The blogging has been on vacation as I spent the best part of 2 weeks in the wilderness! Below is a summary of Day 1 of a 9 day trek in the Annapurna Sanctuary that I took part in last month. Bear with me, there are going to be 8 more coming soon in this series!! Enjoy.
Day 1
And so the long awaited 9-day epic to the Annapurna Base Camp (ABC) began. We managed to get good sleep despite the dal bhat (lentils and rice) diet rendering me on piss mode twice that night. My trekking pal,Jason, arrived in Pokhara the night before. Our lively guide, Amir, joined us that morning fresh from a 21 day trek around the range on the Jomsom trek (it is the perimeter circuit of the Annapurna ranges and the highest lake in the world can be viewed on this other trek). The trio became a quartet after we decided that we should pay more for an extra porter to make the trip more bearable. Out porter was called Ram, a chirpy but quiet fellow almost half my size but capable of carrying 30 plus kg bags long distance!
We took a cab from Pokhara to Nayapool, our starting point, on a 1 hour journey. The route went past my familiar Sarangkot turn-off point (that leads to the village where I worked) and then past a large Tibetan refugee settlement in the valley. This point is one of my favourite spots to view the mountains. It´s bottom of valley location gives the Annapurna range a truly towering view as they rise from the foothills. As the driver cursed at some locals rolling rice bundles across the road, we saw a crowd surrounding a collapsed donkey. Amir announced that it was dead, literally the classic "drop dead like a donkey" scenario. Tragic, after a life of toil and hardship.
We were now on the north side of the Sarangkot hill and headed west towards Nayapool. The road become more winding as we climbed up a pass, so the common car horn warning honking round corners began. Other modes of transport were warned of our approach; packs of mules carrying produce to the market. I heard that on the return journey they are used for portering services for trekkers. Talk about multi-purpose SUV mules! The line of mules is a nice sight to behold, with multicoloured saddles, various produce and cute little bells. On ascent, the impressively smooth (by Nepali standards by the way) but unmarked road became more and more eroded resulting in single lane sections causing the rickety 1970s Toyota Deluxe to groan as it switched between asphalt and dust surfaces.
I caught a glimpse of the whole Phewa Tal lake looking south from the top of the pass, with the river system feeding it. The sun´s reflection marked the waterways clearly. It was about 9am now and some kids were heading off to school in zig zag playfully kiddish fashion increasing the number of obstacles on the narrow road. The arrival of the Nayapool start off point was quite abrupt and surprising as it was just a series of restaurants and shops dangerously located on a u-bend of the road. We had a quick "dudh chayo" (milk tea), arranged our gear and began the trek.
The track starts as a drop from the u-bend road to a steel chain suspension bridge. Beyond that is a main bazaar for Nayapool where we stopped to buy some shoes for the porter. It was an opportunity to install my superdooper Camel-back (a 2 litre water sack placed in my daypack with a plastic tube for me to sip on whenever I want - for on-demand rehydration!). We walked through a narrow river (rapids more like) valley and up a gentle incline to the sanctuary checkpoint where the guide dealt with the fee payment. The main hillside trail now began. Its not isolated here. We came across many rice paddies huddled around the rapids with the harvesting of rice and millet in full effect. Also, lines of ascending tourists, guides and their porters became common sights.
Today´s walk was short. We had the classic Dal Bhat for lunch with fresh fish from the river and we arrived at out guest house for the night at Tikhedunga at around 2pm. Since we were early arrivals, I had the first stab at the one shower room.
We took a cab from Pokhara to Nayapool, our starting point, on a 1 hour journey. The route went past my familiar Sarangkot turn-off point (that leads to the village where I worked) and then past a large Tibetan refugee settlement in the valley. This point is one of my favourite spots to view the mountains. It´s bottom of valley location gives the Annapurna range a truly towering view as they rise from the foothills. As the driver cursed at some locals rolling rice bundles across the road, we saw a crowd surrounding a collapsed donkey. Amir announced that it was dead, literally the classic "drop dead like a donkey" scenario. Tragic, after a life of toil and hardship.
We were now on the north side of the Sarangkot hill and headed west towards Nayapool. The road become more winding as we climbed up a pass, so the common car horn warning honking round corners began. Other modes of transport were warned of our approach; packs of mules carrying produce to the market. I heard that on the return journey they are used for portering services for trekkers. Talk about multi-purpose SUV mules! The line of mules is a nice sight to behold, with multicoloured saddles, various produce and cute little bells. On ascent, the impressively smooth (by Nepali standards by the way) but unmarked road became more and more eroded resulting in single lane sections causing the rickety 1970s Toyota Deluxe to groan as it switched between asphalt and dust surfaces.
I caught a glimpse of the whole Phewa Tal lake looking south from the top of the pass, with the river system feeding it. The sun´s reflection marked the waterways clearly. It was about 9am now and some kids were heading off to school in zig zag playfully kiddish fashion increasing the number of obstacles on the narrow road. The arrival of the Nayapool start off point was quite abrupt and surprising as it was just a series of restaurants and shops dangerously located on a u-bend of the road. We had a quick "dudh chayo" (milk tea), arranged our gear and began the trek.
The track starts as a drop from the u-bend road to a steel chain suspension bridge. Beyond that is a main bazaar for Nayapool where we stopped to buy some shoes for the porter. It was an opportunity to install my superdooper Camel-back (a 2 litre water sack placed in my daypack with a plastic tube for me to sip on whenever I want - for on-demand rehydration!). We walked through a narrow river (rapids more like) valley and up a gentle incline to the sanctuary checkpoint where the guide dealt with the fee payment. The main hillside trail now began. Its not isolated here. We came across many rice paddies huddled around the rapids with the harvesting of rice and millet in full effect. Also, lines of ascending tourists, guides and their porters became common sights.
Today´s walk was short. We had the classic Dal Bhat for lunch with fresh fish from the river and we arrived at out guest house for the night at Tikhedunga at around 2pm. Since we were early arrivals, I had the first stab at the one shower room.
K.
1 comment:
Great writing, I can see it all in my head! Looking forward to the next posts.
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