Up the Annapurnas

Annapurna Circuit Trek
1 - 21 days

Preparation : Small rucksack as not taking a porter or guide. I will have to carry everything.
Water Bottle
Compass - didnt use
Hemp oil / Himalayan salt - to add flavour
small shampoo - clean air so wont get too grimey
One long trouser / one short
One t-shirt
one long yoga pant - for cold weather and to wear in bed
two fleece
one water / wind proof jacket
one water / wind proof trousers
boots
3 socks
one head to toe rain cover
gloves
one long sleeve top

Forgot : Knife (on hind sight didnt need)

Bus Pokhara to BhulBule - 5 hrs 300 rs

Inauspicious - I'm the only westerner on the bus.
Auspicious - found walking stick on ground outside registration office - for me?
Auspicious - see 3 / 4 porters for a group - staying in Bhulbhule so they'll be behind me.
Auspicious - i'm no 8 to start the circuit today so a few people in front of me.

Day 1 Bhulbhule - Nagdi 1 hr (following 6 hrs on bus)
Hotel in corn fields on bank of River - only sound is that of the river. Have shower in concrete and corrugated iron shack and lose my soap down the plug - no way i was gonna put my hand down there.. Hey ho. Only me here. I chose this hotel as all women - the men are working in Dubai.

Day 2 Nagdi - Chyamche
6am blue sky. Warm and sunny. Little nervous - alone in the mountains. Decided to take it day by day - if i dont meet up with others, I can alwyas come back. (terrible thought). Will walk 3 hrs to Bahundanda for breakfast.
This is how the Crooked Nepali's work : Stop at village and i'm offered water - didnt really need it but it was offered to me for 30 rupees (30p) so ok. Open top and pour into my water bottle. When i go to pay for it its suddenly 50 rupees ... cheating *(&^%*@.

Police check at Bahundanda say x3 people 1/2 hr ahead of me. This encourages me - although the walk alone in total silence is blissful. I only meet the odd hill villager - mainly women.

Lost my stick already. pooh.
Shoulder in lot of Pain
Huge cricket landed on my t-shirt - eerrrr scream. Villages laughing at me.

Stop for water stop just before Jargot and meet Katmandu man (ugh) walking circuit - i walked 5 mins with him but Nepali's just dont know about space awareness - i had to ask him to walk ahead of me as i was constantly having to slow down or speed up to stop him walking into me. Dumped him asap.

Met x2 portugeuse on honeymoon having lunch in Jargot so walked with them for last part of my day. 8 hrs walking.

Day 3 Chyamche - Tal - Danakye

2 blisters
right shoulder in great pain
Aching all over but mainly sore feet
Sighting : French man and guide in hotel opposite
Right knee slight pain
Upset tummy too
using Purification tablets in water now (bottle water too expensive from here)
7am clear cool morning walk alone to Tal for Breakfast - food terrible at my guest house.

After breakfast walk with French man and Guide to Danakye. Crossing over the river they're building a road and we walked over the dynamite - before they blew up the rock face - SOOOOOO glad i'm walking this now - next year it'll be ruined wiht sound of jeeps and buses.

8 hrs walking

Guest house has TV - can you believe it - had to ask them to turn it off.
Hot Shower

Day 4 Danakyu - Chame

4 blisters - sore sore feet
Hips ache now
Starting to ascend now 2300m - 2670m
Much cooler now
Walking with French man Guillem & guide.
V. v.v..v steep up hill for 1 1/2 hrs.
OMG i had to eat a Mars Bar to keep me going. wait for the after effects of this .. must be first one in about 10 years.
I cant believe i wore a white T-Shirt - its now many different shades of grime and sandy brown . Doh! As arrived at hotel with guide - my hotel bills suddenly double - so i tried to have conversation with the guide and why he didnt just let me know this rather than think i wouldnt notice - e.jit. He couldnt get over the fact that i challenged him so things became a little tense.

Day 5 Chame 2670m - Pisang 3200m

Walked alone as Nepali guide too much of a *(*$#@ for me to bear any longer - they dont like the fact that women travel alone (not paying guide or porter) and that I saw his scam also.

Met up with a spanish couple from Barcelona with no guide and walked very slowly with them to lucnh spot - met up with French man and his guide and also another French man and his guide - very serious older one - again problems - didnt like us being there. No wonder Nepal is not at peace - the locals cant even walk up a hill together... All the westerners loved meeting up with each other and walking together but the Nepali's couldnt bear it. As leave lunch - meet two English guys from Newcastle and walk with them - one of them has more blisters than me and was walking with flip flops and socks - ha hahahahhaha - great look. But such great guys - they'd come under the bad vibes of Nepali guides also - so when we reached Pisang and were told we were'nt welcome at same hotel - we walked up to Upper Pisang - Unbelieveable...

Migraine. - little altitude sickness or mars bar effects ? couldnt get warm.
Raining.

Day 6 Upper Pisang - Manang 3660m

Feel ok.
Blue sky.
Hands little puffy.
Lungs feel more open.
leave about 8.30am and walk most beautiful route - all otheres took the lazy lower route. But they knew what we didnt - sheer Up up up up about 500m yikes. Took it very slowly - Andy got sick cos of running up the hill before b'fast so it was good for me that it was super slow. All abit lethargic / head pressure ish at lunch Nawal 3660m. We went a bit off piste as they maps are terrible - we werent even sure we were walking up the right hill - but about 1 hr later we rounded the 26th corner and saw a village - such relief...
Reached Manang about 5pm - really really tired. but happy.

Day 7 Manang 3340m

Rest day - just wandered around - blue skies, ate well. Jo met a Nepali man who offered to show him to a great restaurant with local prices - it turned out to be his home - but he got to watch the footie and have a cuppa tea so he was happy.

Day 8 Manang - Tilicho Lake

The boys wanted to go to Tilicho - I didnt as would take an extra day and my mind was starting to play on the fact that every day further i went towards the High Pass - meant an extra day i'd have to walk back if i couldnt take to the altitude. But they were fun to be with so i went. - They were looking for a hotel a friend of theirs had said to find as a man there would tell them if the base camp would be open... We could have asked in Manang but that would have been too easy.

We took the - local path - more beautiful - but harder. OMG! across land slide rock faces, across the river, up sheer v steep hill to one village with no one there - up up up up up up up - all ok but there's no way someones gonna build a hotel this high - about 3pm we see it - about 500m below us - mmmmm we have to scramble through little prickly bushes about 1 hr to get down. By this time - i'm over hungry and tired and there's no way i can walk an extra 2 hrs to get to base camp - it would've taken 2 hrs if we'd taken the normal route... I have a fit and decide to stay at the half built new hotel - the boys eat and leave.

Asking for shower get told - No shower - ok. Get given the smelliest blanket also.
Ask for guide to take me the short cut the next day to Yak Charker - only 4 hrs or so.
My mind is now really freaking out about the altitude and making the 5.500m crossing - i'm feeling really sick, heart is having palpitations and im alone in a hotel in the middle of no where with 5 Nepali men. try to breathe - no sleep comes - just releif as soon as its dawn. In the morning all the men are really sweet - what was all the fuss about.

Day 9 : Tilicho Hotel - Yak Kharke

Set off with guide Murty and make the super gorgeous walk up up up up up anddown down down down - First sighting of the lovely Yak - they're a bit shy. I'm told i see Blue Sheep - they're more like deer -and not near enough for me to see if they're really blue.
I cant believe the boys will find this route on their own - but they did.

Meet up with the entire group and all their guides and porters and also Pokhara guide Kamal and one US man Dan.


Day 10 : Yak Kharke - Phedi 4,500m

Blisters still hurt
Lips are really chapped and cut
Heady / sinusy / bit worried about Altitude Sickness
No shower since day 3 I think
I'm a bit grubby
Running v low in money

The mountains are like dead dinosaurs pulling us in - not wanting us to leave them alone.

Set off behind the porters so i have someone to follow - the group are about 1/2 hr behind me. really pleasant walk - blue sky, chilly wind at times.

Chat to all at hotel and walk up half way to high base camp about just to acclimatise.
Phedi is like the end of the dark pscological journey - all the mountains form a circle around us with the river at the bottom - one way is a ten day walk aback the other is a further 1000m climb to the pass at 5.500m - about 3 1/2 hrs - but the steepness can be v. dangerous - sooooo much fear mongering.

At dinner the boys arrive - so glad to see them - although i've arranged to walk over the pass with the guide Kamal and US Doctor Dan (for safety). Also at dinner i decided to take an altitude sickness tablet (just in case) and to ensure I made it - there was NO Way i was going to walk back 10 days... had not enough money to do that either. You can take a pony over - but again you need money for this.

Go to bed and i wake up at midnight with the worse allergic reaction to the tablet - the noisiest ringing in my ears. Diarreah. heart palpitations. head pains - So much fear that this will prevent me from walking.... breath breathe breathe...


Day 11 Phedi 4.500m - Thorong Pass 5.500m
(onehundred less than Kilimanjaroo I think)

I wake up at 3.30am to noise of everyone getting ready. The guide has not knocked on my door - why not... breakfast at 4am... leaving 4.30am . Its dark and everyone has a head torch - except me - i just brought a torch from a Christmas Cracker - its crap but small and enough for what i've needed so far. we walk so silently one behind the other - I'm soooo tired and its really difficult to breathe - i make it to high base camp. But i'm really cold . I'm wearing everything i brought yet my bag is really heavy - but i do have to carry two litres of water.

next 500m are agony and seem to take forever - my camera has run out of battery - a bit like me - but i just take it foot by foot - not even step by step... The guide Kamal stays with me and Dan leads everyone - very competitive... The boys are still in bed. I'm given raw garlic and told to chew it and have to keep stopping to drink water. Feel like i'm going to have a heart attack - so much pain - but no altitude sickness feeling - just heart pain - what comes of low blood pressure perhaps ?? Finally the prayer flags and pole and everyone come into view.

The police men, check point table and chair , which they carried up to register us !!! nutters are all set out and everyone is cheering and taking photos - we all made it - one person is slower than me and still coming up but she'll get there.

The Descent Pure Relief.

Now 2000m down - no cafes or water on the way - just eagles, eagles huge eagles - eating a dead donkey and jumping around. Walking at altitude seems to not affect my muscles - just my breathing.
The boys caught us up as we were having lunch about 500m above Muktinath. They had no trouble.

Day 12 - Muktinath - Kagbeni

True to form - Nepali's are so like Indian's - 5.30am - two women standing outside my bedroom window - shouting at each other as they stand side by side - I had to ask them to move.

Visit to Muktinath Temples - entire body fine - survived what i'd put it through.
Super windy walk to Kagbeni - probably the most auhentic village so far.

Up in the mountains the villages have turned into tourist areas with hotels and cafes for the trekkers - here in Kagbeni real life - harvesting, inbreadness, madness of people was more open.

Andy and Jo arrive at our hotel and boys all watch England v US - i'm toooo tired. and do we stand any chance ???????

Day 13 Kagbeni - Jomson - Ghasa

Windier walk - most boring walk of all along the river bed - v. grumpy today- no breakfast as fed up of paying for the worst porridge , packet bread faking it as fresh toast, so i'm really tired and hungry as i walk the 3 hrs to Jomson. and the ATM, the bus - to take me back to paradise Pokhara. Only not today - had lunch and find out the bus only goes at 4pm if enough people - otherwise maybe a jeep.

I sit and wait and wait - the others are flying.

Eventually a jeep leaves - the road is not a road and we go slowly bumping along - crossing the river - its too deep and water sprays high and then floods the engine so we stop... Luckily the driver gets us going - but kicks us out when a bus comes near - have to stand for about an hr along the so called road till i Get to Ghasa - i'm thinking that maybe i'll stay on another 3 hrs to place called Beni - but when get passed hotel area I decide i'm too tired to go another 3 hrs on a bus so walk back up the hill to Ghasa hotel. Was given tiny wood panelled room but they had fresh bread and stale cheese ! cant have everything can we. (3 1/2 hrs)

Day 14 Ghasa - Beni (3 1/2hrs) - Pokhara (3 hrs)

Walk to wait at bus stand about 7.30am - just in case a bus decides to go. I'm in luck it'll take me to Tatopani. NO - its going all the way to Beni - 3 hrs - 500rs - completely rip off but at this stage i dont care - just want to get back to have a shower nad clean clothes and burn these awful trekking clothes.

Beni - Pokhara - this was a touch and go situation - end of the season - it was possible that maybe there wouldnt be a bus - so the Nepali's twits tell me - they love to spread fear.... Anyway as soon as i got off the bus i was appraochd by man offering taxi to Pokhara (tempting but not at 2000 rs 20 quid). And bus at 200 rs - get on the bus... HURRAYAYAYAYAYAYYAYAAY Sooooooo happyy. The buses here are like personal taxi service - picking up large sacks / barrels from outside people's houses, we stopped at a temple and half the bus got off for a blessing. Constant stopping for Men to have a pee - they cant wait more than an hr. and the Driver stops to chat to every vehicle that passes.

But when I saw the lake of Pokhara from high up on the Sarangkot hill the frown started to fade from my face.