Annapurna: Days one - four

Forward:

I'm not sure how to go about blogging this. It's been so long, so much has happened, we're just not communicating like we used to! Ok, I need to calm down, collect my thoughts and tell you about this Mother of a trek because that is what it was, the Mother of the Nepal treks.

Let us be honest. Lifa and I didn't know what we were getting into. We knew the trek was long, we knew it was hard, we knew a day would come when we would curse the Himalayan mountains for ever being born but what we did not know the degrees to which each of these aspects would come into play. The following is a melange of what happened in somewhat chronological order and grouped into geographical clumps. Why? Because that's the way I like it. And, although Laura's entries may contain more detail, mine have lots of pictures because a pictures says a thousand words and that way I don't have to write them








Bhulbhule, Bahundanda, Chamche, Bagarchhap

Our journey started off from the big KMD where we and our porter Nirpa took a bus to Besishahar, checked in with the Annapurna conservation office and hopped another terrifying and incredibly slow rooftop bus ride to the start of the trail on a road which made those of Bodhgaya look like silk. A short hike later we were resting in our first tea house, purifying water, and enjoying some dal bhat (the Nepali staple food. An 8am start the next morning and we were off enjoying the scenic river and waterfall views, little villages, and beautiful jungly forests inter spaced with fields, snotty children, donkeys, and goats. Loving the Nepali lifestyle and loving the walking stick we invested in in KMD. After some intense uphill action for a few hours we were hot, very sweaty and ready to chill out in our on the hill lodge when we hit up some more dal and met some other Canadians - from VanCity. This isn't so bad... this isn't so bad. Day three took us up, and down, and up. and down. and up and down again for the whole day. Nepali flat they like to call it. Notable mentions were the delicious Dal we had in Tal and the fact that now it's getting a little nippy in the evenings as we climb elevation and get further into the mountains, paying off the Maoists 1500rps to let up by their checkpoint, climbing over the occasional landslide and the fact that we are now official in the middle of nowhere and it's strange being so isolated - no communication, barely electricity, and really, there's no one here.

Overall we're trekking at a good speed, and leaders of our little "pack" anyway. The others may have speed but we have endurance and always end up at the destination village first. You tend to see the same groups on the trail, so you get to know who everyone is... and of course we make up life stories for everyone. There's a lot of time to think while trekking - you've got to come up with some fun games and makeshift drama to keep it exciting.