Anna and Gil’s Nepal adventure continues…

6am, steaming hot fresh cinnamon rolls awaited us at the ‘tourist’ bus park in Pokhara. 4-hours of gravel bumpy roads in a ‘tin’ bus later we arrived at the start of the Annapurna Circuit trek. At 800m altitude we were surrounded by jungle, orange and banana trees and the warmth of the sun baked trails, and faces of the locals.

The geology was extremely fragile with massive landslides that made the walking incredibly slow and often quite dangerous while creeping around huge boulders balancing on the path edges that often crashed down into the furious river 300m below.

Unfortunately the amazing fiord type hillsides that made us feel so tiny were constantly under construction while the future plans to make a road all the way around the Annapurna circuit continue. The Nepalese boys risk life and limb while sitting on bluff edges drilling, bombing, chiseling and stripping the hillsides bare before pushing all the rock crashing and banging down into the once blue river.

Each morning we woke in our local lodges with the cocks doodle dooing chorus and the early donkey trains moving through the villages all geared up with their bells ad flowers and 100kgs worth of rice.

After 5 days following the river gradually up we felt our first rainfall after 6weeks in Nepal. Luckily it turned to snow 30minutes up the trail so we were welcomed to the highest pass in the world – Thorong La (5412m alt) – with fresh snow completely surrounding us. My buff and jacket froze instantly in position if I stopped moving even through the blaring sun.

From the pass we began the big decent, and over the next 3 days it was amazing to see such diversity in the terrain and scenery as we passed mars like red rock, barren foothills, 360 degree views of the massive Himalayan mountains, softening and whitening of the Nepalese and Tibetan faces, hot springs and the return of bright Christmas flowers and fruits.

Our trail then headed north and up again towards Annapurna base camp which we marched out in 2 days so we could be back at the hot springs for a relaxing Christmas day topped off with Christmas dinner of pizza, beer and chocolate cake with custard. Yum!

330km later we were back in Pokhara, a little tired and looking forward to a boiling hot shower. A beautifully diverse region with some incredibly awesome mountain ranges. I think I can safely say I have had my years worth of trekking. Time to relax. NAMESTE!