Hotel Grand Holiday Pokhara

... began by making sure that we all felt comfortable being upside down in our kayaks and then releasing ourselves from the boat. This was all very familiar to me as I had done this in sea kayaks previously. We went on to how you could signal when upside down so that another kayak could come in and help you get upright. This is called a “T” rescue. Again I had experienced this when sea kayaking so at this point I was feeling fairly confident. However, it went ...

... have taken ages on foot. We saw some deer that were way bigger than i imagined. Then we were riding through a clearing and from behind a bush a rhino charged out right for our elephant so being the brave adventurer i am i almost **** myself, but the rhino backed down when he realized he was charging a freaking elephant. So we followed the rhino round for a bit, probably annoying it. They are so weird to look at, kind of like its built in sections as its armour has distinct areas to it.
Pokhara, Nepal indiaken

... Passons de bons rapides de niveau 3+, plus gros que ceux que j'ai faits avant, mais plus de calme entre les rapides. Au bout d'une heure nous arretons dejeuner sur une plage, salade de choux, fromage, pain, salade de riz au thon (que j'ai pas mange bien sur) et banane. Et ptit bedo pour D et moi, histoire de se preparer a la suite. Puis nettoyons nos assiettes dans le sable puis dans la riviere.Miam.
Remettons nos vestes et gilets tout mouilles et c'est reparti ...

... the more remote teahouses - banana pancakes, apple pie and chow mein seem to be common for some reason. And of course, I've tried some unusual local specialties along the way (freshly killed buffalo, tea with yak butter, some oddly named fruits, etc.)

After a 9-hour jeep ride on a dirt road yesterday (16 people in 1 jeep!), I'm finally back in Pokhara and relative comfort. Relaxing today by the lake, then back to Kathmandu and on to Singapore to meet Aimee!

... but we did it well.
In the fact there are two lakes a small one, and then a little bit further a bigger one - and both are iced. Mark proposed to try and walk on the ice, which I rejected utterly... for the first lake. But walking to the second one I thought that probably it could be a nice idea. Which we executed!
In the evening I was exposed to the most Israeli behaviour - talks about the army. Here Barak - an IDF officer, I ...

... internal organs back where they should be when he asks "Are you okay!" I think I'm alive and say, "Yes" I can be such an idiot at times. He takes this as cue to go again and we start back into the body lefts and rights and we get rocking again. After surviving the first go around the second one was a bit easier but I had know idea why we were doing what we were doing. We paid for a half hour flight but we got 45 or 50 minutes time to come into for a landing. I see Stefan ...

... and another suspension bridge!


Looking back down the valley in early morning in Bahundanda, where we spent our first night.


Ben and Greg sharing a moment


A local, lovingly scratching his water buffalo behind the chin. Because many people in Nepal are Hindu, cows are ...

Nous mangeons notre habituel porridge du matin, mais le thé « gratuit » n'arrive jamais. Nous soupçonnons la vengeance de la petite soeur punaise qui hier lors du marchandage avait farouchement refusé cette gratuité mais qui avait finalement du se plier lorsque sa mère avait accepté. Nous la laissons dans sa petite victoire bénigne, remercions les deux autres soeurs à la cuisine et partons pour une nouvelle journée de rando.

Nous ...

... still suffering.

Our top tip on drinks has to be hot lemon and ginger tea; it got us through the evening which led to another good nights sleep.

Day 5

4th November 2009

Chromrong (2170m) to Dobhan (2600m)

We’re now on the only path up to Annapurna Base Camp, ABC! This was the day when we reached both our mental and physical barrier, what a hard day. Neither of us has walked this far never mind the fact that we went up and ...

Waking up and packing was hard. I never struggled that much to get my sleeping bag into it's little plastic cover. It took me 10 minutes and had to stop to catch my breath. I was tired from the day before, from the little sleep I got because of my decision to stay up late and from the simple effort of pushing that damn down sleeping bag into that stupid plastic bag!!!!
Breakfast was awesome and little Johnny and Eugene joined us which was really nice of them ...