Phew, we made it. Ron and I had been going back and forth wondering if heading into the mountains for multiple days was going to be a good idea for the family. We tried asking Sadie and Anna but to be fair, 3 out of 4 of us really had no concept what to expect, let alone make any decision whether or not we could do it. Once we got the news of a break in the weather, and since we were so close to the lure of the Himalayas, we decided to go for it. We had come this far…as it turns out, it was one of our absolute top 3 trip adventures so far.
Our Route in the Annapurna Conservation Area;
Pokhara by taxi to Kande, start walking.
Kande to Landruk (1640 m), stay at the Tibetan Guest House
Landruk to Jhinu (1760 m), decide to visit hot springs then push on for the night at Chhomrong (2170 m) at the Himalaya View Guest House
Chhomrong to Tadapani (2630 m) at the Fishtail View Top Lodge
Tadapani to Ghorepani (2750 m) at the Hotel Hill Top
Poon Hill (3185 m) from Ghorepani for sunrise then on down to Tikhedhunga for one last night at Chandra Guest House
Tikhedhunga to Nayapul and taxi back to Pokhara.
We didn’t keep track of our elevation gains and losses, but we can tell you, nothing is a straight shot from A to B. We had many Grouse Grind like climbs and descents to conquer every day. And the girls were amazing. It didn’t start off very well. Unfortunately poor Anna got a stomach bug the last night in Kathmandu and was up all night barfing. She barely made it for the 6 hour (which was really 8.5 hours) bus ride to Pokhara and barely ate dinner the night before the trek. She was determined though and when we pondered the question whether or not to delay the trek by a day, she said “no way!”
The first hours were pretty grim. It was of course straight up and Ron ended up carrying a wilted version of Anna on his back. I think we were all wondering how we were ever going to make it. But sure enough, Anna rallied with a good lunch and a cup’a tea to face the afternoon with renewed energy. Phew. Oh and in the first 5 minutes we came upon a village Buffalo butchering session. Now we all know where meat comes. But somehow most of us still do separate the visual of cellophane wrapped portions in thegrocery store from the actual animal with head and hoofs still attached being sliced up by 6 men in a field. Life lesson number 465 since leaving Vancouver.
The magnificent views of Annapurna South (7219 m) and Maccapuchhre (6997 m) which we had seen from Pokhara were suddenly larger than life beckoning us to carry on. The trail took us through forests, farmers’ terraced fields, open slopes and right through countless villages where people live with no road access. The route allowed us to get a close glimpse of village life. Now I do know that that life has been irreversibly altered by the fact that we are walking through, buying things like tp and chocolate but it’s about as close as I’ve ever been to what resemble remote village life. The villagers were friendly and hospitable and offered amazing food. It really struck me how neat and tidy everything was. The farms were clearly well cared for, garbage was well taken care of and there was an overall sense of conservation. We made a pact to go without beer or pop and when possible and buy boiled water instead of plastic bottled mineral water. We had some iodine tablets as a back-up. We did not drink out of the streams but I don’t think we were high enough to do that. We walked over a LOT of animal dung en route, enough to make me very suspicious the water table had to be affected even though it looked sparkling clean.
New delicacies included Dal Bhat (lentil soup with curry and rice), Gurung Bread (a yummy thing lingering somewhere between a donut and a pancake), homemade soup with tons of ginger and garlic, Mo Mo’s (vegetable or meat dumplings) and apple rolls which are deep friend apple pastries. Needless to say, Janet wasn’t exactly shedding pounds she may have lost from so much walking. Accommodation ran at about $4 for all of us. The guest houses count on revenue from food, but even that, by our standards is very inexpensive. Various organizations have worked with the villages to help them offer good menus and even some water purification projects. Not many of the water projects are actually working though so you must rely on them boiling the water well and/or your own purification systems.
Every step along the trail offered breath taking views. The sun sets and sun rises (and we did try to see them all) were unbelievable, something we found hard to capture on film. And we also met “new best friends” every day. First Jan & Giovanni from Switzerland and Italy respectively.
Jan had an incredible story. He is originally from the Czech Republic and was diagnosed in the 80’s with terminal leukemia. There was no hope for treatment at home so he managed to get permission to leave but was only able to leave with his wife and $50 in his pocket. He headed to the US where he had heard about bone marrow transfusions and began a 2 year journey to raise money and find a donor. He had been given 2 years to live and just before his time was up, he had finally raised the money and found one donor out of a possible 280,000. His fundraising techniques must have been incredible, raising $50 or $100 at a time and up to $1000 from famous Czechs like Ivana Trump who would listen to his story. He had met his friend Giovanni while Giovanni was travelling through Czech just a couple of months before Jan was diagnosed. Jan hosted Giovanni in his home at a time when Czechs were not allowed to host foreigners. When Giovanni heard of Jan’s predicament, he became a critical fundraiser through his work as a major event marketer and runner, creating fundraising events in Italy. They are life-long friends now and travel at least once or twice a year together finding new adventure. Jan lived in Seattle for 4 years after the transfusion until he was given a clean bill of health and his 3 daughters were born, and now he lives in Switzerland working also as a major event marketer. He approaches every day I think with the energy of someone who has been given a 2nd chance to live. We really enjoyed meeting him. 
We also met a fabulous Israeli couple, newlyweds from San Francisco Bay area and a lovely semi-retired couple from Manchester. I can’t say we met one family en route but the girls proved to be very sociable and seemingly equally pleased sitting around with our feet at the fire socializing with new friends.
Somewhere in those mountains, plodding along taking a break from the view, navel gazing and listening to our family banter, I realized this trip has allowed us all to like each other again. Not love, family love is unconditional. But we are really enjoying each other, something that gets a bit lost for us in our busy life at home. I can only hope and strive to make it last once we return home.
A couple of tips if you ever plan on trekking in Nepal; take plastic bags so you can pick up garbage en route, take safety pins so you too can horrify your porters (if you have them) and dry your underwear off your pack while you hike, practice the rest step (something I’ll have to show you in person but it made a HUGE difference for climbing) and if you do plan on hiring a porter or guide, make sure you meet with them first and figure out they will mesh with you and provide the assistance you are hoping for. Our guides were great guys, Tej and Katchung but we were not able to communicate with them at all. Our load was pretty light, we packed very light but they were very inexperienced and unable to provide any guidance at all. We got pretty good at honing in on other guides to ask questions and after the first day, we took over control of the route and lodgings. Which was fine, as you recall my reference to control as being a major family trait.
Poon Hill on the 2nd last night was a highlight, climbing to 3185 m in the dark for sunrise. We had a full frontal view of at least 6 peaks including; Annapurna, Dhaulagiri and Maccapuchhre. Other highlights along the trail include; cuddling a baby monkey, meeting countless dogs, donkey trains, endless beautiful slate and flagstone paths/steps that would make a landscape designer’s head spin, beautiful Nepali people, tasting herbs and vegetables grown at high altitude, and never ending wonder at how the porters carry the loads they do. Oh, and the chicken guys carrying at least a dozen chickens at a time in cages on their backs.
I can’t believe we almost didn’t do the Trek. We will never forget it as an accomplishment and awesome experience.
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