Gap Yahhhhh Travels: July 2010

I met Antoine in Besi Sahar where we spent the night. We got up early the next day and started the first leg to Bahundanda, passing through the villages of Khudi and Bhulbule . We managed to take a wrong turning on the way up to Bahundanda and found our selves contemplating whether we were supposed to cross the river in a really rickety looking contraption (Image below). We decided this would be a bad idea and headed up a horrible path knee deep in mud for about a km. Finally we arrived wet but contented after the first day and about 16km. Two Spanish guys; Bruno and Gunzalo arrived two hours later and we had dinner with them and chatted. The next day we headed for Tal, before we set off I was pretending that I needed a stick to climb the hills, the nice man in the lodge gave me a bamboo staff. The bamboo staff and I became great companions alas it ended in tragedy...more about that later. The morning of the second day was straight forward as we descended to Lili Bhir and then Ghermu. We climbed 700m to Tal, the last 200 of which was straight up and very difficult, but the views and the power of the swollen river were immense. The next day was set to be a big one, covering 25km and ascending 400m in total, but it was considerably more because as soon as we climbed a valley we seemed to descend to the other side. There was one particularly long and difficult climb. Antoine wasn't feeling great so I was continuously going ahead and then waiting for him to catch up. As we completed the last 2kms into Chame the skies opened and we were thoroughly soaked. The scenery started to change from Chame - from being lush and green to drier. From Chame to Pisang and Pisang to Manang the climbs were relatively straight forward relative to the Tal-Chame day. On the way into Manang there were some horse races which were exciting, the riders didn't have stirrups, they just had a rug on the back of the horse and a rope around it's neck. A horse from Khangsar beat a donkey from Manang. I thought this unfair, but we were informed Donkeys are fast sprinters. We enjoyed some delicious momo's before continuing into Manang. There was nobody in Manang when we came into the village, everyone was at the party so we just had to wait around. That evening after a disastrous start, I managed to beat the Spaniards and Antoine at Poker with some phenomenal lucky (and high) hands. The following day we enjoyed a rest day to aid the acclimatisation to the altitude, in the afternoon we moved to Khansgar an hour from Manang, we said an emotional fair well to the Spanish who were pressing on to the Thorung La. We went to bed early as the next day was massive, we aimed (Without the heavy bags.) to go from Khansgar to Tilicho lake and back in one day, an ascent of 1200 m and 30km round trip. We set off in the morning at 6.00, I forced a very fast pace. On the way to the lake we traversed across the sides of some very steep slippery mountains, with some outstanding views of the valley below. At one point I stopped Antoine and alerted him to two rocks falling down the mountain, they missed us by about 5m, but if we hadn't noticed them they could have seriously hurt us. They were about the size of a size 4 football, but would have broken bones....I arrived at the lake at 11.45 and Antoine joined me at 12.30. The climb had been seriously tough, about every 100m I had to stop for air. I also noticed at the lake that my resting heartbeat had increased to about 90 beats per minute I attributed this to the altitude (5000). The lake was unbelievably beautiful, there were huge glaciers on the left of the lake. the sound of avalanches and rock falls had followed us up the ascent. Whilst at the lake we witnessed many avalanches, including this huge one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m34L2Hjh6lg this glacier is about 3km away and I only caught the last part of the avalanche, but you can see it's truly enormous. After walking around the lake and scrambling up to different viewpoints we managed the descent in less than an hour. On the way back to Khansgar the sun was out and we got our first glimpses of the elusive mountain peaks that had been hidden behind cloud for the first part of the trek. Glimpses of Annapurna I and II were on show (I think). The next day was torture, we decided to go from Khansgar to Thorung Phedi. We left at 7 and had to climb what i considered the most difficult climb of the trip - the sun was out and it was sweltering. We only climbed 400m up in total, but it felt like a lot more. Maybe it was the legs playing up from the day before but it hurt. At the top of the mountain next to Khangsar we were afforded some of the best views of the trip, the scenery was outstanding. After gulping down liters of water we set off again. I learnt an important lesson about being in the mountains, the map appeared to direct us across a very steep face made up of shingle and large pieces of rock. I was adamant the map wouldn't be wrong but Antoine thought it far too dangerous. I climbed down a 10ft face to find that my holds were coming apart in my hand and kept giving way. When I got onto the slope, every step sent a cascade of rocks down the hill. Antoine had climbed higher and had spotted a safe path down, it was evident I was in the wrong place. Once back to the safety of the track we discovered that the part of the slope I had considered crossing had landslides all over the bottom of the slope and across our path. I learnt two things: If in doubt go back and always trek with a partner. We lunched in Lehar and then continued to Thorung Phedi. As we reached Thorung Phedi the nice weather disappeared and it started to rain. Unfortunately this continued into the next day. At breakfast at 7, we decided to wait an hour in the hope that the rain would subside. It didn't. We started the climb up from Thorung Phedi at 8.30. We had a total of 1200m to climb and it was supposed to take 4-6 hours. I arrived at the Thorung La pass a little after 10.30 Antoine 30 minutes later. I met a Belgian couple at the top who had left at 5.30 and only just arrived. Their guide was astounded at the speed at which we'd climbed. I'm sure the ascent to the lake had helped, as neither of us felt any ill effects of the altitude and the speed of the ascent; in fact it had been considerably easier than the lake and my resting heart beat was lower than the lake at around 75 beats. I think my body had just acclimatised. It was a shame that the weather was cloudy and wet as the view from the Thorung La Pass is supposed to be spectacular. Whilst waiting for Antoine I was sitting behind a little shelter, I thought to myself it smells a lot like piss here. A minute later a group of horses marched past me and prostrated themselves uphill. Their back legs taught, they simultaneously all relieved themselves. They were soon joined by their Nepali owners, who very kindly offered us some fried Buffalo momo's (Superb!). The skies opened during the descent to Muktinath, which was pretty much 1500m straight down. The knees got hammered here. We arrived early in Muktinath and found a cheap restaurant for dinner. Replenished we planned to be in Jomsom the following evening, Pokhara the next night. the following day we completed the 1000m descent to the town of Kagbeni (The closest you can get to the Kingdom of Mustang without paying the $500 entry permit.) It was a nice and quaint village with lots of character. After a cheap but delicious lunch we walked along the flat river bed to Jomsom. Everyone in the town was mad, they were charging a fortune for everything and it was dive. We resolved we would leave as soon as possible only to discover the bus was ridiculously expensive, the ticket seller even admitted that the Nepalis pay 1/3 what the tourists do but he refused to budge on the price. In retaliation we declared we would walk the 37km to Ghasa . We left at 7 and by 11.00 we were over halfway to Ghasa. We had been walking ridiculously fast and it was starting to tell. Antoine's feet were cut and my knees were aching. We stopped for a pot of tea (At least 4 spoons of sugar added to each cup) and chapati with honey. After our break we resumed the fast pace. Whilst crossing a small river, i had scrambled up hill to cross without removing my shoes, Antoine had just ploughed through. I thought Antoine was behind me and about a km after the river decided to wait for him. I waited for 10 minutes and then started to worry that maybe he ahd fallen and hurt himself trying to cross where had crossed the river. I ran allthe way back up and down hills but he wasn't there. I realised he must be well ahead of me and set about catching up. Antoine thought that I was ahead of him and had increased his pace to try and catch me up. I finally caught him 6kms later. the run had finished off my knees and Antoine's feet were very sore. We stopped for lunch 7 km from Ghasa in Lete. The walk down to Ghasa was painful but we finally arrived. The next day to Pokhara was a medley of jeeps, arguing about the price of jeeps that didnt go where they said they would, refusing to pay for jeeps, travelling on the top of jeeps in the monsoon rain and trekking. Antoine's quick temper probably saved us about a 7 or 8 pounds over the day and when we finally got into Pokhara having overshot the stop and had to get another bus back we rewarded ourselves with platefuls of Thukpa, momo's and real coffee. That's my Annapurna Circuit trek done. I'm spending a couple of days relaxing in Pokhara before going to Bardia national park to try spot a tiger before then crossing back into India and heading into Pakistan. Just been directed to David Cameron's comments on the bbc website, so fingers crossed I will have no problems crossing. Antoine incidentally had a flight back from Mongolia to France, but the Chinese won't let any French nationals in at the moment so he chose to come back via Nepal...More photos to come soon of the trek but they take an age to load...love to all x