Wednesday April 27th
Today we began our Annapurna Trek. We set off from the hotel and drove for an hour and a half to get the trek start. The road was narrow and winding and climbed quite a way up the mountain. I was surprised to learn that Pokhara is less than a 1000 metres above sea level. Today we are going to climb to 2000 metres, a good climb but without altitude issues.
We have four porters to carry our bags and we just have to carry our day bags and water. We set out and walked along a rough four wheel drive road through a couple of small villages. We saw several mule trains, as this is still one of the major methods of getting goods on and off the mountain. We crossed two suspension bridges. The walk for the first two hours was fairly level and was a good way to get the legs warmed up. All along the path was animal feces which added a certain aroma to the walk. The weather was clear and very warm, which made for a hard sweaty trek. Then we stopped for lunch for an hour or so at one of the many tea houses. These are small guest houses where you can eat and stay for the night. Most of these tea houses charge about 150 rupees for a single room – about two dollars. They all have restaurants as well, and the cooks have to attend cooking courses in order to serve tourists. There is lots of competition between the tea houses for the tourist money.
The afternoon walk was much more strenuous and involved 3 ½ hours climbing up stairs. It is very much like Machu Picchu in that way. The scenery was beautiful with the mountains, terraced fields, women working wheat and corn fields, wandering water buffalo and spectacular vistas. We set a good pace and climbed steady. Luckily the sky had clouded over and this made the temperature cooler and better for climbing.
We arrived at the village of Ghandruk by 5:30. It was one of those false ends, in that we got to the entrance to the village, where they have a sign that welcomes you to the town and the Year of Tourism in Nepal 2011, and then found out that there was still a very steep climb up to the village and our tea house. Today's climb took everything I had. My breathing was okay but my legs were spent by the time I arrived and I'm glad we weren't going further.
Made a dinner order and checked into our rooms. I still have my own room. Then we all had dinner in the eating area. Food was surprisingly good. We also celebrated Anna Rita's 29th birthday with a cake they made here for her.
Then to bed early to get a good night's sleep for tomorrow's trek.
These photos are National Geographic quality
ReplyDeleteLove the woman in the wheat fields
its been a few months since you climbed a mountain Joe, no doubt your legs were spent!!