We succeeded in making it to Annapurna Base
Camp! I kept thinking back to Robert MacFarlane’s The Old Ways and how he spoke about how the act of circumnavigating a
mountain versus climbing a mountain is completely different.
I very much got this sense from walking to
ABC. Our group were not climbers we were trekkers, and none of us had the
ego to think that we could possibly climb Annapurna I. It takes a special
person to have the skills, smarts and machismo to be able to summit a +8000m
mountain. Instead, I feel like our group went as an act of pilgrimage to the mountains to
marvel at the sheer wonder of the Himalayas. It is appropriate that the ring of
mountains surrounding ABC are called the Annapurna Sanctuary as there is sense
that you are in nature’s church.
After a morning of taking a ridiculous
amount of pictures (Dad has already complained about the length of the last
blog post) we started our climb down. Gwyn and Tom in a more unique way than
everyone else (pictures below).
The pace picked up on the climb down,
particularly after passing MBC as we returned to more normal altitude levels.
We made it all the way back to Bamboo passing through Himalaya Hotel for lunch.
It amazing us that we were able to achieve in one morning of descent what took
us the better part of a day to ascend.
Stopping at Bamboo, the bamboo shoot curry was
as good a promised for dinner. However, I had my first serious packing mishap,
with my muscle cream exploding throughout my bad. While it could have been
worse (Tom and Mo had tomato sauce explode through theirs) that was not my
first response upon opening my backpack.
I will plead mea culpa here, as Maski had warned us that the porters have to
bind the packs really tight in order to strap TWO packs together. However, I
had become complacent and hadn’t packed my cream in it’s normal plastic bag.
At least everything didn’t smell like sweat
any more…
After leaving Bamboo, we walked back to
Chhomrong for lunch. We also met up with Em and Kelly and it was great to see
them again. There had been an element of the team being left behind when Em had
decided to stay in Chhomrong due to illness.
From Chhomrong we pushed on to Jinhu Danda,
where the promise of hot springs called out like a siren’s song. Well boy did
Jinhu Danda put on a show for us on our arrival. The weather was good for the
entire day, meaning that we didn’t have to go to the springs in the rain, and
the teahouse was the most beautiful place we stayed during our entire trek.
At this point I might note that I think the
general opinion of everyone was that once we made it to Base Camp the trek was
basically over. When you are mentally preparing for the push up to ABC it is
hard not to see everything else as insignificant. However, if there is one
piece of advice I can give in walking the Annapurna Sanctuary, it is not to see
ABC as the destination. Not only does it make it harder to keep walking when
you realise you still have four more days of walking after ABC, but it
undersells the beauty of the walk towards the end of the trek.
After leaving Jinhu Danda I ditched my
poles, and it was liberating. Don’t get me wrong, I am absolutely a proponent
of trekking poles and I am convinced that they saved my knee from a repeat of
the Oxfam 100km trek, but once the steps vanished and we were back on paths it
was so nice to be able to stretch my legs out and pick up the pace. The second
last day of the trek flew by, and the weather was absolutely brilliant again.
Arriving in to Pothana I felt like I wanted the trek to just keep going. We
were in a rhythm and I was used to the dirt and pace of the trek now, and it
was all slowly coming to an end.
Following more card games on the terrace,
and some celebratory beers, it was a relatively early night. The next day we
only had a short 2 hour walk to Phedi and we were officially finished.
Almost two weeks after arriving in to
London, and amongst the hubbub of settling in to my new digs, I still have
vivid flashbacks to the trek. I met some of the most wonderful people in Nepal
and for my first trek at altitude I couldn’t have asked for better guides that
Maski, Sabin and Ali. I would absolutely, hand on heart recommend G Adventures
if you are thinking of doing a trek in Nepal. If you are looking for a tour
company that combines trekking expertise with locals who are proud of their
country and willing to explain the nuances of Nepalese customs, then look no
further.
Beyond that, this pretty much wraps up the
Nepal blogs (I can hear your sigh of relief). Apologies that this has been
slightly drawn out, but I wanted to do this trek justice, because trekking in
the Himalayas was absolutely the best decision I have ever made. So hurry up
and get your arse to Nepal. LIKE NOW!
धन्यवाद (dhanyabad - thank you) for making it this far, and if you have any
questions, please leave it in the comments below.
xx
N
The pictures were absolutely glorious!!!! Thank you for taking the time to tell us all about your trip. It felt like we were sitting around a fireside, engrossed in the tale. Is that a glacier they are sliding down? Were there crevices????????
ReplyDeleteThat's the avalanche, we weren't allowed to walk on the glacier as it was too dangerous. I'm not sure if there were crevices, but we had to follow the path that the guides set so we knew it was safe. xx N
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