Snow Hill Lodge Pokhara

... after having to dock in a little cove for a pitstop.... it was much easier to just sit back and take in the scenery while someone else did the hard work. The weather cooled down quickly and the clouds blocking the mountain range started to descend over the lake, distorting the view.

With hindsight we should have planned to spend longer here as it's quiet and less touristy than Kathmandu despite being one of the biggest trekking ...

... usual afternoon nap, rose started talking to a dutch couple who we'd end up staying with on most of our nights at the various lodges up the route. Their guide kind of adopted us which was cool because we had someone to ask if we needed anything (he even ordered our food for us)but didn't have to either pay for it or have to walk with them for the entire duration, worked out quite well. During the evening we spent most of the time watching a singing and dancing performance from the ...

As promised I just had to say something about these amazing animals!! It is probably fair to say I became somewhat obsessed with getting a decent photo or two, but it seems no matter how many I took nothing could really capture their qualities. However, you will have to just look through them and decide for yourself.

I have added some captions to most of them to point out some of their features. I should also say that the ...

The morning was really nice (the weather is good and stable - it's really good for the conditions at the pass!) - the rising sun warmed the room, and I was able to stay in bed playing with the laptop (usually this is not possible - the fingers are freezing fast). I found myself counting the days till the end of the trek, I'm not sure it's a good sign...
In any case it seems like there are three more days for the Annapurna I trail ...

... Chame is a lovely village , we stayed at the Himalayen Lodge. They were getting it blessed by the local buddist monk when we arrived, but i'm affraid it didn't make it any warmere so we bought some extremely attractive fleecy "long johns" and hoped for the best.



DAY 5 ...

... time when I tell you body left I want you to cross right leg over left and when I say body right cross left leg over right." No problem I think this must be a technique for descent. Wrong! The first body left I don't manage to get my leg crossed over because the camera is hanging down from neck between my legs. I then get strip tore off of me because I didn't get my leg crossed over. I tuck the camera into the side of my body and we start into a series of body lefts ...

... of food poisoning for Ben Kunz, the first few days were an absolute joy.

Although the Annapurna Circuit has many days of high elevation hiking between 10K to 17K feet, the start and ends of the trek are at relatively low elevations and follow lush deep river gorges.


Lush ...

La nuit était froide et nous n'avions pensé à demander des couvertures....David se lève à 5h pour aller au petit coin et en me retrouvant dans mon sac de couchage toujours bon chaud, on constate que deux corps humains produisent plus de chaleur qu’un seul. Nous mangeons une minuscule portion de Muesli – pour faire de l’argent sur le Annapurna trek, on peut faire de deux manières : Soit on augmente les prix à des montants astronomiques, soit ...

... esforc, mentre que maniobrar el parapent amb el vent que bufa a aquelles alcades fa posar la pell de gallina quan no fa regirar l'estomac. Es sens dubte una experiencia increible, pero en surto poc ansios de tornar a repetirl-la.

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After so many days trekking, I have my energy decimated to a point that I don't feel like exploring Pokhara and its surroundings, but to chill out for one day so I end up signing up for a tandem paragliding flight that ...

... place next to the monastary while George le chien waited for us outside. A few hours later under the rain we reached Deboche (12172 feet = 3750 meters), a very cute little "town" made of three of four houses. That was a short day. We played Spades with Pemba and Dawa (without them cheating) while eating Springles. Lots of Springles...
With us at the lodge were a few Russian climbers who came down to get some rest and some thicker air before returning to Base Camp in a ...