all we can say is - WOW we did it!!!!!!
the 10 days in the mountains was absolutely mind blowing - and HARD HARD work..... we set off on day 1 with our friend john and his father don... the four of us was by high spirits, and really eager to get going. we took a taxi to the starting point of NAYA PUL, and the path started straight away going up at steep stone steps (3800 steps!!). we discovered we were in much better shape than we feared, and the first day we ended up walking for around 7 hours - going UP up UP!!. we soon learned that there is no such thing as flat terrains, what john described as "nepali flat", was actually either straight up on hard stone steps, or straight down on the same steps... i guess we were a bit cocky on day 1, thinking that it was a piece of cake to walk for that many hours a day.... the following days, we followed the trail in the same manner, walking through fantastic landscape of rice fields, magical forests and amazing mountain views. we also discovered that walking on your own like that gives you A LOT of time to think things through, and our brains was exhausted from basically just thinking about all the things in the world - from where am i? what the hell am i doing here? what do i want to do with my life? ideas for films and documentaries? and so forth... another thing we discovered was that sore knees, ancles, calfs and all the muscles in the body in general was something we had better to get used to sooner than later. when waking up in the mornings, we usually had massive issues just getting our legs out of bed, let alone waking up to the early hours of 5 or 6 in the morning to catch sunrise..
on day 3, we got up at 5 and walked in the dark and the cold up to POON HILL, a viewpoint where you can see the whole annapurna range before you in panorama views.. unfortunately, it was really misty and foggy this morning, so we were a bit dissapointed with what we could see. also, the hill was crowded with tourists constantly getting in the way of our photographs - and that many tourists gathered in one spectacular space at 5 in the morning is also in general very annoying. but when the sun rose, we got some good views, so it was not a waste after all..
after a typical breakfast of oat porridge and corn bread in the tea house, we set off yet again for some more walking. it is wierd though, but after a while we were looking forward to the day's walk, eager to check out the next destination and the scenario along the way. the teahouses we stayed in was also really cosy, with extra blankets for the freezing nights and GREAT FOOD! the food we had on this trek has been the best food so far in nepal. all fresh ingredients, and home made as we were visiting in someone's house. which we infact also was, the teahouses are usually run by families looking to earn a fortune on tired and hungry tourists. and what an appetite you get after 7 - 8 hours of walking!! we ate like horses for all meals, and still felt hungry when the meal was completed....
things started to heat up a bit on day 5, as we learned from the locals that the wheather had been kind of strange over the last few weeks.... we had most definately experienced the heavy rain accompanied by heavy thunder and lightning, but most of the days it came just as we finished walking for the day (around four/five in the afternoon). in early spring, the wheather is very unpredictable, and it had been raining for 14 days straight up until this point. the rain obviously turns into heavy snow fall at high altitude, causing huge avalanches close to the path we were walking.. so it definately didn't look too good on day 6, the day before we were sceduled to walk up to base camp. on this day, it also started to rain much earlier than usual, forcing us to quit walking a few hours earlier than we had planned for the day. we were going to stay in the village of DOVAN, and then walk from there to M.B.C (the base camp a few hours before annapurna base camp), stay the night there and do a easy walk to A.B.C the following day (beacuse of the altitude, you are better off spending a day there to acclimatise..) but the rain cut os short, and we only reached BAMBOO, which pretty much ment that we lost a whole day. we decided to stay the night. after disagreement though - wenche would like to continue walking in the rain, but our guide was reluctant... so much for bringing a motivator along!!! at this point, things started to get a bit messy between our guide and us, we discovered a few things in him that prevented us from doing our own thing, but being dependant on the guide's experience with the avalance areas ahead, we felt we had to stick with him. we were also told that if the rain would continue into the next day, we wouldn't make it at all... we actually met a few people that gave up and went down again, and we heard of people getting sick from the altitude being forced to descend. at this stage, our motivation was down the gutter, with all the negative information and being tired and exhausted on top made us more sensitive towards bad news.. but luckaly, our companion on the trek, matt from ireland and his guide raj - was eager to stay the night and see how the wheather developed. so we did......
we woke up on day 6 to heavy duty rain fall, and our temper was lousy.... the guide told us it was not a good day for walking, but at this point - we really didn't pay much attention to his negative karma... ole was by now the new motivator, and persuaded us to put on our rain ponchos and start walking under the rain.. we aimed towards our next and final destination before base camp, DEURALI. it felt hard to walk, knowing that we descended perhaps for no reason, the wheather was still shithouse and showers, fogs and thunders lured on the sky... we reached DEURALI after a few hours (a few hours now ment loads of hours actually...), and settled in for the night. we packed our bags that night, cause if the wheather cleared, we had to be ready to start walking at 6 the following day. the new plan was now to walk from DEURALI to M.B.C, have breakfast at M.B.C (a 2 - 3 hour walk from DEURALI), and then make an attempt for base camp, a two hour walk from there in knee heights worth of freshly fallen snow (this pass is one of the most dangerous path to walk in the whole annapurna circuit because of the avalance dangers... after 14 days of snow, and warm temperatures - it could turn out to be a very interesting day indeed!!.) after A.B.C, we planned to run down to DEURALI, get our bags and then descend as far as possible after this. after all, we were on day 7 at this stage and we also had to consider that we had to walk all the way down again to NAYA PUL in a 2 days time....
YEAHHHH!!!!!!! we woke up at 5 in the morning on day 7 to a starry sky, meaning good wheather to walk!!!! so we set off at 6 carrying the most important things like our camera's and water.... And we forgot the damn suncreen!!! we reached the M.B.C without too much drama's, and after a quick blowout at our guide who refused to walk with us further on to the base camp, we were sort of ready to start the 2 hour climb towards the final destination at 4150 meters!!. by this stage, we discovered that forgetting the sunscreen at this height is not a joke.. when the skies turned blue, the sun reflected in the new snow and the temperature's was leaning towards 45 degrees, we got ROASTED as lobsters. as well, the altitude started kicking in, and our heads felt like they were ready to explode at any minute. both really determined, we pushed on and walked in our own little worlds the remaining hours to the camp. sweating like pigs and raving and rambling bullshit, completely out of our minds from the heat, the bright white light reflected in the snow, and the altitude... when we finally reached base camp, all this vanished as clear as the blue skies and we just laughed and joked and screamed and hugged and kissed and all the other thing you do when you have accomplished something and are DAMN PROUD OF IT!!!. this was a great moment for the both of us, and it was worth the effort. we were standing at annapurna base camp, at 4150 meters, completely surrounded by the white powerful mountain range. we were right in the middle of everything, and got panorama 360 degrees views of all the peaks. it was the most spectacular view we have ever seen EVER and we had a hard time believing we were actually right there at that moment, just the two of us. it was really special and magical, and we both shed a few tears while we were at it!!! (and more tears to come for wenche the next day as mountain madness started kicking in.....) anyhow - after a while up there, big things had happened - and we had to start the descent before the sun started melting up the snow too much.. the danger of the avalanches still remained very much intact. we practically had to make a run for it, and by the time we reached DEURALI to pick up our bags, we had been witnessing a massive avalanche just 100 meters or so from us. the sounds of a big avalanche close by is hard to describe, but it was LOUD. and it sounded really dangerous.
pushing ourselves to the max, just throwing some food down at DEURALI, we carried on for the next hours down to DOVAN where matt had promised to save a room for us. walking the last strech completely in another world and lost for words, exhausted and walking like drunks, we finally reached DOVAN and passed out immidiately...
day 8, we woke up to... have a guess... SOME MORE WALKING!!!. i had not even considered the fact that we had 2 days left, and shitloads of mountains, passes and stone steps to descend before reaching NAYA PUL again... it was definately a bad idea to not take a rest day at this point, cause for the 6 hours walk that day down towards CHOMRONG, i cried nearly all the time and felt like i was ready to be put into a mental institution. poor ole was forced to take my pack when we where going uphill, merely because i was raving on about how crazy i felt and how much i hated being on that mountian. when reaching the village just before CHOMRONG, we all collapsed pretty much (included our guide and john) and decided to stay for the night. we had a shower, a nice meal, and later that night the locals put up a show with dancing, tablas and singing - to mark the upcoming nepali new years eve only four days away. we were enjoying the entertainment, and got offered garlands of fresh flowers around our necks for good luck. and this we really needed!!!
the next 2 days was a matter of just falling downhill, with whatever muscle strenght we had left. it was amazing to see that the landscape could change so quickly - after all - we had been in snow and mountain range just a day beforehand. now, we found ourselves walking in rice fields and forests again. completely change of wheather, and the sun was burning as hell. i got blisters covering my neck and face from the lack of sunscreen at A.B.C, and headaches out of this world.. but nevertheless, really really happy and motivated to reach pokhara with hot whowers and clean clothes!!!!
MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!!!!
