Annapurna Base Camp trek

It is dashai time of year in Nepal. This is a hindu festival that is celebrated at about this time each year. Lots of animals are slaughtered to please the destroyer god as well as it being a time for families to come together much like Christmas is in the west.
It is also the time when the weather improves, the number of tourists increases, the office gives us time off and Mum and Dad, Simon and Rachel have come to visit us!
We made the most of the time and went for a trek to Annapurna Base Camp (4310m), a trekkers heaven as it is a mixture of a relatively short trek (8-10 days), high altitude, cultural exposure in villages and amazing mountain scenery. It lived up to all of that.

 We left on the 2nd October and went in a micro bus with our fantastic 2 porters, Bikram and Aneil, to Nya Pul, the place where we started the trek. While driving towards the mountains we encountered lots and lots and lots of sheep coming the other way - a one way trip to the bazaar at this time of year.
The first day was a walk to Ghandruk, a climb of 800m to 1940

 The Modi Khola that we will follow up the river, almost to its source.

 At the entrance of the park they are in the process of opening a road, an idea I am not so sure of but it is going ahead. The bridge has been built - straight into a cliff. Apparently the cliff is coming down in a month.

 There were waterfalls all the way up the valley. Mark commented accurately - the water falls around here, not flows!

 We had to cross hundreds of make shift bridges. As the monsoon has just finished there was still a lot of water around, this will dry up quickly so during this time bridges are made to make the streams passable. In a few months you will barely know there was a stream.

 Everything taken into the area was carried in. Here are the chickens that would be in our dinner that night.

Even the people are carried in if needed. We think this lady had just had a baby as there was another lady with her carrying a very little baby. She was being carried back to her village on the one day of rain that we had.

The next day dawned clear, and hot. It started with a climb to 2342m before dropping down steeply to a bridge, 500m lower. Then another climb back up to 2170m. Most of the climbs were on stone staircases - a feature of many of the photos.

 Aneil, one of our fantastic porters who carried the grey pack all the way up and back.

 For the first two days, before going into the Annapurna conservation sanctuary mule trains carted a lot of the food, gas bottles, building product etc, around.

  This is a man who has gone into the jungle, collected grass and is carrying it back to feed his animals. They can walk a long way to find this grass.

 The bridge at the bottom - the stones are to cover up all the holes in the bridge.

 Night sky at Chhomrong.

Morning sky at Chhomrong. The day dawned clear again for another hard day. This day started with a steep 350m descent down to this bridge through the very picturesque village of Chhomrong.

And in this village you can buy spare knee caps - any orders?

 The bridge at the bottom.

 And then the start of another climb - this time it was 500m up to the town of Sinuwa.

 Yes, we stayed at the top of that hill the night before!

We often had other friends on the trail with us.

From Sinuwa we sidled up the valley and into the main sanctuary leaving village life behind. Orchids were growing all along the ground under a canopy of rhododendren and oak trees.

We even found a few languar monkeys hanging out - until a noisy person came along and scared them all away.

The final part of this day was a descent of about 10mins down another flight of stone stairs......

The following day was just climbing - 910m in four hours - the kids were amazing. It started off gently wandering up the valley and crossing lots of bridges, the porters from LN treks always making sure that we were safe.

 The valley started to really narrow, in this photos you can see buildings similar to the places we stayed in up the valley. This town was Deurali - 3230m and just out of the tree line.

 The cute little guys, mountain mice, were running around everywhere.

 From here the valley continued to get more and more narrow and the modi khola more and more steep. This day was a short two hour day going from Deurali ( 3230m) to Machhapuchure base camp, 3700m. The scenery was stunning.

 Most of the towns up the valley have hydro power schemes. Here the water was taken from the river and fed to Deurali from the intake below.

 The bamboo forests grew right up to 3700m. Here a porter carries another parties stuff in a doko, a bamboo straw basket carried with a string around the head.

Arriving at Machhapuchure base camp, Bikram leading the way....

 and helping Simon along, except that Simon didn't need much help - he was always running ahead.

 The view of Annapurna South from MBC.

 We went for an acclimisation walk around MBC in the afternoon, in the mist and fog that came in about 11am each day. Here is the beginnings of the Modi Khola. Bikram was loving it....

 And Aneil and Bikram were always checking we were safe - 2 children, a pregnant lady and 'grandparents' looked like a party headed for disaster.

 Moonrise and the stars over Machhapuchure at MBC.

A moth wanted to get in on the action in this photo.

The following day was another short day, 1.5 hours of stunning scenery up to ABC - 4310m!!!! The photos really say it all. 

 There was sheep farming at that altitude as well. The farmers lived in the rock and straw grass hut with a tarp over top. Dogs patrol the sheep and they just stayed there, sleeping in one place at night and not going far to graze during the day. The shepherds would move around when the grass ran out.

 WE MADE IT!!!!!!!

Annapurna sth to the left ( 7219m), Annapurna 1 (8091 - 10th highest mountain in the world in the middle) and the south annapurna glacier

 Annapurna 3 (7555m) and Machhapuchhure ( 6997m)

 And what a place!

 The porters all started a game of volleyball, the rest of us were just trying to breathe!

 Again, we went for another explore in the afternoon. Mark was suffering a bit with the altitude but really enjoyed the fresh air.

 Sunset at ABC as the afternoon fog cleared.

Sunrise at ABC, 7th Oct, 2011

 And, sadly, we had to go back down. We dropped 1530m by 2pm!

 back down through the bamboo forests below MBC.....

 down the steep valleys at the 'gates' of base camp....

 across more bridges.....

 through towns that had goats making themselves comfortable!..... to Dovan for the night.

 Another microhydro scheme, this time for Dovan. The power up here was far more reliable than in Pokhara ( we have had no power all day as I have been writing this).

 And then the following day we had to go up the flights of stairs that we had come down - and they didn't get any easier. this day we did a net drop of 900m but also had to do over 500m climbing!

 Here is a porter carrying mattresses down the stairs!

 a bridge across an avalanche chute

 We went back into the village area around Chhomrong - this is a traditional village residents kitchen.

 The steps through Chhomrong...

 This photo says it all! The bonus to this day was that it finished in some hot pools at Jhinu.

The final day was a walk along the river although, in true Nepali style there were some steep climbs!

 and bridge crossings....

 rice paddies...

 and lots of millet. This is hten made into a variety of things including rakshi - the local brew that Dad tried. We were stunned, he drank it where the rest of us couldn't take a few first mouthful. No flavour just lots of warmth!

 The last stretch along the river is really boring but we got to break it up with a go on a ping - a nepali swing that is made only at this time of year! Great fun. Bikram was really keen to go!

And then it was following the goat home to a well deserved shower and steak! Wonderful trip.