Trekking in Annapurna May 6-11, 2009

Trekkers:
Geoff White (Traid Aid New Zealand), Nick White (Geoff's son), Paul Deighton (New Internationalist Australia), Craig Schloneger (Villages USA), Doug Dirks (Villages USA).

Route:
Tue, May 5, arrive in Kathmandu from Delhi, buy packsack for Craig, supper at Nepali Kitchen near Tibet Guest House, stay at Tibet Guest House, Chhetrepati, Thamel.
Wed, May 6, Kathmandu to Pokhara by van (7 hours), Pokhara to Nayapul by van (1 hour), walk to Birethanti for lunch, walk to Hille for supper and overnight.
Thu, May 7, walk from Hille to Ulleri up 3,600 stone steps, great view of Annapurna South along the way, lunch in Ulleri, walk to Ghorepani for supper and overnight, stay at Hill Top Lodge.
Fri, May 8, get up at 4:45am, walk up the hill to Poon Hill, great views of Dhaulagiri, Annapurna South and Machapuchre. Breakfast at lodge, walk to Tadapani. Lunch in Tadapani and stay for supper and overnight. Big thunder, rain and hail storm in the afternoon.
Sat, May 9, walk from Tadapani to Gandruk. Lunch in Gandruk at Milan Lodge. Walk on to Sauruli Bazaar. Stay for supper and overnight at Shining River Lodge.
Sun, May 10, Walk from Sauruli Bazaar to Birethanti, lunch in Birethanti, walk out to Nayapul, catch van to Pokhara. Stay at Dharma Inn, Lakeside in Pokhara. Supper at Everest Steak House.
Mon, May 11, breakfast in Pokhara, van to Kathmandu (8 hour ride), driving rain storm with some hail as we drove up the hill to Kathmandu. Stay at Tibet Guesthouse in Thamel.

Trek report by Doug:

I just got back today from 5 days of trekking in the Annapurna region. There were five of us: Geoff White and his 17 year old son Nick from New Zealand, Paul Deighton from Australia and Craig Schloneger and me. We had a great time. The first day we got dropped off by our van at about 2pm at a place called Nayapul and started walking from there. We got about half an hour down the trail and stopped for lunch. We thought we were making great time and then found out that we still had at least 3 hours of uphill hiking to do before we would get to the place where we hoped to stay for the night. We finally got to Hille and found a lodge at about 6pm. The lodge even had a hot shower so we were able to wash off all the sweat.

On day 2 we climbed up the 3,600 steps to a place called Ulleri where we had lunch. These steps are hand hewn stone and they are part of the main trail, or highway, between Hille and Ulleri. They climb up over 450 meters, about 1,500 feet (much taller than the Empire State building). When we got to the top we stopped for lunch at a little restaurant that had an outdoor deck to sit on. When we looked over the railing it looked like you could see straight down to the first step where we started climbing over 2 hours before. It was steep, I was dripping sweat, my heart was pounding all the way and my leg muscles were aching. But I made it, we had a big lunch of dal baht (rice and dal) with snickers bars for dessert and then pushed on to Ghorepani (means horse water). In Ghorepani we stayed at the Hill Top Lodge, right near where the path to Poon Hill begins.

On day 3 we got up at 4:30am and hoofed it up to Poon Hill. Poon Hill is over 10,000 feet high (about the same height at Mt. Baker that you can see from Abbotsford, BC in Canada). When the sun came up we got a great view of Dhauligiri (world's fourth highest mountain, over 8,000 meters/27,000 feet), Annapurna South (almost 8,000 meters) and Machapuchre (only 7,000 meters/23,000 feet). It's great to be standing on top of a hill as tall as Mt. Baker and still looking up at more than 16,000 - 17,000 feet of mountain above you. After a big breakfast outside at our lodge, with a great view of the mountains, we hiked over to a place called Tadapani (means far away water) and stayed there the night. Right after we got there we saw a hoard of sparrows circling in the sky and soon after we had a big thunder storm with lots of big hail. Local people told us later that most of the crops in the ground were destroyed - vegetables, potatoes, corn, wheat, rice and fruit trees. Too bad, since people try to exist on what they can grow. The nearest town market with anything close to what we would call a grocery store is at least 2 and half days walk away - no roads, no airports, only walking and carrying stuff on your back. So, the bottled water we were drinking came on the back of a porter. There are some pony caravans (small horses that pack stuff up into the hills. We saw some that were carrying bags of cement up to construction sites in Gandruk and Ghorepani.

On day 4 we hiked up and down two deep valleys to a place called Gandruk, had lunch there and then pushed on to Sauruli Bazaar and stayed there overnight at a lodge that had a small front lawn with a picnic table overlooking the river valley over 1,500 feet below. It was called the Shining River Lodge.

On day 5, yesterday, we hiked out to Nayapul, met our van and drove in to Pokhara where we stayed overnight before catching another van for the ride in to Kathmandu today. It's about 160km from Pokhara to Kathmandu and it took a full 8 hours. The road is windy and pretty steep in places, sometimes narrow and there's lots of traffic with big trucks that don't move over when they are bearing down on you. So the van pulls as close to cliff as possible to let the trucks pass by. For the last couple of hours we were driving in a furious thunder storm with downpours of rain and pelting hail so visibility was lousy and traffic was even slower than usual. The defrost system in the Toyota van was lousy so the driver's helper had to constantly wipe off the inside of the windshield for the driver so he could at least see out a little bit. A couple of us were pretty nervous about the last part of our drive. I thought it was okay, the driver was calm, drove pretty slow and didn't take any stupid chances on the road. We made it to our hotel in Kathmandu just fine by around 4pm.

Now my calf muscles are sore and I feel like I'm stumbling down the stairs here at our hotel. The power is out about half the time so we need to climb the stairs to get to our rooms because the elevator doesn't work.

We had a great time trekking. The weather was very good for this time of year. Every morning started out clear and cool with good views of the mountains. Clouds usually moved in by noon but we didn't have rain until the 3rd day when we stayed at a place called Tadapani (far away water). We stopped at a lodge there at about 2pm, had lunch and then watched the thunder storm roll in and the hail rain down. Later on, some people told us that the hail ruined all the crops that were in the ground - vegetables, corn, rice and even fruit trees. Too bad.

The road now goes beyond Naudanda and Chandrakot, the first two places we stayed overnight when we did this trek with Mary Krehbiel back in 1983.. We took a van to a place called Nayapul and picked up the same trail we walked at Birethanti. We got there about 3pm and stopped for lunch. Then we hiked on up to Hille and stayed there for our first night. Next morning we climbed up the big 3,600 step staircase to Ulleri. We got there by lunch and I was pooped and had sore muscles on the top of my thighs. Hard, sweaty work to get up the steps - lots harder than I remember it to be when we did it in 1983. Wow, that's 26 years ago already. Geoff's 17 year old son, Nick, made it up first and didn't seem to be winded at all. Geoff was next, then Craig. Paul and I got to the top at about the same time. I stopped a lot to take photos and to rest, you can do both at the same time. After lunch we hiked on up to Ghorepani and stayed there overnight. Boy has Ghorepani changed. Tons of lodges, a big hotel, hot water showers everywhere and menus just like Pokhara and Kathmandu. Felt like pure luxury compared to when we stayed there. Next morning we got up at 4:30am and hiked up to Poon Hill. I didn't get the shivers this time! About 100 other people we up there too. Dhaulaguri was spectacular in the morning sun. Annapurna South was pretty good too but the sun doesn't shine directly on it in the morning. Machapuchre was hard to see since the sun rises directly behind it and all you get is a shadowy outline. But still awe inspiring to be standing on top of a hill as tall as Mt. Baker and still looking up at another 16,000 to 17,000 feet of mountain.

At about 9am we went back down to our lodge, had breakfast and then headed out east to Tadapani. This is a different route than we took. Two huge up and downs to get to Tadapani so we were pooped again when we got there. This is where the thunder storm with hail kept us inside the dining room.

After Tadapani we walked down to Gandruk, a Gurung town of about 5,000 people. We stopped for lunch there at a place owned by one of the village headmen. He told us that the population has gone down by 2,000 in the last 5 years because of the Maoist troubles. People moved to Pokhara to escape the violence. He left before we finished lunch because he had to go meet a delegation from Maylasia who are sponsoring some schools in Gandruk. Later on that afternoon we met the Malaysian group laboring up the hill on the way to Gandruk. They were expected to arrive by 2pm but we left Gandruk after 2pm and we had already walked for an hour downhill. My guess is that they didn't get there until 5 or 6pm. They had porters that were carrying huge roller suitcases on their backs and big packsacks strapped to the front of each porter - must have been carrying 60 pounds or more, each, and easily outpacing the Malaysians who had only cameras and water bottles to carry. Most people that we met, tourists and Nepalis, were surprised that we didn't have porters and guides and fit all of our stuff into one little daypack each. I just used the old green one patched with duct tape that I stuffed into my suitcase.

We ended up staying the night at a place called Sauruli Bazaar with a great view of the river and valley that empties out into the Pokhara valley. After a good night we took our time enjoying breakfast and started walking back to Birethanti and Nayapul at about 10am. We stopped down at the river a couple of times and wandered back into Nayapul at about 3pm where we met our van and drove for an hour back into Pokhara to our hotel there. A guy we met on the trail recommended the Everest Steak House as a place to get a good meal so we went there for supper and everyone pigged out on huge, thick steaks.

It was raining when we got up this morning so we didn't see Machapuchre from Pokhara - too cloudy.

All in all, a great little trek. We all got along well and we pretty much all kept up to the same pace and everybody is still hobbling a bit, especially when going down steps, due to stiff and sore leg muscles.