TOTAL ELEVATION GAIN: 800m
I woke up today to the sound of cows mooing and birds chirping. The sunlight streaming in through the wide windows prevented me from lazing in bed. I got up and put my glasses on. I could see the towering Macchapuchre (Fish Tail) mountain, it's tip just visible through the clouds. Other mountain ranges decided to show themselves too. We couldn't figure out which ones they were but we did guess they were part of the Annapurna Range.
We packed out Day Packs in the morning - gloves, hats, woolen caps, goggles, jackets, ponchos etc. all went in. This was what we'd be carrying on an everyday basis on our backs. After a while of figuring out we had and rucksacks in a good shape. Mama's idea's of colour coding each of our bags full of clothes, woolens etc. was life saving. There was no confusion at all in figuring out what was whose! (Not the sense of surprise that Mama cam up with the idea!)
It's 8:00am now. My desk is at right-angles to the window. As I look out I get a full blown 180 degree view of the mountains. More peaks are appearing, now closer. Some of them are so snowy they almost look like meringues. Two lone birds are circles around each other. Machhapuchre is still visible, looking rugged and formidable. The sky is blue, so clear and beautiful.
We had a very hearty breakfat of bread, omelet and sautéed potatoes. Dada incessantly kept reminding us of the importance of eating a full meal to provide fuel for the day. After breakfast, we met our porter Tirtha Bhadur Gurung. He seemed like a really sweet chap. smiling and jolly. We decided to start our trek from Phedi and end eight or ten days later at Nayapul, depending on our condition. Tirtha made us fill up the TIMS forms at the hotel and we decided to meet at 9:30am to load the jeep and push off.
I'm back in the room now, looking out of the window. The Fish Tail is almost completely obscured by the clouds, and they are slowly moving in to hide the snowy meringue ranges too.
We started for the TIMS office at 9:50am. They were just pulling up they're grills when we arrived. Within ten minutes we got our permits and drove to Tirtha's trekking agency - Eastern Light Trek for some formalities. His boss was very helpful and spoke about the route we could take, the duration of the trek, etc.
We started for Phedi at around 10:30am. As we drove, I noticed that from being surrounded by hills in the valley, we seemed to be headed straight for them. Phedi cam as a bit of a surprise. The driver suddenly stopped the car near a cluster of two houses and said "here, yes?"
I woke up today to the sound of cows mooing and birds chirping. The sunlight streaming in through the wide windows prevented me from lazing in bed. I got up and put my glasses on. I could see the towering Macchapuchre (Fish Tail) mountain, it's tip just visible through the clouds. Other mountain ranges decided to show themselves too. We couldn't figure out which ones they were but we did guess they were part of the Annapurna Range.
We packed out Day Packs in the morning - gloves, hats, woolen caps, goggles, jackets, ponchos etc. all went in. This was what we'd be carrying on an everyday basis on our backs. After a while of figuring out we had and rucksacks in a good shape. Mama's idea's of colour coding each of our bags full of clothes, woolens etc. was life saving. There was no confusion at all in figuring out what was whose! (Not the sense of surprise that Mama cam up with the idea!)
It's 8:00am now. My desk is at right-angles to the window. As I look out I get a full blown 180 degree view of the mountains. More peaks are appearing, now closer. Some of them are so snowy they almost look like meringues. Two lone birds are circles around each other. Machhapuchre is still visible, looking rugged and formidable. The sky is blue, so clear and beautiful.
We had a very hearty breakfat of bread, omelet and sautéed potatoes. Dada incessantly kept reminding us of the importance of eating a full meal to provide fuel for the day. After breakfast, we met our porter Tirtha Bhadur Gurung. He seemed like a really sweet chap. smiling and jolly. We decided to start our trek from Phedi and end eight or ten days later at Nayapul, depending on our condition. Tirtha made us fill up the TIMS forms at the hotel and we decided to meet at 9:30am to load the jeep and push off.
I'm back in the room now, looking out of the window. The Fish Tail is almost completely obscured by the clouds, and they are slowly moving in to hide the snowy meringue ranges too.
We started for the TIMS office at 9:50am. They were just pulling up they're grills when we arrived. Within ten minutes we got our permits and drove to Tirtha's trekking agency - Eastern Light Trek for some formalities. His boss was very helpful and spoke about the route we could take, the duration of the trek, etc.
We started for Phedi at around 10:30am. As we drove, I noticed that from being surrounded by hills in the valley, we seemed to be headed straight for them. Phedi cam as a bit of a surprise. The driver suddenly stopped the car near a cluster of two houses and said "here, yes?"
I expected to start the trek on a much flatter terrain than what met us. On the other side of the road, a winding path of stone steps went right up the mountains. After insisting on taking a beginning picture, then checking that all our bottles are full, we began the Annapurna Base Camp trek. The very first steps gave us a real feel of what this trek was going to be like. The steps winded upwards into the mountain. Thick forest surrounded us, dense deciduous forest. These peculiar looking green insects kept hopping about on the stone steps. For the first few hours I was completely focused on the steps. I was still getting used to climbing in the trekking shoes. Varun and I led the way for most of the time. Well me, more than Varun actually!
After about forty minutes we came to a landing from where we got a breathtaking view of where we'd come form. We could see the river winding through the valley beside the road we'd driven on. It was quite a relief to take our bags off our backs for a while and sit in the shade. It was past 11:30 now and the sun didn't seem to be in a kind mood today. We met a man from Chile at the landing. He was doing the ABC trek too. Varun promptly asked him if he watched football to which he said "Yes. Like everyone in South America!"
We continued upwards through a few terraced paddy and millet fields and open skies before getting back to the same trail of stone steps and deciduous forest. After two and a half hours of trekking we came to Dhampus, our lunch destination. We walked for twenty minutes along a motor road until we came to a place where Tirtha said we could eat lunch. I'd gotten a bit annoyed by then. It was late. Why couldn't we stop somewhere closer? There were so many inns along the way. Well, turns out Tirtha knows the owner at the restaurant and gets all his guests there. That's okay, after all everyone needs a living.
I think it was called Pleasant View Hotel or something of the sort. We were all famished after two and a half hours of steep trekking. Tirtha said this would be a good time to recharge our batteries. Funnily enough it took an hour and fifteen minutes for the fuel to come. The cook took her own sweet time to get the food but the plates of Nepali food looked so good that we quickly forgot our annoyance. In a brass plate and neatly arranged were a bowl of rice, pickle, a potato and fern vegetable and dal served in a brass bowl. It was a delicious meal. I loved the fern veggie which we'd only tried once before in Sikkim. It tasted so fresh - Tirtha told us that the ferns are picked in the wild. When we were done are content with happy stomachs, we got the bill - ₹1600! We were shocked! ₹1600 for a simple meal of Dal Rice, that too on a roadside inn in the middle of the mountains? My god! If it went on like this, we wouldn't have enough cash to sustain us till we got back. Tirtha offered to get us the menu, puzzled by our surprise. These guys had a menu? We said there was no need for that and paid the amount due. We asked Tirtha if from next time we could go to some place cheaper, to which he replied after a couple of seconds in a thoughtful voice "Okay, I try."
We began walking at 3:40pm once again. It was slowly getting chilly. We could see the clouds moving in, inching closer by the minute. A lot more streams were crossing the stone path now. The stone steps too were becoming more irregular than the Phedi-Dhampus route. We seemed to be getting closer to the wild. As we continued our ascent, we suddenly found ourselves in a beautiful meadow. I thought of the Sound of Music, Julie Andrews singing in the mountains of Austria. She could just as well have been singing in the mountains of Nepal. The meadow had a steep gradient and we walked up to one end from where the trail restarted. At that end of the meadow was a map of the Annapurna Base Camp route which I took a picture off, thinking ir would come in use late on.
After the meadow which we reached at about 4:20pm, the clouds started moving in much nearer that before. Soon we were surrounded by thick mist. My glasses began to get foggy. We experienced a different sort of foggy and chilly beauty.
We reached Pothana quite exhausted after a long days work at around 5:00pm. We met our Chilean friend at the tea house. Dada told him Varun is a great fan of Alexis Sanchez at which the Chilean got really excited.
We took a room with a double bed, a single bed and an attached bathroom for ₹500. Very reasonable. Chintan said we'd get bed for between ₹150-₹200, so this was cheaper! Probably because the season isn't in full flow as yet. After a quick shower (I was lucky enough to get hot water; poor Varun went first and by the time the hot water started flowing, he was done!) we headed toward the restaurant for a steaming cup of tea and I began documenting the happenings of the day in this journal.
While I was at it, Tirtha came over to discuss the next few days. We all poured over the ABC map and tried to figure out the best plan of action. I think the Chili man and his porter were doing the same at the next table. A lady named Deepa came over from the next table to listen to our ponderings on the route details. She seemed so interested, and tought we had a wonderful holiday planned as a family.
We had dinner at 7:00pm - Chicken Momos, Vegetable Curry and Egg Curry. Nothing special really, but cold weather makes you appreciate and food that is warm and filling.
I think we're short of money from the discussion happening next to me while I'm writing. We didn't expect food to be so expensive. We were charged ₹1600 for a simple lunch today and the prices now are quite exorbitant. Anyways Dada says we'll manage as he brought along 4 hundred dollar bills, and he says it shouldn't be a problem to exchange it for Nepali rupees on the way. Planning ahead pays of, see...
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