Annapurna Sanctuary

Set off on this trek on December 1st by taking a taxi to the trail start at Phedi. How not the Khumbu this is and I am so enjoying the contrast. So warm as well - about 25C. Yip yip yip! The trail started with steep zig-zags up between fields and meets a ridge top at Deorli about an hour and a half later. Then the pair of doughnuts that we are, followed a brilliantly made, paved trail through the rest of the village downhill and through more fields. Lots of people busy in their day to day chores, ploughing fields, thrashing and drying millet, chopping (pruning?) trees. Then, after not seeing a single other walker or bhatti (local tea shack) we decided to consult the map. Wrong way - so after me having a hissy fit as it was obviously Greg's fault (I have an ML after all), we made our way back up hill (in silence).

The real trail followed a ridge and then up through woodland. Two village strays (dogs) decided to accompany us in between trying to bite off each other's ears, and then we heard a right old commotion in the valley that definitely involved something bovine. Anyhow, it all went silent so we carried on. A few minutes later, two guys were coming towards us in the opposite direction. "Did you hear all that noise?" "Yes, a tiger has attacked a cow" No way was I going to believe this, but we kept the dogs with us so that they could get eaten first. Oh yes, and Greg and I were friends again by then so I couldn't really push him in front either!

The next three days involved really gradual climbing up the Modi Khosa (river) valley and going through some really picturesque villages. This time the local were from the Gurung tribe (related to Tibetan people), but not as much Buddhist in your face as the Khumbu as there were few stupas, prayer flags and gompas (oh yeah and no yaks too - too low and warm - see previous post to explain).

Nights are starting to get get quite cold now (December after all) and once the sun went in it was quite cold. How grateful we were to our massive 4 season bags and down jackets. I reckon at Annapurna BC it was about -10C outside during the night is not more.

Instead of having a yak burning stove as we had been used to, the lodges on this trek put kerosene gas burners under the table (often in a small pit). The table has heavy matting as a sort of skirt, under which your legs are warmed up draught free. I thought my manmade fibre soft shell pants would melt, nevermind being overcome by carbon monoxide poisoning! Noisy and smelly it was, but it worked. Flippin 100 rupees each though for the pleasure..hmm.

Well, I've seen some mountain panoramas in my time, but the Annapurna Sanctuary is amazing. 360 degrees of 7000 and 8000m giants. Annapurna South, 1, 2 & 3, Machupuchre (Fishtail), Annapurna itself...... Quite awestruck actually. We have a lovely video of this, but uploading is still a problem, so it will just have to wait.I would really reccomend this trek as a first time Himalaya taster.

No altitude problems which was good, and I learnt how to play poker with our new pals from Bilbao and Korea. I also saw my first wild monkeys in the bamboo and birch forest on the way down. A small family group were divided by the trail and were making a big noise calling to each other. One half eventually decided that they were going across, so they literally swang across the branches over our heads leaving the baby behind! Baby didn't like this and made very wimpery sort of noises as being the shortie of the family he just couldn't keep up with the big guys. Poor parenting I say! Liz Kay cute attack!

Got back to Pokhara and our friendly Yesmi guesthouse on December 8th via public bus from Naya Pul and have noticed even Pokhara is now colder...brrrrrr.