Trekking in The Annapurna Conservation Area, Nepal ~ Part 3

Day 3 on the trail starts early so that we can watch the sunrise from Poon Hill. Testament to the scale of our surroundings, Poon Hill is in fact 3,210 metres in height, more than double the height of Britain’s tallest mountain, Ben Nevis (1,344m).

Following the narrow path up to Poon Hill, we just put our heads down and walk and as Raj predicted we easily pass many other walkers to make it to the top in good time. Once at the top, Raj asks if we want tea. We obviously both do, so while we join the queue of tourists at the tea hut, Raj just walks in, pours two mugs, and brings them out to us. I knew having a good guide was a good idea!

Raj has been teaching me which mountain is which in both English and Nepalese as we have been trekking, and while I stare wide eyed at the incredible line-up before us, Raj tests me:

Annapurna South, 7,219m

Machapuchare, or Fishtail Mountain, 6,993m. This mountain has never been climbed to its summit because it so sacred.

Dhaulagiri, 8,167m. The 7th highest mountain in the world.

I ask for a photo, and very sweetly Raj is pleasantly surprised when I stop him from taking my camera as I want him in the picture too. He seemed very touched and stood proudly in front of us.

I can’t get enough of the views, I have read so much about the high mountains in general, and the Himalayan ones in particular, and just being here feels almost sacred to me. Raj politely shoos me on though, as we have a long day ahead of today.

Having collected our things from the Teahouse back at Ghorepani, the next stage of the day begins with a climb out of the little town to start the return leg of our loop. We hike on and up until we reach a shrine.

By now it is misty, and the mist makes it cold, so while others stop for a while we three carry on. We are all feeling good and we walk briskly, chatting and laughing. At one point Raj stops to chat with a guide coming the other way. Adam and I joke with him that they were competing: “my trekkers are better than your trekkers!”, “no my trekkers are better than your trekkers!”. Raj gives a cheeky chuckle though and said that we were close as they had been talking about us being good trekkers! My embarrassment is definitely compensated for by the fact that we are seen as strong and that Raj seems quite proud of us.

The mist has soon gone, and we are back in more wooded areas. We see our first water buffalo:

I see my first wild monkeys, langur monkeys, and I get very excited:

As we walk through the rhododendrons Raj tells us that we must come again during Spring, as when the flowers are blooming it is incredibly beautiful.

At one point we hear an ominous rumbling in the ground, as though a herd of water buffalo are running towards us. When the source of the noise runs past though it is not buffalo but young men carrying baskets of rocks.

Raj explains to us that all the young men want to become Gurkha Soldiers when they grow up. The physical tests for selection are arduous and fiercely competitive, and this is how they train.

Returning to stonier track we continue to descend, and despite feeling good earlier the large quantity of stone steps is taking its toll on my knees.

I am grateful when we finally stop for the night, our final stop on the trail in fact.

The next morning we have a leisurely breakfast with more fantastic views of snowy Himalayan mountains.

We also witness some unusual local life in the form of a travelling cabbage salesman.

Today’s walk is not so long, and it takes us down through farmland and rice terraces cut into the moutainsides.

We eventually reach the river which we follow again, it’s so warm down here now.

The river leads us back to the first lunch stop we had enjoyed when we began this trek a few days ago, and we stop there again for our final lunch.

As the three of us tuck in to daal bhat and hot sweet tea, we are provided by the entertainment (from our perspective) of the spectacle of several men trying to force a terrified water buffalo over the little wobbly bridge across the river. Buffalo are big and strong, add in some terrified determination and it was a long battle across that bridge!

Entertainment over and the bridge clear, it is time for us to cross the river again and return to the road to catch a bus back to Pokhara.

I was sad to end our time in the mountains, but I was also excited for the next part of our trip: another local bus to Chitwan to look for wild rhinos. And by the magic of technology, we are friends with Raj on Facebook and keep in touch, so hopefully our paths will cross again in the future.

Trekking in The Annapurna Conservation Area, Nepal ~ Part 2

The next day we awake early, and over tea in the morning Raj and his friend talk. They reluctantly decide that the two groups trekking together is not working out and that the Japanese tourist may not be able to complete all of the walking that is planned.

Therefore, Adam, Raj and I set off from the Teahouse as planned while the others linger a little longer before starting their next day. Passing through the village of Tikhedunga, I think that this is where we were meant to get to yesterday if the Japanese fellow had been feeling a bit fitter.

Adam and I are feeling very fit though, and I in particular am bubbling with excited energy as I fulfil my life-long dream to trek in the Himalayas – albeit only a short trek. I am so excitable that Raj is laughing at me, especially when I get excited to spot a lizard basking on a wall, stop to take a photo, and then pretty much run up the hill to catch up with him and Adam.

Not much further, and we get our first good view of real snow-capped Himalayan mountains! I am positively drooling over the views, even though they will yet get far more spectacular.

A few more uphill sections and the scenery starts to change. We leave the open hillsides with their agriculture, and the path becomes more enclosed by rhododendron jungle, which is not something I had really expected.

The rivers are much smaller now too as we are further upstream.

Coming to a picturesque teahouse at the side of the track, Raj says this is our lunch stop. Adam and I are pretty fit and have walked at a good pace, so we are the first ones here and can choose where to sit. Raj enjoys having an extended break and goes to chat to the teahouse staff, ordering us our daal bhat and sweet tea.

It is a glorious day, and a very pretty location, and we all enjoy chilling out before the rest of the tourists arrive and turn the place from a quiet oasis into a bustling tourist trap.

Our destination for the day is Ghorepani, a popular spot for the extra hike to Poon Hill to watch the sunrise over the mountains.

At Ghorepani, we stay in the largest Teahouse of our trek. It has many bedrooms and also a large lounge area downstairs. It is noticeably colder up here, and the lounge is warmed by a large fire in the middle. Raj chats with the teahouse owner who gives him our room numbers, and I impress him by being able to translate the numbers from Nepalese as I have kept up my practicing!

That evening after dinner Adam and I enjoy a couple of games of chess in the lounge, while Raj and the Teahouse owner laugh at how long we inadvertently make each game last. Raj is in good spirits he tells us, as usually he starts the Poon Hill trek very early to make the sunrise, but with our current trekking fitness he will be able to have a lie-in.

Trekking in The Annapurna Conservation Area, Nepal ~ Part 1

I have always wanted to visit Nepal, ever since I was a really little kid, and in October I got to do just that with my boyfriend Adam.

Two weeks wasn’t long enough to do everything we wanted, but with careful planning and research, and a bit of luck in the forms of the people we met, we were able to create a pretty good itinerary with a mixture of culture, nature and adventure.

To fit in with the other plans, the trek we decided on was a 4 day Teahouse Trek in the Annapurna Conservation Area. Deepak, a chap from our budget hotel, helped us to organise everything. We also decided to use a guide to help us make the most of the experience, and to provide some income to an extra family, and Deepak introduced us to Raj.

Meeting at 6am the next day, Raj led us to where we would catch the local bus to Pokhara. Watching the traffic in Kathmandu is a pretty eye opening experience, and just as I voiced the thought that I was amazed there weren’t more accidents, a small car drove into the side of our bus…

Elsewhere along the road was a further, this time major delay as there had been an accident involving a motorcyclist. I don’t know the details as we were far back in the queued traffic, but from the length of the delays I think it was pretty bad.

Eventually though we arrived at Pokhara, where Raj showed us to our hotel (arranged by Deepak) and then went to his own digs for the night. It was early evening by now, so we walked through Pokhara for a browse around the tourist shops, then got dinner and some Nepalese beers before heading back to our room for the night. It turned out that we were sharing the room with the largest cockroach I had ever seen! I wasn’t keen, but I guess that’s the cost of staying in the cheaper places…

The following morning we met Raj early. He helped us to organise with the hotel to leave some of our bags behind; some people hire porters to carry all of their stuff, but this didn’t fit within our budget and Adam and I would be carrying our own stuff, leaving the rest behind till after the trek.

Walking us to where we would catch the next local bus, Raj pointed out to us Fishtail Mountain, promising us much better views along the trek ahead of us. A pretty hair-raising bus ride later, winding around tiny Himalayan roads full of trucks with an infinite variety of horn blasts, and we hopped off at the trail head. Raj went off with our paperwork to get our trekking permits, and then we began.

Initially we were trekking with another tourist and his guide, who was friends with Raj. The other tourist, a Japanese man, was very much the worse for wear after too many beers the previous night, so we set a very gentle pace with frequent stops.

A little girl stopped me to talk to me, I couldn’t understand her but Raj translated that she wanted me to take her photograph. I agreed, and when I lifted my camera she struck such a serious little pose! I showed her the image on the camera screen afterwards though and she seemed very happy with it. She was incredibly cute :)

We soon stopped for lunch near the river, I wasn’t good at noting down any place names as I was too busy enjoying the views, but I think this stop was Nayapul. It was a little area of tourist restaurants and teahouses where ate our daal bhat and drank sweet tea before setting off again.

Raj

The path climbed after lunch, and then followed the river a while before more climbing.

We passed some pretty little villages of Teahouses for the tourist trekkers, and some homes where children would call out ‘hello’ to us as we passed.

A cute teahouse village. I didn't take photos of the local people we passed in their homes as this seemed disrespectful

We also saw plenty of work going on: at this part of the trail a lot of food stuff is delivered around by mule, and when the mule trains passed we would have to get out of the way.

I was also fascinated by the porters. There were plenty of groups of tourists with their tiny bags and fancy gear, strolling along the track while tiny Nepalese porters carried multiple cases bound together, often going faster than the tourists themselves. At one point when we were waiting on the trail for the Japanese guy and his guide to catch us up, a few porters arrived and stopped for a break themselves. I asked, via Raj, if I could feel how heavy their loads were. They all giggled and laughed at me, but helped me on with the load of bags all tied together and carried with the aid of a head strap. Their amazment that I could hold the weight spurred me on and I carried the load a short way up the steps ahead of us. They were kind of impressed!

Continiuing our trek onwards and upwards, all too soon Raj told us to stop as we had reached our accomodation for the night. We ordered more daal bhat and put our stuff in our room, then sat with Raj drinking more sweet tea. Over dinner together, I asked Raj to teach me some Nepalese, and a pleasant evening was passed with me practising ‘Danyabad’ (thank you), ‘Ek, dui, tin, char, pash, cha, sat, aaht, now, desh…’ (1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10), etc.

The view from our first teahouse, with corn drying on the balcony

We all went to bed early that night - Raj was exhausted as he had just completed a big trek in Tibet before Deepak had got him working with us, the Japanese tourist was feeling awful with his hangover, and once it was dark there wasn't a lot to do but enjoy the quiet and get a good sleep ready for more trekking in the morning :)