Poon Hill & Annapurna Base Camp Trek

Summarising the trek isn’t easy but I’ll give it a go!  We saw some of the most beautiful scenery which seemed to change over a couple of hours of walking from grassy hills, to forest, to canyon, to river bed to snowy mountains.  We learnt to hate stone steps and must have gone up and down thousands of them over the eleven days!  Chris challenged himself by firstly trying to grow a beard (work in progress) and secondly by carrying the rucksack the whole way (massively appreciated by me!).  We coped with the altitude no problems, got up to base camp 2 days ahead of schedule, watched 3 avalanches, survived on a staple diet of daal bhat (rice, mild curry, lentils and pickles – and free second helpings!) and even found a place that did chocolate cake! 

There were a few stand out highlights of our trek; the first came very early on when we got the local bus to our start point at Nayapul – we missed our stop so the conductor put us on a school bus going the opposite way and then they put us on the top of another local bus to make it back to the start point!  Exciting but a little scary riding on top of a bus through the valleys! 

On day 3 we got to Poon Hill which gave us a beautiful view of the Annapurna Mountain Range and insight into how far we still had left to travel!  That evening we stayed in a small town called Ban Thanti, the only westerners there, they asked if we would donate towards their hydro-electricity project (they currently have no power) we agreed to part with a small donation (about £9) and the whole village came to thank us by singing and dancing.  They performed for over an hour and the only way to make the singing stop was to do a bit of dancing of our own much to their amusement!  We got given flower necklaces and although initially the experience was an awkward one, it’s now one of our fondest memories!

It was day 6 when we made it to Machhapuchhre Base Camp, through deep snow that came to my hip!  As we arrived the sky misted over and a blizzard came down, the fire under the table kept us warm that night!  The next day, amazingly it was a bright sunny morning up to Annapurna Base Camp, the fresh blanket of snow making it even more special.  We reached 4,130metres – it was beautiful and slightly overwhelming that we’d managed to get there under our own steam, a real achievement. 

We stopped at a natural hot springs on the way back down, which was a lovely way to complete the trek.  It is nice to be back in the same room in Pokhara, feels like home for the moment!  We have another 7 nights here before the kayaking course takes us towards Kathmandu. 

Lots of love K&C