After our relaxing day in Pokhara, Fiona and I headed back to the hills. With Dhan, our porter, we took a taxi to Phedi and started up the big hill. We spent the night in Pothana. The next morning was a pleasant stroll up through the rhododendron forest to a pass and then down several thousand feet to the Modi Khola, a river.
The second night was spent at Jhinu Danda. We arrived in the middle of the afternoon and I took the opportunity to head down to the hot springs. I still had some energy left, so I ran down the trail for about ten minutes and arrived at the riverside hot springs. The pools of hot water were not that impressive by themselves, but once you factor in the surroundings, they were excellent. I was the only one down there. The hot pools were on the edge of a good sized river and there were big, water smoothed boulders everywhere. The valley was steep and covered with trees. Without the clouds there would even have been some mountain views. On the walk back up the hill I was so relaxed that I was forced to walk very slowly and the climb up took about thirty minutes.
We had lunch just past the big tourist village of Chomrong. From this point on, all the villages were really just a collection of four or five lodges and not places where people actually lived. We were now in the Annapurna Sanctuary. This meant that it was for tourists only, no permanent settlements. After a night at Bamboo, we started one of the most difficult sections of the trail.
The entire morning was spent gaining elevation by climbing stairs. I prefer uphill and did not really notice the difficulty, but Fiona had a bit of a rough time of it. We stopped for lunch in Himalaya and decided to call it a day. We were not really in any great rush and it was supposed to be a fun vacation anyway, so while Fiona napped away the afternoon, I read a book.
We continued up the valley. By this point the valley was very narrow and very tall. The sides were nearly vertical and are frequently swept by avalanches. The trail took many detours around washed out sections. Looking north, we were gazing upon the southern facing slopes. They were brown. As we progressed up the valley, we were able to look south and look at the northern facing slopes of the valley. They were covered with snow and, therefore, white. It was quite interesting to walk up into a brown valley and look back upon a white valley. We spent that evening at Machhupuchhre Base Camp (MBC). This was just a collection of four identical lodges and some flat ground for tents. I climbed up the hill behind the hotel and realized that the hill was a giant wall of rock leftover from a glacier.
The next morning we walked for about two hours up to Annapurna Base Camp (ABC). ABC is situated on the glacial moraine. I spent the whole afternoon sitting on the edge of the moraine, looking down onto the massive glacier and listening to the ice cracking and the rocks falling into the small glacial ponds as the sun heated up the glacier. As far as I can tell, this is one of the best ways in the whole world to spend a day.
Up until this point, the weather was clear every morning and clouds moved up the valley in the afternoon. Also, there was still a few days before the Spring trekking season officially started. This meant that we were usually the only ones at the lodge and we saw very few people on the trails.
On our full free day at ABC, I decided to take advantage of the perfect morning weather to climb a few thousand feet above the lodge. The hill was covered with snow, but Dhan and I were able to follow a ridge of rocks up the slope. At this altitude (above 13,500 feet), I tired quickly and took many rest breaks. These stops were often longer than necessary because we amused ourselves by rolling rocks down the hill and seeing how far they would go.
Eventually, we got as high as possible without trying to walk on the very deep snow. From this high point, I was able to get a good impression of the Annapurna area. We had walked up the narrow valley into a gigantic bowl. The bowl was formed by about a dozen very tall mountains. The interior of the bowl was carved out by several large glaciers. In every direction I was surrounded by towering, snow covered peaks. I sat for about an hour admiring the view.
On the way back down to ABC, I felt like playing a little bit. I left the safety of the rocks and ventured out into the snow. With every step I sunk down to my crotch and it often took a good deal of effort to lift my back leg and swing it over the snow for the next step. I soon found that it was easier to roll down the slope than walk. That afternoon the clouds did not come and we were treated to another beautiful sunset.
Some Kiwis woke us up early to watch the sunrise, so we got a pretty early start on our way down. We went from ABC all the way back down to Bamboo. We passed the section that had given Fiona trouble on the way up, but she found it easy to go back down. I, on the other hand, am not as fond of downhill and found the stretch a little difficult. My legs were sore that evening for the first time on the trek.
After a few hours heading down the valley and a thousand or so feet heading up the next valley on a seemingly endless series of stairs, we arrived back in Chomrong. Fiona found us a penthouse room with a great view at the lodge that served the best pizzas in town.
Chomrong is the far limit of where short treks go for mountain views. Above Chomrong the trail is more difficult. For this reason Chomrong, and especially our next night stop of Ghandruk, are fully equipped to cater to more comfort minded trekkers and tourists. In Ghandruk we stayed in a room with an attached bathroom, plenty of hot water, a western sit-down style toilet, and electricity. The tables in the dining hall had two table clothes each. At nearly four dollars per night, the room was by far the most expensive one we had stayed at on the trek, but it was the last night on the trail and time to splash out.
The final day was spent going very far down the valley to Biranthanti, the town we had started our previous trek to Muktinath from. We took a taxi back to Pokhara and spent the next day and a half eating in the nice restaurants and boating on the lake. Two days ago we took the long bus ride back here to Kathmandu and yesterday Fiona flew home.
I was very impressed with the organization of the Annapurna Conservation and Protection Area (ACAP). ACAP teaches the lodges how to use solar power for hot water and encourages the use of kerosene instead of firewood. They also assist in small hydro-electric schemes, community education and numerous other aid activities. Additionally, they support local lodge associations. These groups regulate prices for beds and food and also formulate a standardized menu for the village. This prevents tourists from bargaining down the prices too far. Especially compared to the Everest area, they have done a wonderful job of educating and supporting the local populations while at the same time protecting the environment from the demands placed upon it my thousands of trekkers.
Most of the lodges had solar powered hot water heaters. They also used kerosene for cooking and heating and discouraged the sale of water in plastic bottles. Instead they offered boiled and filtered water for trekkers. Perhaps my favorite thing about the lodges was the organic gardens. Whenever I ordered a dish with vegetables, someone would come out of the kitchen and head down to the garden to pick the veggies fresh.
Fiona has a fairly good paying job in Australia and was therefore not too concerned about the cost of goods and services. I adapted to her style of travel for the month and found it a much easier way to travel. We often paid four or five dollars for a room instead of the usual two or three. We also drank as much hot chocolate as we wanted. I spent, perhaps, an extra fifty or sixty dollars over the month, but it was worth it. Now that she is gone, I have returned to my old cheap restaurants and hotels.
This evening, Julia and Rikarda arrive from Germany. They will stay for one month and we will probably do a little trekking and some white-water rafting.
