Trip Report - Annapurna Circuit Trek, Nepal

breadmonkey

Since RATM put one up for Everest Base Camp, I thought I should throw this up too.

We decided to do the trek based entirely on his advice in this thread.

We arrived in Kathmandu at the end of August, fresh (!) from India with nothing in the way of equipment except our boots. Thamel, Kathmandu's tourist ghetto, has everything you could possibly need and we bought lots of North Fake gear that stood up no problems to the rigours of the trek. The food is excellent and there's a good buzz about the place. We spent the first few days there just running around buying gear and organising permits. To trek in the Annapurna region you need to get a permit costing 2000 rupees from the Nepali tourist board office. You can get your TIMS card (method of tracking trekkers) in the same building for free.

We then headed to Pokhara to leave our gear so we'd have it when we arrived back from the trek. From there we got a bus to Besisahar, the start of the trail, which was quite eventful. Seemingly there had been some fighting between rival gangs resulting in road blocks, delays, smashed bus windows (not ours!) etc. All the tourists were bumped to the front of the bus to increase our chances of getting through! We were involved in a crash with a hilariously overloaded jeep. The guy simply couldn't stop the vehicle because it was so heavy. Several people had to jump off just before it collided with our front wheel! Eventually got to our destination and hopped on another bus to Bhul Bhule, which saved us a couple of hours walking at the start. This bus journey was nothing short of terrifying. The road in many places was the exact width of the axle. Looking out the window should be avoided. At one point we were actually driving through a river, parallel to the footbridge! I think the walk would be a better option.

So we eased ourselves into the two week trek with a little one hour walk on the first day. We had no option really as the journey from Pokhara took so long that there was hardly any light left. I was quite pleased that my bag wasn't really a problem. I was quite concerned that I wouldn't be able to carry it because I had never undertaken a trek of this length let alone carrying any gear. We carried our own gear because we couldn't afford a porter. I took 12kg fully loaded including two litres of water. My girlfriend took 6kg because she's small and puny, lol.

The trek was really fantastic because of the range of scenery and cultural diversity. It's pretty cushy too because there are loads of villages along the way with nice places to stay and the food is surprisingly varied and tasty. We found the cheese beans burrito to be a good banker all along the trail. The scenery went from rice fields and waterfalls, to alpine forest, to glaciers and snowy peaks, to barren moonscape, to barren desert and then back to forests! We found the walk quite difficult for the first few days because it's all up and down and up and down and up and down..... (our profound lack of fitness may have also been a factor) but as we progressed to higher altitudes the trail got flatter and we were making better time. At the really high altitudes it really feels like you could be walking on another planet.

I got a small leech on my wrist a couple of days in. We had no salt or lighter so I had to sort of wash/pull it off which wasn't ideal. The little fcuker was hanging on for dear life! They have some sort of anticoagulant so it bled for ages but wasn't really a big deal.

We started to feel the altitude at about 3000m but this may have been because we met a woman with severe AMS (Acute Mountain Sickness) the day before and it was fcuking with our heads. She had showed symptoms at 2000m but continued to an astonishing 3700m before she went totally blind and collapsed. What's more astonishing is the fact that she was trekking in a group with three guides! If you are thinking of doing one of these treks it's essential to read up on AMS, be able to recognise the symptoms and know what to do about them.

We had a "rest day" at a village called Manang (3700m) to acclimatise to the altitude. Good place for a stop as they have all sorts of facilities including a cinema! We watched 'Into Thin Air', an adaptation of the book by Jon Krakauer detailing the 1996 Everest disaster. The book I would recommend, the film is laughably poor. The views were stunning. We ate our meals in a dining room with views of Gangapurna and Annapurna III.

The morning we crossed the pass we started from 4450m at 4:30 in the pitch dark. The weather had been ****e and we were basically walking in the dark (save the light from the headtorch) in the clouds! The pass was so desolate and bleak it was mad. The trail was clear and easy to follow but you couldn't see very far and it was snowing lightly! There were only a handful of trekkers crossing that day and they were all ahead of us so we were entirely by ourselves. The altitude made it so hard to walk. Going up even the slightest incline would leave you gasping for air unless you took tiny, tiny baby steps! Great relief when we finally made it to the top (5416m) after 4hrs 15mins and enjoyed a nice cup of mint tea and a snickers (yes, there's a tea house up there)! My lungs were in bits the next day!

Unfortunately, a road has been built along the length of the second half of the trail after the pass. On our arrival in the first village, Muktinath, we were greeted with the sound of our first horn in 11 days and the site of incapable Nepali lads ferrying overweight pilgrims from the jeep stand to the temple complex. The road has ruined most of that side of the trek and I wouldn't walk it again. The most fun on this side was had picking our way across the monster landslides!

The weather was quite disappointing for most of the trek because we were trekking at the end of the monsoon season. Peaks were often covered by clouds but we were still treated to the occasional glimpses. The trade off was that we had the trail entirely to ourselves for most of the trek. I'm not sure how enjoyable it would be in the main season with hundreds of others.

We spent our last night in a place called Tatopani which has natural hot springs, mmmmmmmm. The journey back to Pokhara was quite funny and involved a bumpy ride in a ludicrously overcrowded bus. At one point the bus got stuck and a load of us had to haul it out with a rope. Highly entertaining.

All in all it was an amazing experience and I'll definitely be returning to Nepal to have a go at another trek, probably Everest. The Annapurna circuit can be done by anyone. Our fitness levels were at zero and our experience levels not far from that either! We still made it around with no guide and no porter. The trail is easy to follow. Even if you go astray the locals will soon put you right. If you don't bring the kitchen sink you should be able to carry your own stuff. I didn't even notice my bag after a few days of walking. I can detail what we brought later if someone is curious.

I'll post some photos if someone tells me how!

dory

Great story! Thanks for posting. I would love to see some photos. If you have any uploaded anywhere like Flickr you could just post a link.

BuffyBot

Fantastic - especially to have some "off the beaten track" reports

JAGM77

Hello,

I would love to hear what your pack list was, breadmonkey.

Cheers,

JAGM

breadmonkey

Hi, hopefully I've remembered correctly. I'll put an asterisk after everything that was bought in Nepal. Here goes:

Hiking gear:
Flips flops
Hiking Boots
Trekking socks x3
Boxers x4
Shorts x1
Long trousers that zip off into shorts x1 *
Quick dry tshirt x1 *
Ordinary tshirt x2 (2 quick dry and one normal would be better)
Fleece x1 *
Rain jacket x1 *
Waterproof gloves x1 *
Wide brimmed sun hat *
Sunglasses * (better to bring these from home)
Trekking pole x1 *
Quick dry towel
Pen knife
Head torch
Alarm clock

We brought a good bit of medicine too. Off the top of my head:
Solpadeine
Disprin
Decquacaine
Diamox
Flagyl
Ibuprofen
Plasters
Antiseptic cream
Large bandage
Suncream....think that was about it

Add to that your toiletries but you only need a very small amount of shampoo etc. Don't go mad!

Enjoy