The weather Gods have been kind to me so far. Within ten minutes of getting to Sinuwa, our evening stop, the sky literally opened up and it started pouring. But neither Prem, Bulram, nor I got wet. Sooner or later my luck will run out and I will have to deal with wet and miserable but it has not happened yet. The storm that hit is a true mountain storm, complete with thunder, lightening and huge rain drops. It’s good to be inside! As I sit here and write this a family of Koreans have put on their rain gear, which is composed mainly of elaborately configured trash bags, with various holes poking out for heads, arms, and backpacks, and are preparing to stalk off into the storm. I am pretty sure that trash bags and some of the flimsy ponchos that they do have are not going to keep them dry- at all. They are either nuts or on a tight schedule; maybe a bit of both. I’m glad I am not them!

Typical trail for today.

But let me regress and go back to the beginning of the day. It rained last night and that cleared up the sky a bit so the sun was shining when I walked out of my room at 7:00 am. Our goal was to be moving by 7:30 and we met that with no problem. I contemplated the phrase “off the beaten path” as we walked because that is where we were- our path from the tea house was rough and not used often. We had stayed in a smaller village away from the popular stopping place and it was nice and quiet. But comparing the trail we were following to the main thoroughfare, the phrase now had meaning for me. Of course when we joined the main trail at the bottom of the hill (inevitably there is a hill involved) things got better.

Morning view

Even though the sun was out it was hazy all day so my pictures are less than inspiring despite the great views that accompanied our hike. Again, today, we were hiking around the sides of mountains and with every turn I was looking into another valley tucked away into the creases between the hills. Rivers also ran through the deep spaces where the hills met and we crossed several of the suspension bridges I have posted pictures of earlier. I am pretty used to them now and even stopped in the middle of one to take a picture, despite the fact that the bridge was waving back and forth and bouncing due to the other pedestrians crossing. Definitely progress on my part! The same Korean family that just ventured out into the storm was crossing with me and the young girl was holding the guide’s hand as she was very scared.

Most of the path was pretty easy today, at least until the last two hours or so. I have to define what “easy” means in the Himlayas, though. Easy in the Himalayas is when the route is more or less smooth and level and the inevitable steps are spaced out at intervals that are lengthy enough for you to have a chance to catch your breath. Trekking here is not for the faint of heart! So it was fairly comfortable most of the day. The goal was to continue to wind around the hillside and connect to the path into the Annapurna sanctuary. I was playing “tortise and the hare” with numerous porters today. They would go racing by with incredible loads, then stop by the side of the trail and rest. I would catch them while they were resting, pass them, then we would start the game all over again. This happened, too, with several sets of trekkers.

This load is about 10kg over the legal limit but a lot of porters get stuck with doing this – for minimum pay!

If you look at the image at the top of the page you can see a map of the area. There are numerous trekking trails all over the area, but only one leads into the Annapurna sanctuary, and hence base camp, our final destination. The start of the Annaurna base camp trail is at Chomrung. From there it is one way up and then the same way back after reaching the endpoint, base camp. There was a check in point in Chomrung, which is where I took a picture of the map. While Prem was checking us in at the mandatory check point he asked how many people had registered up to that point and was told 150. Apparently that is not too crowded, but finding rooms could still be a bit challenging- the unknown is the spatial distribution of those 150 people across the whole of the trek up the sanctuary.

Pictures cannot adqeuately show how steep the trails are, but I keep trying…

As we headed out of Chomrung towards Sinuwa, I had a glimpse of my not to distant future two or three days hence and it did NOT look pleasant. Chomrung sits high on the hill and the path to Sinuwa leads down, down, down the side of the mountain, then up (but not as much) the opposite side. This is the route I will have to do in reverse on the way back: lots of up and ALL steps. Going down it was easy; watching the returning trekkers huffing and puffing their way up was an omen of things to come for me. I commented to Prem that I thought this particular stair sequence was actually worse than the one we climbed on day one; the one he promised me would be the hardest of the trek. He still insists that his statement is true as the stairs we were negotiating today are more even and not as steep. I will withhold judgement until we return and I am at the top! The only good thing I can anticipate that after climbing up to base camp which is a bit over 4100 meters, I will likely be more efficient at drawing oxygen out of the air on the return!

While we were trekking we managed to half solve one of the mysteries that has been bothering me. I refer you to the Langtang Day 8 blog about the ISO certified bags of rocks. I showed Prem the picture and the writing on the bag says “cement”. (Which still begs the question about what ISO certified cement is!) After considering the possibilities we have hypothesized that the cement bags were being re-used to hold rocks and the collection of the bags of rocks were being used as kind of a retaining wall. I’m happy with that hypothesis based on other observations, and can happily put that mystery behind me.

Which leads to the next one: German bakeries. I saw them in Kathmandu, have not had a chance to really wander around Pokhara yet so I cannot comment about that city, but I have also seen several here, along the trekking route in Annapurna, and also in the Langtang. Why German bakeries? Why not Nepali bakeries, or some other type of cuisine? I am clearly missing some kind of historical context here and will have to do some digging. Prem did not know either. I also will have to commit to trying one or two of the bakeries to investigate how authentic they are (or on the other hand, what a Nepali interpretation of German baking is). I think that will be my reward on that way back down as there are two of them in Chomrung. Something to look forward to if I get caught in the rain before then!

Just one of many I have passed, both in the cities and in the villages. Go figure.

Another question I have had, one that got answered today, has been about the path itself. As I have walked along, up and down it has been impressive to see how well thought out and constructed the stone path and stone steps have been. Someone put some time and energy into how to create a “road” that is easily traversable in any kind of weather. In addition, it clearly has been maintained. I have no idea how long these well laid out “highways” have been in existence, but today as we were almost at Sinuwa, we passed a work party repairing and improving part of the path. To say that it looked like back breaking labor is definitely an understatement. They were trying to lay two large stones in the path over a section that is normally muddy. And they were digging out the stones from the ground and then splitting them manually into flat, thin, slabs to lay in the path- all by hand. Yikes!

It was interesting to observe how they were repairing and improving the trail.

The tea house we are staying at tonight is small so it will not be too crowded. I have already seen some familiar faces from last night, however. Four women from the tea house last night are also staying at the same place as us this evening. Two women from China, who I have not talked to and two young ladies from Taiwan, who I have had the opportunity to chat with, arrived just a bit ago. Interestingly enough I was speaking German with one of the young women from Taiwan. The world is an amazing place!

View down the valley from Sinuwa tea house.