Annapurna Circuit - Day 18 - The End
Trip Start
Jul 25, 2006
1
132
165
Trip End
Ongoing
Naya Pul,
Nepal
Monday, May 26, 2008
Total Kilometres: 211 kilometres Today: 11
On the last day of the trek, in honour of us actually walking the entire circuit and not wussing out and taking a jeep from Beni, the Himalayan gods smiled and gave us a beautiful start to the day. From Ghorepani in the pre-dawn light we could clearly see Dhaulagiri, the 7th highest mountain in the world, as the rays from the rising sun first lit the ridges, then the face. It was beautiful and almost made the climb the day before and the 4 a.m. wake up worth it. I had caught a glimpse of the hulking Annapurna South at around 3 a.m., but by 4 it was already clouding over fast.
Back at the guesthouse, Anna and Peter, and Matt and I ate a breakfast of slimy but tasty porridge and got an early start. Leaving the guesthouse, we took the first of many steps down, down, down. The early part of the walk was quite nice, a forest trails with lots of waterfalls and donkey trains, and the ground was generally soft. Around the town of Ulleri, this changed into stone steps, lots of them. Over 3280 of the fuckers.
The rest of the day was a haze of going down and down. Anna, Pete, and Matt were kind and occasionally stopped to wait for me. I would usually slump onto a stone platform for a few moments, and then struggle up, muttering something like "Come on you lazy bastards" to them under my breath. The scenery was beautiful, but I was fixated on finishing and didn't take many photos.
Morning Mountain Madness 01
In the last 45 minutes of the trek, it began to rain.Finally we walked out to Naya Pul, the ending point of the trek. I was moving slowly and told Matt and the others to negotiate a taxi for us if they arrived first. They moved ahead with a small group while I finished the trek the same way I started - slowly and with grandeur - well, slowly anyway. A young girl coming back from school spotted me, recognized me as the weakest gazelle in the herd, and zeroed in on me. The last 10 minutes of my trek consisted of her trying to steal everything on me she could grab and asking me for money and sweets as first her mother died, and then, sadly, shortly after when this did not elicit enough pity, her father also.
I climbed the last steep ascent to the paved road, and we all tumbled into a taxi (me in the front - wait, was that a last fat comment on their part?). Our driver pushed his old beat up taxi as much as he could (about the pace of a sick yak), and took great pleasure playing chicken with busses and trucks, often leaving inches between us and a hurtling bus coming the other way.
Finally after an hour or so, we were back in Pokara. Despite the incredibly sore feet, the heavy rain soaked pack, the inappropriate shoes, part of me wanted to be back out on the trek, carrying my life on my back and seeing incredible sights.
Then I put my weight down on my feet as I got out to the taxi and I realized that I was an idiot.
That night, Matt and Pia, and Anna and Pete and I met at the New Everest Steak House. The carnage that followed after 18 days of dhal bhat and no meat was impressive.
I did everything wrong, but I did it.
Comments
congratulations
you did it, and i knew you would. you're a star!