5 days up..

  Annapurna Base Camp, Nepal
Monday, November 5, 2007

DAY1, an early start was needed, we taxi'd it to our starting point the small hamlet in the lower hills of Naya-Pul. We were even luckly enough to catch a glimse of the fish-tail of machhapuchhre whilst we were sandwiched in the underpowered suzuki. The mountain is monster anywhere else in the world, but mearly a pup here, standing at 6993m..

The driver was paid, and we head through the village, plastic covers were purchased (our Nepali guide went off and got one, so I quickly followed suit, I'd heard do as the guide/sherpa does - early rises, late breakfasts, slow stepping the hills, and munch your way through as many dal-batt lunchs as possible, oh and very early to bed!) for the bags, so that if we incounted any bad weather the gear couple be kept resonsibly dry. Breakfast was ordered at the first lodge we came upon and then an hr later dispatched to us (something we were to get used to over the forcoming days - everything is cooked up fresh at the lodges along the route, so if you want to get going it's easier to all order the samething, or even better the local dish, dal-batt.. rice, lentils and usually a vegatable curry - i love them, but most people get bored of them quickly) was funny though, the owner gave us a pen and pad to write the order, so we did clearly in bold, capital letters.. he then returned, asked us to confirm what was what, then he attempted to translate it to his wife (the cook) and then got the order confused, so we interveded and relisted the items! oh dear we thought.. gonna be a pain all the way up.. but the reverse was true, the food was great, all freshly and lovingly prepared! We got the impression that the nationwide unrest was having a big impact on tourism, so perhaps these lodges were just a bit out of practice!

So, all packed and feed we headed out.. twisting paths and flowing rivers were followed, and then about 10 minutes later into our adventure we were stop!

donations..

the god darn commy's were in our way! the maoist stopped our path and request a donation for their revolution.. ("You rebel scum.." kept pinging through my head)

but yeah, lol.. I was gonna get a chairman mao tee-shirt in china and give it to them, but I never got around to it! shame, would have been funny to see their faces.. they were a nice bunch, don't think I've ever met a real battle harden overthrowing governments commy before! The 800 rupees they took of each of us wasn't to much fun either.. about 10 US dollars, But it's for a good cause! hah ha.. yeah right.. we did get a reciept though, so we could show to the next bunch who stop us..

funnier still was the local dance troop 2 minutes up the road, they cornered us off and refused to let us past untill we cough'd up some money! never thought a bunch of dance girls could be more agressive than the commy's!

Hills, hills and more hills greeted us.. then in the distance a white top range of mountains! what had we been thinking when we talked ourselves into doing this trip! The villages of the lower valleys entertained us on the first morning off the trip, whilst the sun beat down we soaked up the warmth of the people and distracted ourselves untill the first hill hit us!

up, up, up.. they never end, step after step.. winding and turning, twisting along the lines of the hills, in and out of the rice fields, through the landslides, and over the house sized boulders..

Gandrok was our first overnight stop on route, the hotel milan (a lodge with an owner in a Milan football managers/dug out jacket - most amusing)

But the food was good, the showers were warm and the rooms more than comfortable! what was all the worry about! heh he, then the only other resident of the hotel opened his mouth, an american who had just come backdown, looked like he had a tuff time of it, getting food poising on route, his friends leaving him and then still struggling on up the valley to ABC, no hot showers for 6 days, freezing cloudy conditions at the main annapurna basecamp.. luggin 20kilos of backpack around with him.. what more could you ask for from the conversation on your first night trekking! Greeeeat! cheers mate.. lol


DAY2, Ghandruk to Chhomnrong..
This day blurred at the edges, we stop on the ridge of the hill after Ghandruk and looked down upon the task ahead, a drop into the valley, across to streams and up and over a major landslide on the other side, then around the gradient to Chhomrong. Down and down we went, leg shaking under the strain of continually pressing at a shape angle. We reached the bottom and stop for a well earned break, lucky the lodges continued to cook on a delayed bases, so we were fortuned a 2hr rest to prepare for the climb ahead. Which was never ending, we eventually got to the top and did not remain to long upon the breach of the avalanche. Chhomrong was but half an hour away and we took our time in reaching it with aching limbs. The friendly Chhomrong cottage was our target for the night as recommend by Chris Beale from the KTM slideshow. The owner was also the local school teacher and tempted us with western delights of pizza, chocolate cake and 'mountain view rooms'. We clocked our last hot shower and slept heavy after a long day.. well I did, the girl discovered a rather large spider hiding out in a corner of their room! "sweet dreams!" ;)



DAY3, Chhomnrong to Bamboo..
The morning came and our "mountain view" bedrooms filled with light, and the clear skies up the valley around enchanted us from the sung wants of our sleep, it was half 6 when I grab the camera, my trousers and jacket a headed for the forecourt, machhapuchhre and south annapurna were out on full panoramic display..

Amazing view, I just wished I had the camera skills to capture the time sensitive moment in a wider and more dramatic fashion!

annapurna south..

The Japanese circus was also out performing, 2 cameras plus associated tripods.. video camera's, bleary-eyes and chirpy porters rushing around rearranging things for him.. I really wanted to take him home with me, he was such a character! We had the same conversation as the night before.. presume the whiskey was too much for him..

Anyhow, down we went again, Chhomrong stretched out for maybe half a mile on the hillside and dip drastically into the river banks either side of it, the stone steps were hard going here in the town (the locals cared for the infrastructure greatly as it was the life blood of the town), so neat and tidy, no half steps just the same unrelenting rhythm plodding all the way down to the bridge that crossed another stream leading down to the Modi Khola river.

We stopped and rested at the bottom, my cold un-stretched quads stiffened and were trouble to get going again (I guess the route over all was laid out like this by the travel agency, chuck a couple of big ups and down in a the beginning whilst the air is still fairly thick as to toughen up the body of the tourist for the higher reaches)

But as luck would have it, a patrol of sherpa's (maybe - but defiantly porters) from the exodus.co.uk firm went marching past, I just dove-tailed on to the back of their procession and stepped in line and rhythm with them. It all became so simple, although their loads far exceeded my 10-12kilos, (I heard that they carry between 15-25 kg as a standard single payment, but can also can carry from 30-50kg for double money, an astounding level of fitness and endurance given that most are around 5'6" in height and probably only weigh 50-60kg) they paced me for the next hr or so, and it was just what I needed, slow smaller steps taking the more gradual lines of the path, not the direct far reacting straighter angles..

steping in line..

if there were minor steps on the side of the path or a stone on a step in front they would wind their way to taking it, going side ways at some point to give them that easier step. It gave me such hope and inspiration after the previous days of hard work and struggle.. I even passed our guide as he had stopped for a rest break, I wasn't even out of breathe! Guessing that "the tortoise and the hair" story had some bases in Nepal..

Bamboo was reached with relative easy after the rival bank on the opposite side to Chhomrong was conquered!

Although, we didn't know it at the time (we did suspect though) that our guide (of 7 years trekking experience) had picked up a dose of food poisoning from the last lodge.. some random visits occurred on the last leg from the tea stop of Sniwua "I go to the jungle now!" and his backpack was placed down and off he would stroll.. guessing in was yakkin' up the whole way and didn't want to lose face infront of this clients.

He crashed out and got half way through a bowl of soup that night.. but we had succesed in finishing the days effort by 12 noon and were keen and willing to move on up ahead of the schedule, but decided to wait and rest Hasta.




DAY4 Bamboo to Deorali..
Having spent the night in warmth around the kerosene heater (at a cost of 40 rupees per person) and listening to tail of the other trekker, most of whom were coming down from the top (all in the same day down to bamboo), we monitored Hasta's recuperation and watched as he got half way through a bowl of soup and then retired for the evening at 6pm (not an unusual time for trekking, we were averaging half 7-8 for bedtime).

hasta..

An another early start and another up hill day awaited, we left at our usual after 8 time, we always planned for 7-7thirty but this never ever happened! We ventured out and I forget the details precisely but the weather was heavy, my cough started to kick in, and the vegetation changed again, the name bamboo comes from the paths lined with rows of the stuff all shooting heavily into the sky.. I read that when winter comes, bamboo and above are effectively abandoned due to the conditions, but life bustled through the trails as we slowly rambled up through Doban and Himalaya towards the days target of Deorali.

feet..

The maddest sight we saw was that of a Japanese tourist trekking up past as as we waited and rest with no shoes on, blackened feet and taped up toes on display, what a hero.. this was leech country!



DAY5 Deorali to MBC, then ABC..
So the end was in sight, rather the target was, just around the corner up into the higher reaches of the valley lay the annapurna base camp, we arrived early-ish the previous day (not as much as the day before) but enough time to get well feed and recovered for the push from 3200m to the height of 3700 that MBC sat at!

We were broken the sad news that the Japanese circus wouldn't be joining us for the push (he was staying in a lodge a bit further down from ours - if I would have know this I would have changed lodges) his loving and loyal guide came running up as we were ready to push off for the day, and rambled something about the weather, he said, "not good, not good", the conditions were actually pretty terrible, visibility was down to maybe 30m as we were totally immersed in cloud cover.. (we later heard from another trekker that he wasn't feeling well, and therefore had to retreat backdown - just wished I got some photos of him, he was such a great character to be around, and his guides/porters all adored him and looked after him as the bagpipers whiskey took hold!)

porter..

So, after a good breakfast and a fairly decent sleep we set off.

It was slow going through the avalanche area (chris the slideshow guide from KTM warned us not to waste time through this section, trekkers have been killed walking the route in the past - mainly through the stupidity of stopping/resting or even camping, and the fact that we had the some of the comforts of home in the lodges we needed to stay alert to the seriousness of the adventure) so we pushed on steadily towards the apex ahead.

The largest snow ball I ever saw was placed about 20m from the trail path about an hr up, check the photo, but the scale of think didn't do it just in the image, it was masssssssive! At least 10m by 5m.. a quick snap and onwards we walked.

The mountains above us hid their secrets and we felt a little frustrated by walking up in cloud cover, but the more we climbed the more they revealed to us, machhapuchhre flickered in and out from time to time, but the clouds in front always reflected it true shape in the morning sun beams..

fishtail..

we where up in the heavens!

At MBC we rested and assessed the next stage to ABC, it was still early 11am and the group consensus was that we had the energy to move on up the 400m.. we'll I did in my mind, but my cough was bugging me, the cold damp air and heavy/quick breathing due to the height caused a minor annoyance on the last couple of legs.. cups of hot lemon and ginger tea were consumed as we and our socks/tee-shirts socked up the sunshine in the clear blue sky, It was a glorious sight! (unlike the smell of my feet!)

But amusingly enough another 2 trekkers folded into chair a couple of tables along, hippy-types (not that I've got anything against that) but the lad (they were a couple) actually had dragged a guitar up with him, I only had one pair of trousers I thought! He had a guitar strapped to his back the whole way!

a guitar..

Then he said that he hadn't even had a chance to play it yet! I cracked, "yeah I was in two minds as to whether to bring my piano.. it was a tuffy I tell ya!"

We decided to move on up to ABC, the clouds rolled in as we did this, the landscape was that of dartmoor, wet damp, cold and misty.. the climb wasn't that heavy a steady path rolled over streams and listed in the direction of a closing ahead. The cloud followed and eventually over took us, but we had made out the faintest outline of a building..

We made it! Wooohooo.. it was ours, every cloud covered inch of it! LoL, the view was of nothing, we could have been anywhere..

We ate, and tried to relax in the cold, the noise of excitement in the dinning hall was matched by the sounds of room we aquired, which was rather an echoing tin pot, 2 sheets of pile wood separated us from the kitchen and the bedroom next to ours. This may not have sounded to bad given the situation, but tragic for Mary because she had a monster headache and was forced to take cover in the warmth of her sleeping bag..

Perhaps the thousand meter leap from Deorali was too much, we were scheduled to stay at MBC for one night which we skipped!

Another early night dawned, and we hoped for an improvement in conditions and our aliments!