Long Way Around Annapurna
Loading Map
Pokhara,
Nepal
Thursday, May 29, 2008
A long hiatus since I was last able to write, but I've been on a long hike. I arrived in Nepal and immediately joined a group of travelers for an 18 day traverse of the Annapurna circuit. This trail covers 212 km around, literally, the Annapurna range. It is arguably the most famous trek in the Himalaya and is re-known for its beauty as much as its charm. Charm? Yes charm. Unlike the trek through Bhutan which covered untouched back country and required tents and portage of food, the Annapurna circuit follows the ancient but still active trade routes between the high country villages. The walk brings you amongst mule trains carrying goods fr sale and trade between adjacent villages, locals collecting water from the rivers and children crossing valleys on their way to school. In sum you are sharing the paths that enable these communities to exist. That feeling of walking amongst the Nepalis as they go about the activities they have completed for hundreds of years is what I mean by "charm".
The journey began with a white knuckle road trip from Kathmandu to the trial head in Besi Sahar. There are several "interesting" political developments in Nepal at the moment. Namely the election of a Maoist government and their demands that the King's position be eliminated (this was announced by parliament during my time in the country). The precarious political transition saw a few protests in Kathmandu but more visibly manifested n a run on oil. As a result, our 5 hour journey by bus took approximately 8 hours as we stopped at every gas station hoping for a miracle. We eventually ran out of gas n a petrol station parking lot. When we had sat there for about 40 minutes an attendant came over an pumped a few litres, then walked away. 20 more minutes of waiting and a few more litres were added. The details of this cat and mouse waiting game escape me, but somehow we manged to wait our way to a partially full tank that was able to carry us to Besi Sahar. I imagine this what it was like to be in the use at points in the 1970s.
I think careen, rather than carry, is a more appropriate way of describing the method of transport. The bus was traveling on a narrow "two lane road that hugged winding cliffs of the Himalayan foothills. The sheer walls looked like they could be a disaster during the heavy rains of the monsoon and therefore had large cement channels flanking the road. The channels were perfectly designed for moving lots of water to prevent the road from washing out in a landslide. They as served as perfect places for cars to run off the road and end up totaled. At 3 feet deep and 4 feet wide with no grates or barriers these channels looked more like death traps than anything else. The ability of the mind to find danger in normally safe activities while traveling is huge. We've all had thoughts that make us look like hypochondriacs: is the water clean, is the food prepared hygienically, am I going to get rabies from that dog. When the side of the road is littered with the carnage of destroyed trucks, buses and cars that got too close to the channels than the irrational fears of a traveler become hard to keep at bay. You watch the road with heightened anxiety, scanning the interior of the bus to scope your best escape route from what you are sure is an impending crash.
But the crash never came and 12 trekkers, 4 guides and 6 porters arrived n Besi Sahar. The hike covered altitude from a stating point of 700 m above sea level to a maximum of 5417 m at the Thorung La pass. We began in the jungle, climbed through deciduous and rhododendron forest, into high alpine valleys, above the tree line, into the snows and eventually over the pass into the desert like Upper Mustang region (an extension of the Tibetan plateau). Towns ranged in size from a few people to a few thousand. Low land Hindu villages gave way to high elevation Buddhist enclaves. The changes in religion were mirrored by the change in ethnicity, with the Buddhist villages being populated by Tibetan refugees having fed across the "Chinese" border during the fighting that followed annexation in the late 1950s.
The scenery was unimaginable. Impossibly narrow valleys (much more narrow than Bhutan) of terraced farmland made fertile by the runoff of innumerable waterfalls gushing from the mountains. These waters eventually cascaded down to the surging Marseyangdi river. Continually climbing for the fist 111 days the lush lowland became more sever and barren, with views of the 25,000 to 28,000 foot peaks of the Annapurna emerging. The yak herding camps of Yak Kharka and Thorung Phedi saw temperatures drop below freezing and snows dust the landscape before a 5000 foot descent from nearly 18000 feet brought us to the deserts of Muktinath. The mighty Kaligandaki river (the black waters associated with Shiva's destructive nature) drains these valleys. The river and flanking peaks make the deepest gorge on the planet where 8000m ranges plunge down to the river bed. It is a hike of such amazing variety that I can not fathom another region on the planet that could rival it on this metric.
For better or worse, progress is a fact in these hills. The paths between villages are being expanded and have become wide enough in some regions to accommodate motor bikes and 4x4s. Trekkers have had the luxury of being able to access the pedestrian life lines between villages since they were open to travelers some 35 years ago. Now "development" has given some of the towns the ability to expand and introduce vehicles. From the perspective of an outdoors enthusiast it is heartbreaking. The peace and beauty leading over the worlds highest pass is all but shattered when greeted by the sound of an idling motorbike in Muktinath. The new road to Jomson looks like a scar against the protected forest of the Annapurna Sanctuary. This road was not there 10 years ago and the 15 vehicles that have arrived by helicopter will surely expand dramatically in the next 10 years.
The few regions, and admittedly it is still on small patches with this type of development, were motor transport has arrived will grow. Trekkers will not want to travel across the world to share a road with an SUV. For this reason alone I fear what is going to happen to the circuit. The towns that dot the trail have changed their ways of life to cash in on the tourist dollars. Tea houses, restaurants and souvenir shops can be seen in every town. If the money that these created allowed for the development of the infrastructure that allowed for the introduction of motorized vehicles, it will be heartbreaking to see the demise of the towns if the tourist dollars dry up due to over development. At the end of an amazing walk in the Himalaya my advise is this: go now, before the path is lined with cars slapped with bumper stickers that proudly announce "This car trekked the Annapurna Circuit".
