HIMALAYA TREK - ANNAPURNA BASE CAMP

Well here goes the day of reckoning has finally arrived, we are actually going to climb and walk the Himalaya's for christmas.

We packed our tiny day packs with thin but warm layers of clothes and toiletry essentials (hotel freebie carbolic soap and deodorant), tied our sleeping bags tightly onto the side and bulked up with our warm fleece's, hoodies and coats and we were ready. We had booked a taxi to take us from Pokhara to Naya Pul where we would start and we stored our big packs in the managers room at the hotel and set off through the villages leaving civilisation behind and winding our way up high into the hills.

We arrived at the starting point of Naya Pul and got dropped at the roadside which was lined with a few shacks serving coffee and last minute snacks. We waited for the fanfare and raucous applause and gasps of admiration that we were undertaking such a feat ... but there was nothing so we decided to crack on and ask a local which way to go. He pointed us in the general direction and we set off down a rubble path and into a stretch of village followed closely by a scruffy black mountain puppy ... Yes, yet another dog had attatched itself to us and was showing us the way, we are sure they are being sent from above.

The village was a main street lined with modest dwellings that fronted as shops that provided fresh fruit, dry food and essentials for the local community and also any final items with an inflated price forgotten by the trekkers. Most of the counters were manned by small children (there were adults lingering in the background ready to pounce at the first sign of a real customer). It was amusing to watch as the children played shop and it brought back memories from our childhoods as we used to do the same, the only difference being this was real life for them, sitting in a space the size of half a garage (about 8ft by 7ft for the readers with spacial awareness :0) trying to amuse themselves in any way possible just waiting for something to happen for 12 hours a day. This wasn't just the children, the adults had the same life, just sitting and waiting, pondering, of course they make the most of their work life as we do at home with ours because it is all they know and what they have to do to survive.

At the end of the village was the first checkpoint in a place called Birethanti. The check points are set up by the government and are a great idea. They monitor your progress along the way and if you have an accident or go missing they roughly know where to look and it saves time and lives. This is in theory of course but in reality as it was out of season to be trekking, there were only 3 points open along the way and they leave it 2 weeks before they come and look for you if you have not checked out. Nevertheless it is a great system and there are many people treading the same paths and you do tend to look after eachother and keep an eye out, it becomes an unspoken rule.

We did all the necessary checks and had our permits stamped and after playing I SEE with a little girl for a while we went for it, coats off, sticks in hand, dog up front we were off!

The first day started with a gradual climb in the sunshine, we were following the river along a dusty path that wound up and around the hillside that provided an open view of the forest and jungle that clung onto the rock faces that surrounded us on all sides. The river itself was crystal clear lined with varying sized rocks and lapping at huge limestone boulders as it flowed happily along, like it was laughing and gurgling away. It reminded us of Dovedale or Snowdonia but in mammoth proportions.

We were getting in the stride of things trying not to show any fatigue to the locals who were skipping up at double our pace doing the school run or just nipping into town for supplies before they made the 6 mile trek back home (I will never again moan about carrying our shopping up asda steps ... well not for the first month at least). We were also blown away by the amount the Sherpa's carry as porters for other people and to supply the various tea and guest houses along the way, it is unimaginable that a human could load that much weight onto a tiny frame and attatch it to their backs via a strap around their head or that people need that much stuff to do a trek in the first place. The other regular companions on the mountain are the donkeys and horses who are also used to transport supplies up and down, although this is hard work for them and what we would see as animal cruelty but a necessity in daily Nepali life, they were well looked after and healthy, bulky animals built to carry their load and clip clop down with relative ease.

We ambled on avoiding the few landslides that divided the path with a rocky run now and again, nothing too bad at this point and easily navigated, we were lucky with the weather the sun was shining and there was no cloud just blue skies which gave us a clear view of the rice paddies and plantations that had cut a maze into the landscape, we faced our fears, well I did and crossed swing bridges and cable bridges high above the river all fine examples of modern engineering marrying with . We passed through many little villages like Mathathanti, Lamdawali, Sudame and Hille often just four or five humble dwellings and a couple of larger guesthouses with a restaurant or tea house, some just a couple of small holdings and a few locals going about their daily life, often cooking, collecting wood or working the land. The hygiene routine is performed outdoors under the tap or pipe that has been tapped into the river where they wash their bodies, hair, clothes and dishes and we witnessed a lot of this over the few days. After a good 5 hours walking we arrived at the first large village and major place to stay for the night Tikedunga. We loved the name and the feel of the place but we decided as it was still early afternoon we would carry on for a couple of hours and try and reach Ulleri the next village up.So after a lunch break of crackers and cereal bars we were ready to take on the last challenge of the day, the steps to Ulleri.

The terrain changed from dirt track and rubble road to large flat stones and high steps. Instead of open landscape following the riverbanks, this was scaling the side of a waterfall closed in by forest and boy was it hard work. We had regular stops to top up on water and view how far we'd come then it was head down and onwards and upwards, for our little legs the steps seemed giant and to climb each one our knees were way above our waist, thank god for the sticks. It was made all worth it by looking back through the breaks in the lush trees and viewing the valley outstretched below with the many verdant depths unfolding like a fan before your eyes, another layer appearing after a few hundred yards willing you to go on until. Finally we came to the summit and a cluster of guesthouses fronted with smily faces we had conquered the thousands of steps, we had reached our goal destination for the night Ulleri exhausted but happy and relieved.

To put into perspective how steep and hard the final climb of the day was look at it like this. We started at Naya Pul 1025m and walked 5 hours up to Tikedunga 1520m then we climbed to Ulleri 2020 so we walked the same height in 5 hours as we did in 1 and half. Shattered.

All the camps on the trek have an upper and lower and we decided to push that little bit further and make Upper Ulleri which was so worth the extra effort as there in front of us in gleaming pink glory was Macchapuchre (The Fishtail). We found a quaint little guesthouse "Hilltop Guest House" and checked out our room that was actually an MDF box on stilts. The room had two single beds, big thick blankets and a view of The Fishtail, what more do you need. We got out of our day clothes, made our way across the wobbly landing into another MDF box that was labelled bathroom and tried to get the shower to turn hot without success. After a freezing shower we shivered our way back to the room and layered up as the temperature outside had already dropped dramatically like the water. We made our way into the greenhouse I mean dining room and devoured a plate of veg curry and veg fried rice in minutes we couldn't believe how hungry all the walking made us.

After all that it was 6pm, pitch black and freezing so we did what every self respecting trekker would do in that situation we got into bed cuddling the teapot in my case and snuggled down for 12 hours kip. Heaven.