Day 7
The night at ABC was excruciatingly cold with not only my whole body cocooned in the sleeping bag, I had my woolly hat on and my drinking bottle played the role of the hot water bottle. It was a struggle to get the layers on to go out and view the sunrise. In all the confusion of that wee hour, I ended up walking along the edge of the glacial cliff on my own as Jason wondered off somewhere near Annapurna South and some of the other trekkers chickened out and clung within the base camp grounds. One of the others, Valerie, had just enough courage to go up to the glacial cliff and we got some photo ops with the main peaks as they were struck with bright orange and red colours.
I continued further than during our reconnaissance yesterday. The resident dog accompanied me and seemed to lead the way over the dark rocks and dry grasses. Along this route there are numerous (in fact hundreds) of memorial stone stacks with Buddhist flags. I got closer to the glaciers and the views below were awesome despite my digits and toes feeling indifferent. I didn´t realise that I was the only one outside at 7:15am (though breakfast was for 7:30am so I wanted to get my moneys worth) so Amir and Jason got worried and started to look for me. I joking said that it would have been unfortunate if I fell into the glacier with all my insurance details on me.
After brekkie and packing, I left a contact card and photo on the guest house notice board for posterity and we left ABC. The morning was glorious and the world´s healthiest hound, the ABC dog, trotted with us up to MBC. The streams were still frozen on the surface and some sun soaked frosty grasses were thawing. Today´s descent was surprisingly rapid as we went past Deurali just after 10am and had lunch at Bamboo! We spent the night in Sinuwa (that´s one days descent = 2 days ascent!!). A lot of the trekkers we were with at ABC were having problems with their joints, especially knees and ankles, a notorious effect of rapid descents with shocks to the limbs. So some stayed at guest houses further up.
The weather transformed as we entered the woods below Deurali and it started drizzling. We didn´t need to get our waterproofs on but the evening at Sinuwa was gnashingly cold. Amir sadistically announced that tonights shower will be frozen hot and so it was as there was not enough sunlight to get the panels going and heat the water. I felt so cold that, to everyone´s amazement, I started washing some of my clothes! It was not very wise as they didn't dry fast enough so I turned my backpack into a mobile washing line the following day.
K.
The night at ABC was excruciatingly cold with not only my whole body cocooned in the sleeping bag, I had my woolly hat on and my drinking bottle played the role of the hot water bottle. It was a struggle to get the layers on to go out and view the sunrise. In all the confusion of that wee hour, I ended up walking along the edge of the glacial cliff on my own as Jason wondered off somewhere near Annapurna South and some of the other trekkers chickened out and clung within the base camp grounds. One of the others, Valerie, had just enough courage to go up to the glacial cliff and we got some photo ops with the main peaks as they were struck with bright orange and red colours.
I continued further than during our reconnaissance yesterday. The resident dog accompanied me and seemed to lead the way over the dark rocks and dry grasses. Along this route there are numerous (in fact hundreds) of memorial stone stacks with Buddhist flags. I got closer to the glaciers and the views below were awesome despite my digits and toes feeling indifferent. I didn´t realise that I was the only one outside at 7:15am (though breakfast was for 7:30am so I wanted to get my moneys worth) so Amir and Jason got worried and started to look for me. I joking said that it would have been unfortunate if I fell into the glacier with all my insurance details on me.
After brekkie and packing, I left a contact card and photo on the guest house notice board for posterity and we left ABC. The morning was glorious and the world´s healthiest hound, the ABC dog, trotted with us up to MBC. The streams were still frozen on the surface and some sun soaked frosty grasses were thawing. Today´s descent was surprisingly rapid as we went past Deurali just after 10am and had lunch at Bamboo! We spent the night in Sinuwa (that´s one days descent = 2 days ascent!!). A lot of the trekkers we were with at ABC were having problems with their joints, especially knees and ankles, a notorious effect of rapid descents with shocks to the limbs. So some stayed at guest houses further up.
The weather transformed as we entered the woods below Deurali and it started drizzling. We didn´t need to get our waterproofs on but the evening at Sinuwa was gnashingly cold. Amir sadistically announced that tonights shower will be frozen hot and so it was as there was not enough sunlight to get the panels going and heat the water. I felt so cold that, to everyone´s amazement, I started washing some of my clothes! It was not very wise as they didn't dry fast enough so I turned my backpack into a mobile washing line the following day.
K.
No comments:
Post a Comment