Day 91 - 31 October 2009: Day nine of Annapurna Base Camp Trek

When we got to Annapurna Base Camp after four days, I felt an almost heroic sense of achievement. I was confident that we could get back down by the end of the seventh day (29^th Oct), even thought we were taking the longer route to Phedi instead of going back to Naya Pul.

Today, on the 9^th day, we get the Phedi. I have some sort of flu, my ears are in an altitude affected fog, I’m sick to the stomach with diarrhea  and my knees have gone. It was the best I could do to stop myself crying today, even though it was only three hours walk this morning. It probably would have been one hour if I had been fit. I was hoping the path would smooth out as we approached Phedi, but it deceptively and tortuously does the opposite, sloping down into a tight zigzag og rocky steps. At first, the scenery had been calming, as we walked through a lot of grassland and farm area, but this turns into the new hardest day of my life.

 Before the last part of the descent, we pass through a village and I have to stop to buy some unwanted supplies to gain access to a toilet. I am a complete effing train wreck of a man now. In theory, we could have taken a longer route via weaving roads, but I don’t want to get lost and I want to get it over with as soon as possible. I am glad and proud to have completed this without the aid of as guide or porter and carrying what seems like a large weightlifters weight on my back. I am also glad to be writing this lying on a proper mattress with my rucksack on the floor beside me.

the end....

My suggested slogan for the Nepalese Tourism Marketing Board is: ‘Nepal, not for fatties!’

When we got to Phedi, we decide to get a taxi instead of waiting for the cheaper bus alternative, as I can’t bear to wait around.

Back at the hotel I rest while Laurie goes internetting or something. Given that she wanted to quite during our first morning on the trek, I have to hand it to her. I must admit that I don’t think I would have made it all the way down without her. I must also admit that when, during the last most painful part of the descent down the zigzagging steps through the woods, her response to my exclamation that the end of the trail must be coming was to say ‘no, I don’t think so’, I could have biffed her.

At dinner we go for a celebratory steak at the Everest Steak House, although it is a test for my stomach. We chat a little about the rumour mill. I say that she doesn’t do herself any favours to which she responds that she is not looking for any favours. What, not even from yourself?

I then go back to the hotel and watch the football. Liverpool players have no sense of occasion. Fulham 3, Liverpool 1. Bah.

Day 90 - 30 October 2009: Day eight of Annapurna Base Camp Trek

Laurie doesn’t like crossing bridges. She doesn’t even like crossing small streams of water. I have had to escort her across many a dribble on this trek, although in the last few days I have left her to it, so that she conquers her petty fears.

However, she does not look forward to crossing the ‘rickety old bridge’. I reassure her that it is not a rickety old bridge, but a rickety ‘New Bridge’. Our map is nine years old, so perhaps they have now changed the name to ‘Newish Bridge’. There are no signs to confirm either way.

 

Physically I am doing quite well today, although I suspect my left knee will take a while to recover once we’re finished. We get a lot of downhill out of the way today, and I am glad for the rest when we stop at Pothana for the night, as my knees are always worse at the end of the day.

As we decide which lodge to stop at, we spot the girls from the ‘Encounter’ group, who have taken over one of the lodges. As I stop to chat to some of them, the one that I have been speaking to the most (tall pretty softly spoken brunette Aussie with a bob cut) comes out of the shower outhouse covering herself with a towel. This causes some blushing and some cheers from her friends. They are having a last night of trekking party in their lodge restaurant. I consider going to join, but don’t have the energy.

Across from the hostel, some of the locals have just completed (re-building?) a ferris wheel / swing. I am tempted to join them, but decide it is still very much in testing mode.

While waiting sipping a pre-emptive celebratory beer to mark the last trekking night, Pete and Pam walk by. They have come up for a day hike and are going back down. This re-assures me to know that the end can’t be very far, but also makes me feel a little pathetic for not being able to make it all the way today.

Ferris Wheel Video 

Annapurna Valley Video 

Day 89 - 29 October 2009: Day seven of Annapurna Base Camp Trek

Both knees are now giving me trouble. I don’t know which leg to side step down first with. From Chomrong to Jhinu, the next lodge stop, takes over two hours, having been advised by the landlady of the Chomrong Lodge that it should take one hour.

No obesity epidemic for Nepalese school children

We take a diversion from here to a hot spring, hoping it helps loosen up my joints. The spring is captured in a man-made bathing pool next to the white water rapids of what I think is the Kyumnu River (or it could be the Modi). It is a beautiful feeling sinking into the large naturally heated bath and I immediately feel better. There is also a flow of hot spring water gushing down next to the pool to make a natural shower.

Some local lads join us in the pool. They don’t speak English so we don’t speak to them, but they are quietly attentive towards Laurie, who is in the pool in her bra and knickers.

By the time I get out, I feel loose enough to bend down to touch my toes with opposite hands. However, we have to walk back up the valley to get back on the trail, and my pains re-emerge within five minutes or so.

Back at the Jhinu Lodge where we had lunch, the map says our next planned stop, Landruck, is two and a half hours away. The lodge manager says it is only two hours, or one hour for him. However, after almost two hours, we are only at ‘New Bridge’. Here, the map says Landruck is another two hours. Although it four o’clock now, we decide to go for it.

My left knee is still the one predominately painful. My right knee doesn’t really hurt, but it does decide to give way at random moments. About thirty metres after passing the last lodge at New Bridge, my knee buckles again, and we decide to go back. I am quite tempted by the prospect of a hot pizza advertised at the lodge anyway.

Day 88 - 28 October 2009: Day six of Annapurna Base Camp Trek

Yesterday’s jogging was a big wopping mistake. I wake up feeling like the texture of a melted lollipop stuck to the ground. We have to climb back to the other side of the valley today, which changes from testing to killer due to my condition.

My left knee and foot are aching badly and I find putting my weight on the left side very difficult. Going uphill I can use my left as the trailing leg, so perversely I am going uphill quicker than I am going down, the latter of which I am doing by side steps. Fortunately, much of our route ‘down’ the valley is actually uphill, so we still manage some distance.

I am getting near to tears. Laurie claims boys cry more than girls. I retort that my four and six year old nieces cry more than their six month old baby brother. In fact I can imagine my nephew saying to himself: ‘you girls cry too much. Me, I’m just going to sit here sleep....and crap myself occasionally....’

the snowy striped tail mountain cat?

We stop at Chomrong again, this time at Chomrong Cottage Lodge as it has been recommended to us by a Brit couple we chatted to on the way down. They especially recommend the pizza for dinner. There are quite a few of the lodges that serve pizza, though it is not on the standardised government menu, but having seen some I have not yet been tempted. However, the one I have for dinner, which I share with Laurie with a convincingly good bean enchilada is actually pretty good. It’s got a nicely cooked base, although there is too much garlic in the tomato base. Also recommended from the specials menu is a big serving of sludgy chocolate cake.

I also have a great hot shower, which isn’t available at all the lodges, although Laurie comes out of hers crying because there was no cold water in the mix for her. It was so hot she couldn’t even turn off the tap. Thankfully she did have the wherewithal to grab her towel before jumping out of the shower room.

Another highlight of this lodge is the view from our window, which looks out over the valley with clouds encircling the peaks. A lot of the rooms we have stayed in didn’t have windows at all, and were set amongst the flatland anyway.

Day 87 - 27 October 2009: Day five of Annapurna Base Camp. Reach BC.

My sleep was interrupted by people getting up to go to ABC in the dark so that they could catch the sunrise. I am not motivated enough to do this, especially with my extremities numb from the cold.

Starting the final leg to the base camp

ABC in the distance

However, today is a triumph, as we get to ABC after an hour and a quarter. Well, I should say that I made it in that time – the guidance time being either 1.5 hours or two hours depending on what map you believe. To her credit, Laurie follows not too long after. We have made it in less than four days. It seems silly to think about it now, but I almost cry at the sign welcoming us to our trek’s peak destination.

 

It strikes me while waiting for Laurie that I don’t think I could indulge in a sport which has a starting line marked by memorials and graves, and Annapurna Base Camp has its fair share of these just beyond the lodges.

Sunrise from MBC

ABC overflow tents

We have spoken to a few people who have done the Everest circuit, the more popular trek of the two, and an American couple on honeymoon we meet today have just come from there. Like the others, they say that Annapurna is the actually the more difficult terrain of the two as there is more up and down. Other UK to Ozzers have taken the ‘easy’ route, but the Everest trek goes to higher altitudes and is longer, so you are much more likely to get sick there (as I learn Dave and Belgian Sam have found out when we meet up in Kathmandu). The American couple mention that they saw some people get evacuated there too. There are no medical centres on the Annapurna circuit though, so I am not sure what would happen if someone had to be evacuated here. I guess they would be carried down by a porter with a sling balanced on his head, just as they carry any other weighty objects.

never do a sport where the start line is marked by memorials...

starting the way back down

Feeling exalted, I feel like I could fly down the valley. I jog part of the way down between the Machapuchare BC and Deurali (the next station down) in imitation of the porters, although they are generally carrying a lot more than I am. Going uphill between these two points took over two hours, but downhill took me just over an hour. I deduce that jogging is the path of least resistance, although I do fall down once. As I have 10kg of padding on my back I don’t get hurt though.

Having started the UK to Oz journey with a 36 inch waist, which went down to 34” after my spell of abstinence in Iran, it must now be 32” and I need extra holes in my belt as my trousers are now slung ‘gansta’ style.

I see a monkey hiding in the trees on the trail approaching the Himalaya Lodge. It’s a grey haired one with a black face, which I think is a Langur monkey. I have seen a lot of monkeys on this trip, but this one seems so much in its element and is also much warier of humans than those found in populous areas. It scarpers away out of vision when it catches me looking at him.

The lodges at the ‘Himalaya’ stop are full, so we end up hiking all the way down to Doban until it is nearly dark.

Annapurna Pictures 

Day 86 - 26 October 2009: Day four of Annapurna Base Camp Trek

From Doban, we get to Machapuchare Base Camp, which is one stop away from the Annapurna Base Camp. I am tempted to go up to ABC tonight, but Laurie is too tired. We have dinner and are in bed by 5:30pm, as it is cold up here.

the view from Machapuchare BC

 

Why this place is called Machapuchare Base Camp is unclear as ascents of this mountain are not allowed.

We had been told at the permit check point at Naya Pul (trek start point) that it shouldn’t have reached freezing temperatures up here yet, but the advice we have received from whomever we ask varies from person to person, and there are frozen streams and snow and ice on the ground already. Also, I am starting to get a headache from what I suppose is altitude sickness.

Day 85 - 25 October 2009: Day three of Annapurna Base Camp Trek

We start our days trekking not too early in the morning. I am barely recovered from yesterday’s exertions and have to stop after the first half hour for an extended break. However, after a Snickers for elevenses, I am reborn. With some comparatively easy trekking today (lots of up and downs and flat lands, as opposed to just up, or down into the valley and all the way up again, etc.), I settle into a rhythm.

On the trek we passed a group (and got passed by them as we took breaks) who here having booked with ‘Encounter Adventure Holidays’. They have porters and the vast majority are young women. I spend much of the day pontificating on a plan to swap Laurie for one of them. ‘Why’, I ask myself, ‘can’t the UK to Oz group profile be of a similar demographic?’

We get to Doban today, which is one lodging village more than we had planned for the day. However, I get another bout of diarrhea in the evening.

Day 84 - 24 October 2009: Day two of Annapurna Base Camp Trek

I spent much of last night going ballistic at Laurie. As calmly and courteously as I could (i.e. not at all), I suggested that perhaps she should have cared a bit more about what others thought was going on between us if she knew her boyfriend was joining the trip later. I suggested that I would have been more careful to mitigate against the rumour mill if I had known, and that perhaps she should have too, if only for my sake. Still, by this morning I had exhausted my spleen.

That was until Laurie announces within the first couple of hours of hiking that she doesn’t think that she can go on. It is apparent that she is not in any way fit enough for this trek. Seeing as I was only here because she wanted someone to join her, and also given the fact that I had gone through all the hassle and expense of getting to this point, I was less than sympathetic. She was also the one who insisted we didn’t need a porter. I made it clear that if she was going back down that she was going to do so alone. The hard school of motivation technique seems to work on her though, and after an hour break we start hiking again.

However, the tables turn as the day goes along. The trail is easy to follow, although there is potential for confusion in the villages in these early stages of the trek. At this point, the steepest slopes have steps which are not too worn down. However, there must be thousands of them and there are a lot of long steep parts we journey on today.

I calculate that we have to get to a place called Chomrong if we are to make Annapurna Base Camp in our planned five days. We have to go down a valley to Komrong Khola (Chomrong River) and then back up the other side of the valley again. By this time I am completely knackered. In fact, it is only Laurie’s expressed willingness to keep going and my potential embarrassment after having balled her out earlier that keeps us going. We finally get up to Chomrong by sunset at five pm, this probably having been the hardest physical day of my life (so far...).

There are a handful of lodges here, but we opt for the on furthest in the distance just because I wanted the accomplishment of getting to the furthest point we could. When we enter the foreground of the lodge, we are greeted there by a Polish couple sitting on the bench outside and the lodge owner, both of whom are taken aback when we tell them where we started from today.

The Polish couple have been in Chomrong all day as one of the woman’s shoes needed repairing, which they do in an unconvincing manner with Sellotape.

At dinner, in the heated hut at the front of the lodge garden, I order some ‘Rakshi’ which is the local wine. It is much like Saki, which I don’t really like either and I only take a couple of sips. I had been brought a full carafe, when really I was only expecting a glass, so I share some with the Polish and leave the rest. I was tempted to put it in a plastic bottle to carry with me, but decided it was too dangerous a temptation as we got up higher into the cold.

Annapurna Base Camp Trek Photos
(half of these are Laurie's as my photos got corrupted)

Day 83 - 23 October 2009: Day One of Annapurna Base Camp Trek

The bank is supposed to open at ten o’clock, but this is Nepal and at 10:15 I am still waiting. Not long after, a taxi carrying a woman and security guard pulls up and they unlock the doors. I am a little worried because in the UK a separate security company would come to maintain the cash machine and this only happens at particular times of the day. However, the woman merely asks to see my ID then meanders around the bank for some long minutes looking at various documents and turning on computers etc before eventually pulling out a key. Thankfully the key is in the machine and I leave relieved but in a hurry to get the next bus to the trek starting point.

Our hotel, which has views from our room balcony to the Annapurnas (there are Annapurna peaks numbered 1, 2, 3 & 4), is clean comfortable and cheap at about $10 a night for a room. We agree to come back here for a couple of nights when we have finished and they let us leave our luggage with them that we don’t need for the trek.

We catch a bus to Naya Pul, which is the village where the trekking trail starts. The bus takes two to three hours, depending on how avoidable the potholes are that day, how long the traffic queues up the mountainsides are and also on how crazy your bus driver is. Our bus driver is quite crazy and we take closer to two hours. When we got onto the bus at Pokhara, it wasn’t full and we propped our rucksacks on the back seats (there were no overhead shelves that they would fit onto). However, as our journey progressed, it quickly filled and we felt guilty that our bags were taking up seats. We needn’t have worried though, because people just climb onto the roof racks on top of the bus if it looks full, despite the fact that the bus is swinging madly around mountainous multifariously potholed roads.

When we get off the bus, it is not clear where the start of the trail is. We ask someone from one of the multitude of huts selling titbits and food, and he directs us through a gap in the huts down a slippy mud slope. He follows us and offers to be our porter for $10 a day, which is cheaper than what we were offered in Pokhara. I consider it, but Laurie is still adamant that we don’t need a porter (mostly because she is a cheapskate).

We start the trek getting followed by a group of local adolescents and children. Laurie gets asked by one of the older boys if she and I are a couple. This question reminded me of a moment in a Pakistani police compound where Meg responded to a similar question from the local male inhabitants that, no, she and Dave were not a couple. This led to her being surrounded by men and being offered access to a shower we are not entirely sure existed, not that she was going to try to find out. Laurie does not make the same mistake and lies that we are. To be honest, a lot of the less worldly people of this part of the world assume we westerners are all at it all the time anyway.

We manage to lose many of the local kids amongst the chaos of a donkey jam as a herd of them are being escorted down the trail. After a couple of hours and after we have stopped being followed, we stop at a lodge for dinner and a bed. The accommodation & food prices for the lodges on the trail are all set by the government. They do get progressively higher with the altitude but you never need much more than £10 / $15 a day, if that. The actual accommodation is as basic as a stable with fold out beds, but it is also almost free. It is the food that you pay for and you are obliged to order meals at the restaurant of the lodge you are staying at because of this.

With myself and Laurie spending so much time together, including rooming together (although Brian is usually in the room with us), and now having gone on this trek alone together, the rumour mill of the UK to Oz group has decided that we are definitely sleeping together. The only truth to this is the most literal. However, I haven’t really cared what anybody else thought and nor has Laurie, whose sense of humour is brashly suggestive anyway. She has a boyfriend who lives in Bermuda (long story). He is 6’4” and about seventeen stone (240 pounds / 110 kg) and comes from Derby in the English midlands. He is also somewhat paranoid a boyfriend, which matches nicely with the spectacularly flirty nature of Laurie. None of this matters though as he is never likely to find out about the rumours.....

Tonight Laurie tells me her boyfriend is joining the UK to Oz truck when we get to Vietnam just before the New Year.