Trekking it up

Sunday, May 17 - Saturday May 23

Our trek began in the pouring rain, not exactly an ideal start but we weren't deterred. We were welcomed by so much greenery, several donkeys, and a lot of calm in the air—the beauty was striking. Our trekking group consisted of Jean and Weibie, a couple from Germany and Ben, a college student from New York state. The rest of our team was made up of guides Pema Sherpa and Wang Chhuk Sherpa, Bryan and my porter 16 year old Norbu Sherpa and for the first three days Lakpa Tamang and Phurba Sherpa rounded out the crew.

There are lots of options for companies and guides to go through to trek. My friend Phil from Denver had trekked with Pema last year, so we decided to go through his company, too.

It may be rainin', but we just don't care.

Some beauty early on.

The first day turned out to be surprisingly easier than we expected; little did we know it would be by far the easiest day of the entire trek. Our first stop was at a tea house called Indra Guesthouse in Tikhedhunga (all the teahouses along the Anapurna Sanctuary Trek are named, usually with names such as “Excellent View Guesthouse”. You can imagine that the view is, well, excellent). Because we did our trek at the end of the trekking season, we didn't encounter that many other trekkers and we were the only group at the guest house that night. Apparently the opposite is true in high season (October through December) when the guesthouses are packed with trekkers.

Bryan is seen here resting (that picture is not staged; we had just reached the guesthouse and had not had lunch yet).

I spent the rest of Day One finishing the first Twilight book and later playing some serious games of Uno with our small group and headed to sleep early; early to bed was to become standard protocol.

Our second day turned out to be picture perfect, and we were lucky to get our first breathtaking glimpse of the Anapurna South peak.

Much of it was uphill on the second day, but we were able to have a delicious lunch (also, normal protocol, the food was great throughout) of veg momo's. The day was put into perspective early for me as a few young girls were climbing the same steps we were, but to get to school. As we huffed and puffed, their little legs carried them up without much problem.

We reached Ghorepani, our stop for the night, later that afternoon very tired, but it was much cooler there as we had gained in altitude. As I had finished Twilight I paid a ridiculous amount for a new book—Shantaram—which at 900 + pages would be no small task to finish (or carry) and my efforts to bargain with the bookshop owner failed miserably. The rest of the afternoon lead to discussion with our guides around the fireplace about previous treks and life in Nepal and Kathmandu and of course, lots of tea.

Perhaps the best part of the trekking was the copious amounts of tea we were able to consume—my favorites being fresh mint with lemon tea and milk tea close seconds. The other best part was the number of times I was able to order chocolate pancakes. But; I digress.

The morning of Day Three we were hoping to catch an amazing sunrise and climb Poon Hill; but alas, despite waking up and getting ready, it wasn't a clear day, so we had to forgo that trip.

Our third day was our last full day with our original group, and it also came apparent that we would continue to see many of the same people along our trek as we went, which was oddly comforting to me.

Photo of our entire group from the first three days of the trek

The day was very misty and foggy for most of it, as evident in the photo below, and the last stretch was tough, but it was worth it as we had a beautiful view of the mountain range where we stayed for the night.

I couldn't quite get over how peaceful it was there, and how much I loved it. Also at this stop I met a woman from England who had recently retired and had also spent a substantial amount of time in India volunteering at a school the past few months.

The next morning I woke up before dawn and was able to get some pre-sunrise shots of the mountain range.

Day Four Bryan and I split off from the rest of the group and guided by Wang Chhuk and Norbu headed off to reach ABC (Anapurna Basecamp). We had near perfect weather again, but it was actually fairly hot, and a lot harder than our previous days (or possibly we were just getting tired...)

We met this trusty stead along the way.

I can't remember what they were drying in the sun, but this man was nice enough to allow me to take a photo of him and his work.

One of the many bridges we crossed.

This is where I got some major BA.

We finally reached Sinewa, our guesthouse for the night, and I couldn't wait as I was starting to have some pain with my big toes, but as I was taping them up, I didn't bother checking too closely. This guesthouse had a common room to eat and hang out, and we met up again with Australian Rob and British Ben who we had crossed paths with the day before and their guide Reshom, and also met fellow trekkers from Israel and France.

Below, a photo of Norbu introducing a small Nepali child to the joys of my iPod.

Day Five and Six brought us trekking with Ben, Rob, and Reshom, trekking in and out of rain showers, taking in many more waterfalls, crossing lots of bridges and some snow before we finally reached the ABC. It was very cold at ABC and a bit rainy, but that didn't stop me from joining in a spirited game of volleyball (who knew people in Nepal liked volleyball so much?) and that night, for a small fee, we were able to heat up the place with a fire under the table in the common room as about 12 trekkers from various parts of the world played cards.

Me and all my boys!

Day Seven was our longest day as we trekked higher early to try and get good snaps of the mountain range, but were met with a lot of cloud cover. Still, it was pretty fabulous to have mint tea at the base of the mountain early in the morning. We trekked all the way back to Sinewa, where we continued the infamous International Uno Tournament.

This Canadian got seriously screwed in UNO.