We arrived in Nepal excited to be there and excited to start trekking. We had two days in Kathmandu, mostly spent organising trekking permits, gear, and ourselves for the next 21 days in the Himalayas. We enjoyed wandering the streets and meeting those who were beginning or finishing their treks.
We spent a lovely afternoon rickshawing across town to Pashnipatinath and had an excellent guide explain the intricacies of the temple, the holy river, and the cremation process to us. It was fascinating to watch the steps involved in setting the funeral pyre, preparing the body, and the 3-5 hours of cremation. On our walk back we encountered more “food-snatching” monkeys – even the locals were susceptible to losing their bags of carrots and cucumbers. Keryn was determined not to lose her recently purchased ice cream so managed to inhale it in seconds – much to the monkey`s (and Logan`s) surprise!
Our trek around the Annapurna Circuit started in Besisahar after an 8 hour bus ride from Kathmandu. The next 21 days involved between 2 and 9 hours walking, 8 to 25 kilometres, and much ascent and/or descent. The terrain changed from lush crops and cultivated terracing to pine forest to bamboo forest to alpine tundra to snow fields. There were many pretty butterflies, birds (including the amazing bird of prey, the Himalayan Griffon), water buffalo, cows, donkeys, yaks, and all range of dogs. Each day we walked between the many villages, stopping for lunch, dinner or the night when a tea-house appealed. Some of the villages were very small and traditional, others were sprawling and catered for all and any trekker`s need: shops, phones, banks, post offices, airports, bakeries, Internet etc etc! Each day the ever-changing scenery and views were breath-taking and spectacular…there were many many “WOW” moments!
We decided to write a highlight for each day – some days it was easy to pick one, other days it was hard to narrow it done! Enjoy!
1.Being treated to a wash, a splash, and a dip in the Marsyangdi River – beautiful clean water that we then followed and crossed many times to its source 120 kilometres upstream.
2. Encountering leeches for the first time (and we actually only saw them one other time on our second to last day). Keryn stopped for a bush-loo break and wondered what was crawling on her boots…once realising what they were it was a hasty retreat calling for help in their removal and with feet a-flapping – no blood was lost!
3. Walking very close to the river, crossing a number of times. The rapids were awesome and the water so clear – gorgeous!
4. Our first views of Annapurna summits – wow! Oh and we had apple pie for dessert!
5. Wonderful views of Oble Dome and the massive slab cliffs below it. Buddhists believe the spirits of the dead ascend the Oble Dome on their final journey back to their ancestral home of Tibet. We just thought it was awesome!
6. Walking below the towering peaks of Annapurna II, III, and IV, and Gangapurna.
7. Climbing and scrambling up 1000 vertical metres, following goat tracks and water courses. It was a “rest” day but to help acclimatise it is best to gain some altitude before returning to the same tea-house. We took the “adventurous” option and loved the challenge and the solitude.
8. The walk today was lovely, covering a lot of ground, feeling great, passing goats, yaks and trekkers! (Mountains, WOW)
9. Getting caught in the middle of a rock fall…the area was signposted as a landslide area and at one stage Keryn looked up and saw dust…hmmm, that`s not normal! Seconds later, down came the rocks! We were lucky to be next to a small rock wall that we could crouch behind but it was still scary as rocks flew past our heads, bounced off our packs, and Logan collected one on his hand (it was protecting his head at the time so it could have been worse!). All part of the fun!
10. Arriving at Throng La Pass – the highest part of the trek at 5416 metres. It was a 5.30am start and we reached the pass at 7.45 having watched the sun rise and the valley fall behind us – beautiful!
11. Coming over a ridge and seeing the village of Kagbeni below like a green oasis amongst the alpine desert.
12. Sitting on our balcony in Lete in the afternoon drinking apricot brandy we had bought in the wonderful village of Marpha (where it is distilled), watching the animals and villagers do their afternoon chores.
13. Soaking for hours in the near-scolding hot pools in Tatopani, relaxing our weary bodies.
14. Today was a day of endless uphills but we were rewarded with amazing views across the valleys.
15. Tree after tree of flowering rhododendrons – pink ones, red ones, mauve ones!!! We also watched a fierce thunder, lightening and hail storm (from the safety of our balcony – phew!). Oh and some of the track was a fun challenge today – it was a track that few people use so there were no obvious trail markers or tracks and no one around.
16. Oops…today we got caught in the thunder, lightening and hail!!! Again, all part of the fun!
17. Looking up at the peak of the scared peak of Machapuchare (Fish Tail mountain).
18. Seeing Annapurna Base Camp in the distance and walking the gentle incline up the Annapurna Sanctuary to reach it.
19. Hanging out at ABC! The weather was cloudy this morning so there was no sunrise or view of any kind for us. We decided we had not come this far not to see what we had come for so crossed our fingers for a clear day tomorrow. We passed the day with others who were patient enough to hang around, played Nepali-style volleyball, learned new a new card game, ate, and had many glimpses of what the sanctuary might look like in all its glory.
20. WOW WOW WOW! The morning was absolutely glorious. We ventured out at 4.30am and the mountains and sky and stars and planets were completely breath-taking!!! Watching the sky grow brighter and the sun eventually slide above the massive peaks was so beautiful! WOW WOW WOW!
21. Yesterday and today we walked all the way from ABC to Nayapol. It was a big distance to cover (usually it takes 3 days) but we really enjoyed the challenge (and hot pools at Jinhu last night really helped!). Today the terraced fields were wonderful to walk through too.
And then we found ourselves back in civilisation wondering if we had really been gone for 3 weeks!!!
It was a wonderful trek, we met some fabulous people, and both fell in love with Nepal!!!
From the Annapurna Circuit we were supposed to head to India but we loved Nepal so much we decided to stay a few weeks longer.
We had a few days in Pokhara, such a different city to the mayhem of Kathmandu and traveller-ville is beside a pretty lake – it was easy to pass a few days. Logan spent a morning kayaking the Upper Seti River and enjoyed having a play.
Then we headed west for a rafting trip down the Karnali River. The first day was all about travelling and it was all going well until we met a road block – two bus companies arguing over who could pick up passengers where…and to prove their point, one decided to park their buses at all entrances and exits of a main highway roundabout – super! About 10pm our guides said we might as well get some rest in a guest house and they would wake us early once the block was clear. Well, they woke us early but then we (and about 2000 others) proceeded to sit and wait until about 3pm. Apparently road blocks are a normal way of solving disputes in Nepal!!! From there we still had a number of hours of bumpy bus ride to go and we finally (thankfully) pulled up to the beach at 3am on Day 3!
But from there, it was 7 days of rafting down the beautiful Karnali River. The rapids were tame but fun and the river swift enough that we floated gently downstream with very little effort for much of it. Logan got in some more kayaking and there were some nice play-waves. We also had 2 hydro-speeds (like giant flutterboards) that were fun to play in the waves on. When the sitting got too much we were able to float/swim down the river…all very relaxing. We had a fun group of people and a great crew of guides/safety kayakers/cooks. We had a lot of time to hang out on the sandy beaches and it was amazing how a seemingly deserted beach could suddenly be teeming with children all wanting to see what we were doing. The scenery was lovely – bush, terraces, grass or mud hut villages…Nepal is so pretty! The monsoon seems to be coming early to Nepal this year so we had some more spectacular lightening and thunder storms – the sand storms were a little more inconvenient as our tents, eyes, ears and dinner filled with sand…mmm, crunchy!!!
From the river we headed to Bardia National Park – a 968 square kilometre park established to protect the Bengal tiger population and its environment. We had three days there and spent them on a jeep safari, 2 walking safaris, an elephant walk and a wash in the river with 4 elephants. We were lucky enough to see the endangered one-horned rhinos, wild elephants and gharial crocodiles as well many monkeys, deer, wild boar, lizards, birds, spiders etc etc. Our first rhino came crashing out of the bush on the other side of a small river – he looked at us and we looked at him, he made to look like he was going to charge us, our guide said “RUN!”, we ran, the rhino crashed back into the bush! It was a little disconcerting that our guide was terrified but wonderful to have such a close encounter! The other rhinos we saw were further in the distance and they didn`t know we could see them – it was lovely to watch them cruising around doing what they do. We weren`t lucky enough to see a tiger but tiger-prints in the mud at least proved to us that they exist and that they probably saw us!
Then on Thursday it was time to start the journey to India. It took us 3 buses, 3 jeeps, 1 train, 1 rickshaw and 25 eventful hours to get from Bardia to Varanasi. It was sad to leave Nepal and friends we had spent a few weeks travelling with (thanks for the fun Dior, Greg, Jess and Richard) but we were both excited to be finally seeing what India is all about. We had a final dal bhat at the border (the Nepali staple of rice, lentils, curried vegies and pickles that we ate SO many times…1 because it is delicious, 2 because it was cheap, and 3 because we usually only needed to buy one because they always come with offers of “More rice? More dal? More curry?”) and then we were in India.
We only have 2 weeks here before we fly to Sri Lanka so it is going to be a quick trip. It is hot so we will have busy mornings and evenings and spend the days in a pool, in a cafe, or somewhere that has shade, a fan or AC!
