Annapurna Sanctuary Part II - Poon Hill to Annapurna Base Camp

Following the climb to Poon Hill, everything started to turn a bit more serious with Base Camp the next hurdle that we had to climb.

This was further complicated by the fact that quite a few in the group has started to experience stomach problems, something that our guide Maski has assured us was out of the ordinary. A mistype from Sarah on Instagram saw Poon Hill rechristened as Poo Hill. Never has the poop emoji been more appropriate.

POO EMOJI HERE

After the club down Poon Hill, we returned to Ghorepani for breakfast. Plain toast with honey became my staple on the trip, with Sabin able to determine who had what just by the order at the end. It definitely got boring, but was all that my stomach was able to cope with at that point.

The climb out of Ghorepani was really steep, and some of the others in the group who had more recently succumbed to Nepalese belly definitely struggled. However, we had finally entered the rhododendron forests. I think more than anything the group was glad, just because I finally shut up about the bloody rhododendrons.

Once the initial climb was over we walked along a ridge for a couple of hours, enjoying the 'mountain flat' and the chance to catch our breath. Walking through the wooded section was a lot colder, with my first real taste of what I was in for with the cold. But the colder environment meant that there was moss on every tree trunk, with prayer flags waving in the background and I was pretty much in botanical heaven.

Lunch was toast again. Hmpf.

I was very slow on the downhills, with the poles slowing me down but ensuring that my knee didn't go before I had made it to basecamp. We arrived into Tadapani late in the afternoon and spent a long night playing cards. At about 11pm(ish) I noticed that one of the little boys from the teahouse (who I had thought was just really interested in the card game) was actually hanging around so that he could go to sleep in the warm common room. Boy did I feel guilty.

After leaving Tadapani the next morning, our destination for the day was Chhomrong, a large village where we would be able to stock up on supplies that were running low (read toilet paper). The climb to Chhomrong had plenty of ups and downs, and I annoyingly cut my finger on a blade of rye grass, which hurt like all buggery. One upsides of day four was that my appetite was returning, and Maski has said that Chhomrong was known for its pizzas. Holla!!! After too many days of toast, the pizza was a good as promised.

We arrived in to Chhomrong relatively early in the day, which allowed a huge chunk of personal time to either wander down to the village 'supermarket' or do washing. Considering that the supermarket was 30min walk one way (CBF) I decided to do washing. There was an actual washing machine that actually worked at the teahouse, and given that everything in bought in on donkeys I still can't figure out how it got there.

The next day was from Chhomrong to Himalaya Hotel (yes that is the name of the village). We stopped off at Bamboo (also the name of a village) where we had lunch. Gwyn had the most amazing looking bamboo shoot curry, which I noted down to have on the descent.

After arriving in to Himalaya Hotel and the sun started to go down, the temperature plummeted. Like nose-dived. As the teahouse was above the tree line, there were no wood heaters in the common room to get warm, so instead the locals employ a rather genius solution.

They staple blankets around the tables in the common room and place open flamed gas heaters under the tables. At 150 rupees a head ($1.50AUD) it's totally worth it until you notice your socks are slightly singed. But at least it meant all our wet clothes were dry for the next morning, as this was the big climb up to Annapurna Base Camp (ABC) via Machapuchare Base Camp (MBC) for lunch.

At MBC I had something for lunch which has been completely lost to me, as it was overshadowed by the cutest Japanese couple eating next to us. They must have been in their 60s at a minimum and had packed a number of amazing looking condiments to spice up the bland food that you get the higher up you go. At one point the old gentleman had chilli in his beard and his wife leant over and brush it away with a smile on her face. I wish I wasn't so exhausted at that point that I could have snapped a picture. Alas, they will just have to be recorded here in words.

After MBC we had one final climb to get to ABC. However, four weeks prior there had been an avalanche that had stopped just short of the lodge at MBC. Thankfully no one was killed (even though it happened during the day) and now it meant we got to walk over the actual avalanche. ON ACTUAL SNOW! #notinkansasanymore

By this stage everyone's pace had dropped to cope with the altitude. But after 2 hours we made it to the marker of ABC. Just to make it that little bit harder, the lodge sits about 500m up from the marker, meaning that even after you have taken all the happy snaps, you still have to walk that last little bit to get to somewhere warm.

Having changed into ALL of my warm clothes and retreated to the heat of the common room, a hail storm decided to hit base camp. However, being snug and warm inside as the storm raged outside with everyone basking in the glow of having made it to base camp remains a lasting memory. Pizza and soup for dinner and then to bed given we had a 5am photocall for sunrise pictures around base camp.

Even now I still can't believe that I actually made it to base camp. But I would do it all again in a heartbeat.

Next up in this series is the descent down the Annapurna Sanctuary walk. Because if you go up, you have to come down.