I first visited Nepal in October 2007 and the Annapurna region captivated me instantly. Unfortunately the only thing I saw the week was visiting that part of the country was a five second glimpse of Annapurna 1 peak – that was it – for 7 days it rained, rained, rained. But that glimpse spurred me on to ensure I returned.
In October 2009, I had the opportunity to visit Nepal for a second time. So I knew exactly what I wanted to do – the Annapurna Circuit and Annapurna Base Camp (otherwise known as ABC!). This time, I was not part of a group – I was doing a Greta Garbo on it and hired a porter Kishna & guide Bikram. Bikram had also been Gilbert Little's guide back in 2007, so he came highly recommended.
The entire route is approximately 300 miles long and starts in a dusty village called Besisahar. It goes anti clockwise, so everyone starts at the one place. Even if you are on your own, as you make your way through the villages each day, faces start becoming familiar, and gradually you get to know people who are doing the route pretty well. It's the perfect world – you can have as much time to daydream as you want, and if you prefer conversation, you can hook up with people. Days generally started with wake-up call around 6.30 or 7am with most of the walking done by lunchtime. For the afternoon, you'd generally catch up on the washing, mooch around the village, go for an afternoon dander around the place, and see what treasures were there to be found. Dinner was usually around 6pm and bed and sleep by 7. OK, so I actually am known for going to bed early at night, but even for me this was nuts! However, as you climbed higher in altitude, air got thinner and you just had less energy. It was a lovely relaxed feeling, and I've never slept so well.
As you proceed, you're almost going back in time with every step you take, and then suddenly, in a medieval village, there's a sign for "The Break Up" – starring Jennifer Aniston in the local "cinema" (tiny room, with flickering projector). Electricity is to be found in most places now, but is in very short supply and very low wattage – you just manage without it. Most of the cooking is done over fire, and it's fascinating to see the women cook up a storm in tiny spaces with so little. In recent years they've spent a lot of money upgrading plumbing etc, so most tea houses have got proper loos – whether they're effective or not is questionable in some places, but I found a huge improvement this time.
The route continues onto what I can only imagine Canada to be like – beautiful forests, starting to turn autumnal, fabulous waterfalls, rivers & vast valleys. I absolutely fell in love with a Buddhist Temple in Upper Pisang – seriously if you ever go there, make the effort and hike up here. It's a wonderful homage to a community with very little, building something of just immense beauty, while still retaining the incredible serenity of a temple. Monang was also another highlight here – this is a busy trading post and centre of a lot of the remote treks. It's a village of two halves – tea houses at the entrance to the village and stone houses for the locals – built to accommodate the animals on the ground floor and the families on the floor above. This part of the country gets very cold in the winter, so I guess they need all the heat they can get. Conditions from here on were very basic, and an eye opener. Co-incidentally, it was probably the most beautiful part of the hike as it was pretty quiet and the scenery was spectacular.
The mountains are not called mountains unless they are at least 1,000m high. If they're lower than that, they don't even bother to name them. They couldn't believe that we only had one "mountain" in Ireland! Everywhere you look, there is another magnificent mountain – it's impossible to describe their effect. The highest is Annapurna 1 at 8,091mand to say we were star struck looking at her is an understatement. My personal favourite is Machhapuchhre (otherwise known as Fishtail) –it's a holy mountain and has never been climbed, so it's special.
The higher up the route you go the more bare the ground gets until you hit the snow at the higher parts. Then it's over the highest point on the trek, the Thorung La Pass which at 5,416m high is an achievement in itself. (never again … ok until the next time maybe!) You descend into Mustang, and even hearing that name was making me dizzy. I would have liked to venture further into this part of the country, but you need a special visa and also there's no teahouses etc, you'd have to camp (no thanks, not in that cold!).
Heading back south the vegetation becomes greener and lusher very quickly and we hiked along the Modi Khola and beside Dhaulagiri, another enchanting mountain. Marpha was a beautiful, beautiful town famous for its apple production, and well worth a visit. Then for the second highlight of my trip –meeting Sorcha Ryan and Judith Poynton in Ghandruk for the second two weeks of my hike– to Annapurna Basecamp. They arrived on time in the middle of no-where and after two weeks on my own, it was just wonderful to catch up with them, and the goss from home. I hadn't met any of my friends since the previous July, and so it was a very special time for me.
So began the second and last leg of my trip – this was through stunning forests, terraced fields, steeply falling to the vast rivers below. It's a busier route than the first two weeks, but still enjoyable. The tea houses again were great and you met such a variety of people, all sharing the same passion. The highlight here was definitely Annapurna Basecamp – we were extremely lucky with the weather. The following day, there was the first snow storm of winter, so timing was perfect. It's a very enchanting spot, very peaceful and humbling. There are various memorials to climbers who didn't make it back from their pursuits and I guess it just puts life of a mountaineer into perspective.
The weather is just perfect at mid-October to mid-November. The days are warm but never baking hot (due to altitude). The evenings are cold, and of course get arctic the higher up you go. At one point my fingers froze so much I thought they had frost bite and I swore I'd never go to this altitude again. It was about -15 degrees up there and seriously, so cold I couldn't even sleep. But that extreme cold only lasted a few days. You tend to be wearing all your clothes by the time you hit the high points – and end up wearing the same clothes during the day and in bed – sounds awful but it was just too cold in some places to actually change into the jim jams, hat, socks, gloves, cowl etc. Also, the higher up you go the more basic the accommodation is. Everywhere is relatively clean, but the loos can be a bit of a problem – imagine trying to get to the loo in the dark (with a torch), over ice, and trying not to fall! Imagine the shame of breaking a leg using the loo, and not being able to hike!!
Food everywhere is fabulous –everything is organic and grown on the spot. One of my fondest memories is asking for pumpkin soup for lunch at a little tea house in Lete. I was resting in the courtyard looking up at Nilgiri (6839m) and the next thing the woman of the house passes through with a pumpkin in her hand. 40 minutes later I had my pumpkin soup! The best tomato soup in the world was to be had in our teahouse in Ghandruk – it's worth going there for the soup alone! And I can't mention the food without mentioning Judith – I can slag her about her healthy appetite but by the time we reached our last tea house in Landruk, a little crowd had gathered around to watch us clear the table of our feast – we did that – we're convinced word of Judith's prodigious appetite had spread before us!
Other highlights:
- Bikram & Kishna, two absolute gentlemen who looked after me so well on my trip. I'm hoping that I can link up with them for another trip some time in the future.
- The trees turning gold – I thought I'd have missed autumn so was thrilled when I didn't
- Kathmandu's Garden of Dreams – one of my favourite places in the world – a little haven in the chaos of Kathmandu; and,
- Watching people try to ride horses when they were too sick to walk! Priceless.
