Annapurna Base Camp — Oct 2021

It started with Kamal , Rajiv and I planning for the Everest Base Camp (EBC) trek with Nepal Hiking Team (https://www.nepalhikingteam.com) (it is another interesting story how we landed up with NHT), and then the trek getting cancelled 4 days before our flight for some unavoidable reasons. My bags were packed for EBC and I was feeling some sort of vacuum — I reached out to friends if someone was willing to join me for Annapurna Base Camp (ABC) — but there were no takers — so I decided to go solo, and Ganga Raj Thapa @NHT promised me that he would organise the guide/porter/permits etc for the same. And surprisingly, Surabhi also said that she was keen to do the trek (just the way she decided to join me for the Brahmatal trek in January). So there were only 2 of us going for ABC. We also decided to spend a day at Pokhara and Chitwan post the trek, apart from a day at Kathmandu for sightseeing.

We gave our swabs for RTPCR 2 days before our departure, and I got my report at 2 am — negative. However, Surabhi’s report did not come and I spent a sleepless night checking for the report each hour, and finally wrote to Ganga that our trip could be in jeopardy as it was unusual to get the report for only one of us. And finally, the anxiety was settled when Surabhi’s negative report came at 7.15am? Ganga was also relieved.

We finally set for the trek and reached Kathmandu on 9 October, and Ganga was there to receive us. We reached our hotel (Woodapple Hotel and Spa), a nicely located hotel near Thamel with a great view from the rooftop — and were introduced to our guide Narayan. Ganga explained to us the itinerary and we were all set to fly to Pokhara the next day. Narayan picked us from the hotel early in the morning at 6 am and we reached the airport for our flight to Pokhara. And one more tense moment — after keeping my waist pouch (which had my passport, mobile and cash) through the x-ray for security, I could not find the same on the other side — another 15 tense minutes and Narayan found the same stuck somewhere on the X-ray belt! Our flight was delayed by a couple of hours, and we met Ramsharan, our porter at Pokhara airport. After a one hour drive from Pokhara to a place called Nayapul, and having our lunch, we started walking at 1 pm. It was a 4 hour walk to our first destination — Tikhe Dhunga — and I was pleasantly surprised to see a nice lodge — with nice rooms with beds to sleep in — a major difference from the camping experiences in India. We had our dinner there and called it a day.

The next day was when the ordeal started — we had to reach a place called Ghorepani — it took us almost 10 hours to reach there, of course including an hour’s lunch break and other small breaks. There was a long climb on stairs — more than 3000 steps, as a small part of the day’s trek! The hotel at Ghorepani was great — with an attached bath with running hot shower — you cant find more luxury than this on a trek! There were a couple of families we met and had a jamming session as well. The next day was an early morning as we had to go to Poon Hill — an hour plus ascent (we started at 4:45 am) where you can witness a great sunrise and a clear view of the Dhaulagiri and Annapurna ranges. Nepalese people seem to be majorly into Tik Tok, and we could see lots of youngsters making Tik Tok video at Poon Hill after the sunrise. After a mesmerising sunrise, we climbed down, had our breakfast and started for Tadapani — our scheduled destination — though Narayan was of the view that we should aim and reach for Chuili — as it would cut down on next day’s trek + it was a great location. There was a point on the trek, where again we had clear view of the Himalayas, and there was a spot (created by some landslide) where we could see the image of Lord Ganesh on the mountain! We gave in our all and managed to reach Chuili at around 6 pm. There were 2 small girls there who gave us a lesson in Tik Tok and we made a “bad” attempt to dance to a Tik Tok video!

The days were going to be long now onwards, and the 4th day — we were to reach Sinuwa. Again a long day, and after almost 10 hours, we reached Sinuwa, going past Chhomorong (a fairly large village) and Bhanuwa — a small settlement on the way. We met a famed honey hunter at Bhanuwa — he has featured in some honey hunting documentaries. We were dead tired by the time we reached Sinuwa, but the sunset from that place made the whole day’s toil worth it. We went to Deurali — again a 9–10 hour day. The good/bad part about all these days was that we had to walk up and down everyday — we had crossed 4 hills to reach this place. Deurali is at some 3200m altitude. Day 6 was the D-Day for us — it was also Dushhera — and this day we had to reach the Annapurna Base Camp (4130m) — almost a 900m ascent in a day. We had great views of MacchaPuchhare Peak (literally meaning Fishtail) along the way, and after having lunch at the MacchaPuchhare Base Camp (though there are no expeditions to MacchaPuchhare), we reached ABC at 4 pm. This day was only ascent and the views from our lodge were outstanding. We could not sleep well at night, and Surabhi called me out of the room to witness the sky at 1:20 am — it was an unbelievable sight with all the peaks shining with moonlight. There was a photo enthusiast who did some settings in Surabhi’s phone, and captured a photo of the mountains and the sky on the phone.

The next day was when the descent had to start. But before that, we witness the golden Annapurna range bathed by the rising sun, and all of us were mesmerised. After getting charged up by the views, we started our descent to Bamboo — which was to be about 1800m! Just to give a perspective, the aerial distance we coverd based on an app was about 13km, whereas Google Fit showed that we had walked 23km! This gives an idea about the ascents and descents — and this path had only descent! Again, we had a long day and reached Bamboo by 5:30pm, and it started raining just after we reached our lodge! We were really lucky that the weather had been clear all these days, and especially at ABC. The next day was the last day of long walk and we had to walk to Jhinu Danda. However, this day we had to do two significant ascents (net effect, lower altitude at destination than origin!) and again a tiring day. Luckily, it rained a bit in the morning, but was clear by the time we started our trek. At Chhomorong, after our lunch, Ram and I started at a bit faster pace for Jhinu Danda, as there are hot water springs there and I wanted to take a dip in them. Surabhi and Narayan followed at their own pace. We reached our lodge, went for a dip and by the time we came back, Surabhi and Narayan had also reached the lodge. We could finally relax now that the major part of the trek was over. There was a 2 hour walk the next day morning, post which we were to take a jeep to reach Pokhara. It rained the whole night at Jhinu Danda, and it was raining when we started the next morning. We had to cross a 600m hanging bridge, which was fun! We reached Pokhara in the afternoon, had some plans for sight seeing, but the rains washed out everything. Ram went to his village after reaching Pokhara, and Narayan was there with us till we reached Kathmandu. Ganga sent his car to Pokhara and the next day we set out for Chitwan, where we were to do an elephant safari. The roads are not so great in Nepal, and after reaching Chitwan, and having our lunch, we went for an elephant safari. We met Pratik Kothari and Harshita Talesara at the safari and though we could only see some deers and peacocks, it was an interesting experience — we did a river crossing, sitting on the elephant as well as explored deep jungle, where the elephant had to make way by breaking tree branches! Post the safari, Hari, our hotel manager cum ranger took us on a walk by the riverside to spot a rhino lazing about in the river. In the evening, we went to see the local Tharu Cultural dance — the first couple of dances reminded us of garba and dandiya  — which were followed by a warrior like dance with sticks and a peacock dance which was amazing. The next day was supposed to be a jungle walk, but because it had rained through the night, our manager told us that there were slim chances of seeing any wildlife, so went to see a small village. Just as our village tour ended, Pratik messaged us saying that there was a rhino near their hotel, and we rushed there to see another rhino lazing at the riverside.

We then started for Kathmandu, and it was a never ending ride — with bad roads and huge traffic congestion on the way. After reaching Kathmandu, we went for our RTPCR tests and then did some trekking related shopping. The following day, Ganga met us in the morning with our certificates and it was a thrilling moment. We then went for local sight seeing — Durbar Square, Swayambhu Stupa, Pashupatinath Temple and Boudha Stupa (the largest stupa in the world). We met some more trekkers, most of them who had completed EBC the next morning at breakfast, and finally we bid adieu to Nepal and took our flights back to India.

Overall, a great trek — much tougher than expected — beautiful sights on the way (we lost count of the number of waterfalls we say), great peaks visible on the way, beautiful sunrises and sunsets and great people. The Nepal Hiking Team was outstanding — Ganga, Narayan and Ram are now like family — and hopefully we will meet them again, God willing, in April 2022 for EBC!

FB Post: https://tinyurl.com/yfjxp55v