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 :)

A Little Scottish Adventure

Recently my boyfriend and I had a mini adventure in Scotland. It was based around the fact that I really wanted to walk up Britain’s highest mountain, Ben Nevis in Scotland, before I turned 30.

Adam had booked flights and a hire car, and we packed our tent and hiking gear and flew to Glasgow. Driving through the Scottish countryside was wonderful, and we stopped a few times to better enjoy it.

Loch Lomond

Our destination for our first night in Scotland was Oban, we had a look around the pretty little town when we got there.

I was most taken by these black guillemots, which I had never seen or heard of before. I thought they were absolutely gorgeous, and very cute!

Our campsite was not far out of Oban, and was a basic site – which was just what we wanted.

The next day we had our first little adventure. Driving around rather randomly, we came to Loch Awe, which is Scotland’s longest freshwater loch at 25 miles in length. 

After exploring around the loch and going for a few very short walks, we came to an area where you could hire boats. I would have preferred a rowing or sailing boat, but being Scotland’s longest loch I was (sensibly, I suppose…) outvoted and we instead rented a small motorboat.

We motored out into the loch, looking for islands to explore.

We spotted a likely looking island, complete with an overgrown ruin, and landed for a while.

We moored up, and explored the whole little island, investigating the ruins and generally acting like a pair of children from an Arthur Ransom novel…

Then it was time to head back. It took a long time to get back as we had hired the smallest-engined boat available, but that’s all part of the adventure!

That evening we headed to Fort William, and set up camp in the Glen Nevis campsite, ready to tackle Ben Nevis the following day.

We had fine weather to begin our Ben Nevis walk, calm and dry, and not too warm or too cold, so we set off in our base layers. We found the start of the main track easily and then followed the well maintained path. 

I had expected it to be a wilder track, rather than this stone-paved one.

We had great views for most of the way up, until all of a sudden the weather turned – this is why it’s so important to be properly prepared for any conditions when you’re in the hills, even if the path seems so accessible. 

There was still snow on the ground, and the low cloud that closed in made it suddenly much colder. The wind picked up and the rain came down. Thank goodness for layers and Goretex!

Taking it easy because of the poor visibility, we made it to the summit, from where we had plenty of views, but all of them were of mist…

We had bought some whisky miniatures from a shop in Fort William, so we had a wee tot to celebrate the summit.

It was pretty chilly and miserable up there in the cold wind and rain, so after photos and snacks we set off back to the campsite.

There were no great views to be had through the mist on the descent, and with so many stone steps my rubbish knees became pretty sore and I didn’t enjoy a lot of the descent. I did have one bright moment though, when near the bottom I rather randomly bumped into someone I knew who was heading up! We drew a lot of amused looks as we greeted each other loudly and with surprise in the middle of the track. Pete had to push on as he was beginning a 3 Peaks Challenge, but it had been funny to bump into him so far from home.

The next day, the heavens opened as we packed away our tent ready to head home – despite yesterday’s mist and cold we had been lucky with the weather for our successful little adventure :) 

Hitting the Slopes...

In the good way, and also the falling over way...

Over the course of a few years, I was lucky enough to get the chance to learn to ski through work. This meant heavily subsidised costs, someone else doing the organising, and a great bunch of people to learn with! 

Year 1, complete novice. Zell am See, Austria:

Year 3, reasonably competent; Mayrhofen, Austria:

I got my own skis! (the little blue ones in the middle)

Avalanche lessons

Harakiri - Austria's steepest pisted ski run

Tryfan; Rain, Snow, 40KPH Winds: Done.

After working abroad for 6 months, on a site I couldn’t leave, while being surrounded by beautiful mountains, one of the first things I wanted to do when I got home was… …head out into mountains of course!

I had been keeping in touch with someone I met during training for the role, and as he seemed interested in that kind of thing too I invited him hill walking in North Wales. The plan was that I would organise something, but in the end I had to beg his help, as my return journey suffered delay after delay, and I didn’t get back in time to make any arrangements for the date we had picked.

All was good though, and Adam picked a route to take in Tryfan and the Glyderau, got the relevant OS map, and even booked accommodation in nearby Betws-y-Coed.

Driving from my house in Coventry to North Wales, we discussed the plan and got to know each other better. It could be awkward to spend a whole weekend with someone you’ve hardly met, but luckily everything went smoothly.

The next day, we got off to a bit of a late start, and then compounded things by going for a cream tea before the walking too! We did however pick up some local info about the conditions in the mountains: still some snow on the ground, and strong winds at the top.

Eventually parking up on the A5 by Llyn Ogwen, we started up the footpath towards the North Ridge.

Beyond the Canon Stone, the snow was appearing underfoot.

In some places it was deeper than others, and as we continued upwards the mist rolled in, the wind picked up, and the icy drizzle came down.

Scrambling up in the poor visibility, I was still having a great time. We passed many other walkers who decided that it wasn’t for them any more on this day – either the snow, the wind, or the scrambling was not suiting them. I respected their decisions to take it more slowly, or to turn back altogether when they became too uncomfortable with the conditions. I found it exhilarating to be out though: I had good enough gear to still be comfortable, my fitness was good and I was finding it easy to keep up a good pace, and my love of rock climbing meant that I was able to take the scrambles all in my stride.

The summit

By the time we reached the summit, it was cold and so windy, up to 40kph. Although you could find shelter amongst the boulders at the summit, I had been on my knees for some of the more exposed parts leading up there as the wind was threatening to knock me off balance. Despite being disappointing, it was an easy decision to miss out on the Leap of Faith on the Adam and Eve boulders at the top due to this wind – I didn’t see anybody else try it either!

Summit photo

We didn’t stop for long as it was so cold when you were no longer moving. A quick bit of hot drink from a flask, a summit photo, and a brief chat about the rest of our route, and we were off.

Although we had planned to continue our walk to take in the Glyders as well, we decided the conditions weren’t great for that any more. We had left a bit late and the light started to fade while we were in the fog, so navigation would be difficult at best, dangerous at worst.

Instead therefore, we headed south west off the summit to a col, then on towards a small lake, Llyn Bochlwyd. Mostly it was thick with fog, but occasionally gaps would appear and you could get a brief glimpse at a bit of a view before the grey curtains closed in again. 

Despite cutting short the walk, we were in good spirits and we made the most of the views when they appeared, and talked and laughed the rest of the time. 

I was glad of my Goretex jacket, as the rest of me was soaked through thanks to the fine, driving drizzley rain. 

The wet was a problem that was only compounded a short time later. We were walking down a grassy slope with water running over the entire surface. Adam jumped over a little stream that had formed, onto a higher bank beyond, and I tried that too but didn’t quite make it… landing in the boggy wet grass I immediately sank up to my ankles, while my forward momentum had other ideas and forced me to face plant into the bank I had been aiming for! Thank goodness it was a soft grassy bank, and not rocks! 

It took me a while to stop giggling about that one, and I guess it was good to end on a funny note!

So we had to miss out on parts of our plans because the conditions weren’t suitable, and I made a prat out of myself at the end, but any day in the mountains is a good day :)