her. The temperature had really started to drop now as we were walking through more snow. We were lucky as most people stay in lower pisang but because we were so high up the views of the Annapurna's from the guest house were awesome, seemed sooo close!
D6-7 Rins birthday! celebrated with pringles, mayonnaise and toblerone...Amy felt much better so it was a great day trekking through the snow to Manang (3540m) Oh have to mention, Amy had never been in snow before so this was quite an experience for her! We had a birthday feast on arrival in Manang around a big heater and felt really happy that so far none of us felt any sort of effects from the altitude. The next day was rest day for acclimatisation but it didnt look good for going higher as snowed most of the day. We met Andrew from the US here and spent most of the day playing cards and drinking tea!
D8 - Hooray, sun is shining! We were really pleased as woke up and the sky was clear so Hem decided we should head up to Yak kharka, this as a great days walking, its hard to describe how amazing the moutains were pretty much all the way from D4 onwards. The snow this day was getting deeper which made it harder work, you could slowly begin to feel the effects of altitude from this height I'd say, mainly just more laboured walking. It was great to arrive in Yak Kharka just before snow storm began again, from here also I need to mention the formation of 'the family'...
Basically all the way up we came across groups or individuals who were doing the same route as us, it was in Yak kharka huddled round the heater that we started to get to know each other even more. There was Sarah interior designer from Sweden trekking with Sue from Singapore, 2 Swedish guys, Andreas from Germany who we met in Manang, Johan from France, Andrew - US, Jack and James - UK, Marianne - UK, Anker - Holland, German couple and Paulo from Chile. There is way too much I could tell you about all their stories so you'll have to ask me another time!
D9 - We were sooo lucky to be with many groups from here on up as I'm sure otherwise Hem would have turned around in Manang. Anyway it was decided to carry on up to high camp. Again the morning was beautiful and was a stunning trek up to throng phedi (4540m) we lunch stopped here before the 400m ascent up to high camp. his may not sound too bad but the hours walk up after lunch was a killer, due to the altitude it just made every step sooo much harder and you were out of breath much quicker. Me and Amy finally arrived in high camp only to hear that Rn was really struggling on the way up, had been sick and couldn't see very well, this was pretty worrying as seemed like altitude symptoms. He managed to make it up to high camp but was really uncertain for the next day...That night at high camp was probably the worst I've every slept, it was soooooo cold and I had a pretty bad headache here not the start you want for the night before pass day...
D10 - PASS DAY! woke up at 4:30 and had to be ready to set off at about 5, apparently groups try and do the trek early as it can get pretty windy after midday. I can't quite explain how difficult this ascent was...nothing can prepare you for wind chill (-20!), I had pretty good equipment but was still such hard work as your extremities are freezing and your out of breath so easily! Amy was really struggling with her hands on the way up so we swapped gloves for a bit and I managed to put some spare socks i had over her gloves, she actually ended up getting early stages of frost bite in her little finger but more about that later...I think what kept me going was when Hem said only 45mins left and it was the first time I stopped to look around, actually the most beautiful sights I have ever seen, hard to take many pictures up there as I was sooo cold. Once at the top (about 5460m I think) a few groups were there but only stayed for about 5 mins to take quick pic! The descent was another epic in itself....Oh almost forgot! Rin that morning decided that he wouldn't be able to go up so our group split from there and he descended the way we came with our porter while Amy and I went on with our guide. We were really sad to have to part ways but it was definitely the right decision. Anyway on the descent down I'm pretty sure i spent more time on my backside, the snow was mega deep so many section just decided to slide down! The first tea shop stop we had was such a relief, couldn't quite believe we'd managed to do it!
Phew, I'm gna leave it there for now and finish blogging the second half of the trip later :) Will try and get pictures up as soon as I can!
Hope you're all well, much love xx
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