Unfortunately, in our minds Nepal wins a prize in the nomination: How to destroy the most majestic and famous trek in the world. WHY, oh why you have to make a dirt road where once it was a trek??? There is just a really small part of trek where you don't have trucks and busses running near you (or on you…). But about everything from the beginning. Here are our adventures in the Annapurna Circuit Trek!
Getting There (Eventually)
We took a bus from Kathmandu, Nepal early morning to go to Pokhara, just 7 hours... We were planning to start the trek directly once arrived by taking another transport to Besisahar or a bit further but we missed the right stop like two newbies...
So, we had to spent a night in Pokhara. And next morning, we took a 5 hours bus to reach Besisahar. Then, we took a shared jeep to reach Jagat in order to finally start our trek :-) What a boring story, isn't?
Days 1–3: Into the Valley
We skipped the first two days of trek with a jeep, but it was better for us, less walking on the road with jeeps/motorbikes and we didn't have unlimited days in Nepal. We were lucky because of the good weather and because we saw nice monkeys with babies! We managed to reach the village of Tal (around 10 Kms) where we dropped our tent.
Next morning, we had a new little friend who did a few kilometers with us. It was a young cute black dog! We did almost 22 Kms this day. At the end we took a room in Koto to relax a bit more. This is why trekking in Nepal is so comfortable. Everything is easy, you can avoid taking tent, cooking stuff or whatever else... But still a lot of people take a guide and full team support.
The following day was also tough, we did 23.5 Kms still going up. We had beautiful views of Annapurna white peaks. We dropped our tent in the middle of nowhere, in front of waterfalls, just 2Kms before Humde. We did a fire and ate marshmallow like when we were kids :-) It was so goooood!
Days 4–5: Manang and the Blue Sheep
When we woke up, we were a bit slow. Our bodies suffered a bit. We crossed the famous village of Manang where we bought Yak cheese and salamis. This is where we saw a few foreigners. It was really a good idea to do this trek during the low season, you are really alone :-) Moreover, after Manang, there is no jeep or motorbike anymore! What a relief…
We reached the village of Yak Kharka to sleep which is already at 4000 meters of altitude. We met a friendly group of people from Latvia, unusual we could say (same like when you meet a Lithuanian, isn't :-) ?)
Day 6: High Camp at 4,800m
Next day was definitively an important one as we were observing ourselves for any altitude sicknesses. We continued to go up slowly to reach the High Camp village at 4800 meters of altitude. It was amazing, the weather was so good that we were just with our thermo layer! We did it without any trouble and had a really good sleep even if breathing was more challenging in the altitude.
Day 7: Thorong La Pass at 5,416m
We woke up at 3AM to leave for 4AM in order to reach the Thorong La Pass at 5416 meters of altitude but it was raining... We finally started at 5AM and it took us 3 hours to reach the Pass. Not so nice view as you can see but you can feel at this altitude, the landscapes are of another levels! We had a little headache and started to go down quickly. It was only around 9AM that the sky was clear. And it was just breathtaking...
We were clearly exhausted. We did a long break for a good lunch at Muktinath, Nepal (at Bob Marley restaurant, funny...). We found our last energy for 1 more hour of walk and slept in a really average hotel (Nirvana) in Khinga, Nepal.
The Dusty Finale
The next morning, we were really happy and proud to have successfully climbed without serious acclimatization (thanks Sikkim!). We did 2 Kms on the road but found a nice footpath far from any road. But road came back quickly, dusty and windy... We hitchhike a big truck for the first time for a few kilometers. Then, we managed to avoid the road by going along the river. It was a bad experience... Too much dust and wind, we almost fell in the river several times as the footpath just sucks...
We decided to stop the trek at Jomsom (because we were so sick of dusts and cars passing by) and took a bus to relax in Tatopani. A really nice village where we tried the famous hot springs :-) So, 7 days of trek for us and we really had more fun than in Sikkim thanks mainly to the weather. Next morning, we took a bus to come back in Phokara to relax and shine!
June 7–14, 2018