The Monday back at work and still without Mike

 Hi,

Busy day at work. Phew. I did hear from Mike. He's reached Chomrong and the end of the internet! Wow!

Work iced latte

Mike's first day elevation

The day before was his first day trekking and he said it was steep.  I checked his Strava - see above. It was so steep!

I walked home in sympathy

So I walked home with Barb - as a counterpart to Mike's mammoth effort. My elevation gain is not quite the same.

My elevation - not quite the same

When I got home, we had a gift from work for Mike for Vivienne's passing. Awww.  We have a tree to plant. I reckon that is a lovely thing to do. We'll put that somewhere to look at often.

Work sent a gift for Mike for Vivienne's passing

We have a tree to plant for her

I fell into bed but had a restless sleep. Up for a ride into work. First time in absolute ages. I have only done it once here at this workplace. It was clear and cold. My fingers were a bit stiff by the time I got to work.

Went to the gym. Did 5 sets of 6 reps at 35kg. Not bad. Then other arms and shoulder work. I am now a gorilla.

Back to work. Busy day. Then long ride home with Barb - she wants to go up Sar St. 

What am I doing?

Have a great day.

Love,

Angela

A little bit up, a little bit down, a little bit more up

3 Oct - Ghandruk - Chomrong

Woke at 5:30am, just before my pre-dawn alarm. BAM! There was the whole range from Annapurna South to Muchupuchere, in bluebird clear sky. I chatted to Hannah, Jo, Nancy and others who got up for it too. We shared the morning with cows and Minah birds.

The sun filters into Ghandruk and the valley

Muchupuchere through Jo's binoculars

Tibetan bread with egg and fried potatoes for breakfast. 

Another hard day, another baking hot day. In theory less altitude gain than the 1200m yesterday. In practice we went over two saddles so lots of steep up and steep down. 

The day started walking through Ghandruk - the new town, in concrete and steel, and then the old town in stone and slate.

It was about now that Alex and I worked out why yesterday's route had seemed so strange, and why the town seemed so thoroughly developed since we were here last. It's because we went to Hille, not Ghandruk last time. Yeah, that makes sense. 

Then the 'up' began. We slogged up stone steps, and the sun was as baking hot as it was yesterday. We would touch a gravel road, but cross it and go back to steps again. Alex and I were suspicious that we could have just taken a bus the whole way. 

Chenda on the way

Pleasant travelling

We met plenty of horses and donkeys today. A horse with a beautiful blanket that a girl rode along with a big sack of millet or something. We watched her and her sack being led off, with a very jaunty lean to the left. 

Horse with beautiful blanket, sans girl, sans jaunty lean

At last it was break time at the 'Hill top tea house', and the name didn't lie thank goodness. Then for a change we went down, down, down to a big swing bridge that, like the girl and the sack, also had a jaunty lean. 

We spread out quite a lot.

Hi Georgina!

Nice wee river

The latter part of the day was quite the blur. Just plodding. Not thinking. One foot in front of the other.

This must be what a donkey feels like.

Plod plod plod

We did stop for a photo

Chomrong is a large town, with mains power still, and a big cellsite looking over the town - but not for NCell though. Abruptly I had reached the end of the internet. With one bar of signal I tried to get a message out to Angela to tell her.

Approaching Chomrong

Welcome sight

As our rooms at the Kalpana Guest House were allocated I got the "view room" with big windows overlooking the valley. I think Expansion and Bechan are looking after me.

Our guest house came with an in-house masseuse. Jenny, Trish and Hannah were VERY happy with this.

As we were tucking into tea and biscuits in the dining room, Bechan came in to talk to me. "Atul. Atul is calling for you!" This was worrisome. What was wrong? I followed Bechan as he strode out of the dining room. To find that the issue was that Atul had bought me a beer and I needed to drink it with him. Atul, Sacchi, Expansion, Bechan and I were soon drinking beers and Raksie, then Hannah joined us and taught me a new card game. Note to self, hanging out with Bechan and others is where the fun goes on!

Soon though it was dinner time. Garlic Tomato soup, and chips and noodles. The soup was yummy, I didn't mind the chips and noodles but it didn't go down as well with the team. I got lots of leftovers. 

Porters "formally" introduced themselves to us.

I was wandering off to bed when I bumped into Bharat who was chatting to a group of Bangladeshi women who were also heading to Annapurna Base Camp. They're in a womens' travel group and all are professionals - bank managers, architectures, executives. In varying islamic dress from completely western to headscarf to hijab and robes. Definitely though, nobody would have got away with telling any of them what they should or shouldn't wear!

The weekend without Mike

 Hi,

Friday saw me with my first day without Mike. I had booked the dental hygienist months back so wandered out to town on the bus for that.  They took me early so I was finished before my original appt was meant to start.

Then off to the gym for my session with Quentin. Which was also early as he had a free spot. Hahah.

Friday at Machete

Machete eggs

Took the opportunity to pop into Machete after gym for brekkie and an iced latte.  Mmmm.  Spoke to Paul briefly. They are still finding it hard work with staff needs. 3 applicants for their last vacancy. Wow.

Also stocked up on iced latte for home. :-p

I can stop any time I want

Moxley helped herself to the new bag of kibble

The weather for the weekend was wet, wet, wet. So inside jobs for me for the main part. I started my sneaky project in Mike's absence. I was hoping to lift the old carpet in the stairwell and sand and varnish it. Well. I sense a carpet quote in my near future.

Both cats find a warm spot

Start of my sneaky project

I made granola

My sneaky project in Mike's absence

All lifted

I did go over to Sally and Andrew's place for dinner and a movie Saturday night. We watched an episode of the new Lord of the Rings TV series. Then Welcome to Wrexham.

Home to bed. Then finished lifting the carpet and taking out the tacks. Andrew and Sally came around to provide advice on the steps. We sanded the second one. Turns out the treads are cedar. The risers are rough and rimu. The top step is a different length and a different wood. Turns out it is all too messy.

I will leave it for now - and we'll get a carpet quote for it. But now we know.

Tried sanding one step

I got my bike ready for commuting to work. Yay for making progress there. Had to track down lights. But in the end, I took the bus to work on Monday morning. Oops. Maureen was not pleased. :-)

Roast veges

Aioli

Couscous - with the veges and aoili

I had some veges in the fridge so I made Toby's recipe for rast veges, couscous and aoili. Nom, nom. Got it for work too.

Work iced latte

Mike is off on the trek now. Kathmandu and Pokhara went fine. He did get a migraine on Friday though. He says it is steep already on his trek. He has a local SIM card. We'll see if that means he gets better options for reception as he treks higher and higher. I wonder if he's been leeched yet? I miss him.

Have a lovely day.

Love,

Angela

Hiking begins

2 Oct - Pokhara - Nayapul - Ghandruk

Dawn in Pokhara and the first glimpse of the mountains we are heading to

It was, yet again, an early start for us. But an omelette and a frankly delicious coffee or three at Rosemary cafe, my favourite breakfast place in all Pokhara, got me woken up and ready. In short order we were loaded onto yet another bus and on our way to our roadend.

The Pokhara-Nayapul road has been transformed in the last few years. There is a large section with six lanes and we hit a Nepali land speed record of 95km/h on my GPS. Still random Nepali road rules though, with cars lurching out in front of us, random orange fences blocking the left or right lane at random, weird pedestrian crossings that made no sense on such a high speed road, and of course various livestock and bicycles and three wheeled contraptions to contend with.

Even once we left the 'freeway', the road up the hill had been widened, fully sealed, and amazingly well maintained. No abrupt change into a 4WD track over a slip for us!

Still some interesting switchbacks though

We decanted from the bus at Nayapul and soon were walking to the Birethanti Truss Bridge. (Sorry, Tim - the Birethanti hydro project still is not finished, though it does seem to have progressed a little at least).

The "before" photo

I was wondering how many tourists like me had descended on Annapurna now the borders are open but the trail was pretty quiet. The Chinese can't travel still, of course, but there were few Europeans too. There were a lot of Nepali tourists. Which was great to see. A burgeoning middle class who also are exploring their own country.

Our day started off baking hot and walking along a shimmering sealed road. Whew. I drank a lot of water. The sealed road gave way to the familiar flagstone steps. HARD WORK. Bachan kept us nicely managed with frequent stops and regroups and cups of tea.

Off we set. The porters lead on.

Goats today, stew tomorrow

Sacchi and Atul

Tarmac gives way to ... steps. Lots of them.

Alex and I were both quite mystified with the route. It was nothing like the last time we'd (individually) been to Ghandruk, on our way to Poon Hill. Either the roads and trails are all changed completely, or we were going a completely different way.

Millet in terraces

Chenda and Georgina take in the view

We saw an amazing collection of animals. Mules with "cow" bells. (Are they still cowbells when they're on a mule?). Water buffalo. Dogs. Weird caterpillars. Completely black chickens! And many herds (flocks?) of goats, all the way from Tibet, USD500 each, all for slaughter in the next couple of days for Dashain. The track passed many beautiful waterfalls, above stream crossings bridged with tree trunks. 

Mule train

Bechan supervises us crossing this 'bridge'

Ghandruk is incredible - there is clearly a road here now. Our Breeze "Guest House" is a hotel with en suite and electricity. I eagerly took advantage of the hot shower in my room. 

I emerged to a dark evening and breathtaking views of Annapurna South and Himchule looming out at me, still gently lit by the setting sun. 

I at last feel like this trip is real - after the travel, migraine, Kathmandu culture shock... I'm probably a lot more emotionally drained after the previous week than I'm pretending to myself, too.

Lockdown seems to have made me more germophobic. I'll need to get over that. Certainly masks are abandoned now. There's a cold going through the group that I'll probably catch. [foreshadowing!]

Dal bat and chicken curry for dinner. (If Expansion says the chicken's okay, then it's okay.) 

Now I'm lying in bed listening to the 'melody' of a terrible band touring the guest houses for tips. They sound like Hare Krishnas but with no rhythm or tunefulness. But all the sounds of the village put together are a wonderful sonic backdrop for drifting off to sleep.

The Looong bus ride

1 Oct - Kathmandu to Pokhara

Up bright and early and down to the lobby, boots on and porters bag in hand. We were all prompt and so we were trotting off to the bus stop in good time.

Chenda finds time for Wordle

Dashain traffic meant that even leaving Kathmandu took ages. Then we hit all the roadworks. They are widening the road, most of it will be four lanes soon - in the meantime it's dirt and gravel. But at least it'll be faster (and scarier!) next time.

There's even a huge dual tunnel nearly finished, that will go under the Kathmandu valley hill we have to cross! It really won't be the same after that.

Off into the Dashain traffic

Lunch stop in Malekhu

Lunchtime

The mighty Trishuli River

The beautiful views don't fail to impress

Muglin Bridge, where the Trishuli and Marsyangdi Rivers meet

Rivers joining

We were ten hours on the road in the end! Thanks to road works and Dashain traffic.

We gratefully arrived in Pokhara and checked into Hotel Grand Holiday. Then it was dinner time, basically.

Off to Med5 Restaurant, conveniently about 20 metres down the road., Vege pizza for me, well made but pretty boring - all my fault, I didn't click that it was just a base that I needed to put a lot more extras onto.

We start hiking tomorrow! So exciting.