Standing on the shoulders of Giants

Hello to all of you!

Well, pictures say a thousand words. When you look at the spectacular pictures courtesy of our man JC you will see there is absolutely no way I could ever describe just how outrageously beautiful this part of the world is!

It has been 18 days of solid trekking, days of many varying degrees of difficulty. We began trough the low areas of the foothills, rice fields stacked up upon the sides of the steep valleys, the bright colours contrasting with the deep greens of tropical forest. As we worked our way up, the massive Manasulu ranges could be seen, often glinting incredibly in the morning sun as the snow and ice caught the sun.

Annapurnas had just been welcomed onto the scene as we told the tale last time. The outrageous nature of these views was not going to be a singular event. As the river confluenced, we took the left hand fork heading west and steadily climbing up above the 3000m mark, (altitude sickness zone) Fairly soon we had a "rest day" in which we climbed another 500m to acclimatise and then returned to a lowly 3500m in the village of Manang. The apple pie here and other bakery goods was exceptional, we spent 48hrs eating constantly!

A few days later we found ourselves at Phedi on the brink of heading over the Thorung Pass, morning temperatures of -8 but with views that made the whole thing worth it. The day before we crossed i climbed onto a small free standing peak above 5000m ( only another500 from where we were staying) and took in the most amazing spectacle. 360 dgrees, massive peaks, annapurnas to the right, Chulus in front and Thurong peaks behind. One day I have to come back here and climb these beasts.

Poor old John had a wretched time with Nepali sickness and this point, this was continued into the day of the pass and resulted in him feeling somewhat weak on the 1000m ascent in the thin air. It was a really hard climb and one sick member of the group had to get a horse to take her to the top. Slowly step by step, one by one each of us reached the 5400m top. The sky was so blue and the snow so white, a contrast that was overwhelming and almost blinding without sun glasses. Altitude sickness was a real factor throughout the day. All of us got done by the lack of oxygen, JC and Jonny going up, me going down.

After that day was over, it was amazing, after 8hrs of walking starting at 5am we were tired as you like. Beer and good food was so welcome and our tired legs just grateful to stop from the 1600m descent. Great day!

The west side of the route involved much longer days walking. The scenery had been transformed into a desert like wasteland. Dust reigned supreme and the buildings consisted mainly of mud and wood. Some days we had to walk primarily on road and and just get distance under our belts. We descended pretty fast and as we did so the vegetation reaapeared on the vally slopes. Dhauligirri and Nilgirri ranges walled us in on either side and the so called black river was our route as far Tatopani where we plunged our selves into the hot springs after a heavy days trekking.

The following day was hideous from my perspective, i was ill from i do not know what and energy was an unobtainable item. The lads worked their way steadily up the 16000m climb to Ghorepani, which i think was really gorgeous in views and rich in vegetation. The next morning we hit Poon hill for the sunrise and what a sight, 3 seperate Himalayan ranges, each with a peak in the top ten of the world order, yea please to that.

Down hill all the way then and now here it is, we have done the 210km circuit, crazy ascent and descent and now here in Pokhara we chill and relax. Party night tonight, Guides, porters boys and girls of the trip, bring on some nepali dancing. Next stop India.


(jonny concurs with all of this) (prabably john does too) Laters, C