Annapurna Trek: Day 7 and Day 8

Note: I am combining day 7 and 8, explanation follows…..

I am in heaven. It is day 8, it is gorgeous outside, we are mainly resting today and I am checked into the equivalent of a five star tea house. What this means is that there is an attached bathroom, with western toilet and a HOT shower. I am happy to exist in “grunge mode”, but when the opportunity presents itself to clean up, I am equally happy doing that, too!

But let me go back to the beginning.

Day 7 started out early and cold. It had hailed the night before after which the sky cleared, with the cold temperatures remaining. Despite the cold, however, it was nice when I rolled out of bed in the middle of the night to wander outside to the toilet, to see the sky brilliantly lit with a multitude of stars. I spent a (brief) moment admiring the view on my way back to my warm sleeping bag. Overall I slept poorly, however. It may have been due to sharing a room with four other people or it could have been because some time in the past few days I have caught a cold. Drats! In any event, it was easy to get up since I was awake anyway. I dragged all of my stuff outside to pack so as to not disturb the remaining two room mates. (One couple had gotten up at 4 am to do the hike up to ABC for sunrise and were long gone.)

The mornings are routine by now, dress, pack, breakfast, and hit the trail. We were walking by 6:30 am. The day was long, we hiked for a total of seven and a half hours, essentailly reversing in one day what it took two to accomplish on the way up. The sun was out, making the walk quite pleasant and it was down hill so we could move fairly quickly. The hardest part was that I had to stop occassionally to blow my nose or sneeze- stupid cold!!!. It was treacherous to do either while walking because I had to pay attention to the path. I did not take many pictures since we were focused on getting to Chomrung, and hopefully before the afternoon rains. Also I did not feel great, and I had gotten a lot of the scenery on the way up. So the camera stayed in my pocket pretty much all day. The whole way back down the trail, I marveled at all of the “up” we had done to get to MBC!

We made it to Sinuwa and had to stop for lunch. All three of us were starving and breakfast was more than six hours in our past. We stopped at the same place we had stayed at on the way up, which had a great view. I took the opportunity to snap a few pictures while the sun was shining, as it had been hazy on my previous visit. We were almost done for the day but the hardest part remained—the stairs to Chomrung. The very ones I was introduced to on Day 4, when we were descending. Today was the day to go up, up, up. We ate lunch as quickly as possible because it was late enough that the afternoon clouds were coming in fast. I glanced at my watch when we set out; it was 2 pm. Sure enough after about 15 minutes down the hill from Sinuwa, it started to rain. Our luck had finally run out. I pulled out the backpack cover and put on my rain poncho. That was enough protection as, thankfully, the rain was not torrential, just steady enough that you had to pay attention to it.

We got down to the river, crossed the bridge, and then the up started. I was determined to count the steps, for a couple of reasons. One, I was naturally curious about how many there were, and two, I knew it would be good to keep my brain occupied with a goal during what was going to be a fairly physically demanding task. So, in the rain, focused on one step at a time, I began my climb. I got into a fairly steady rhythm and the counting helped. I was pleased my fitness level has evolved to the “huffing and puffing” associated with constant physical exertion as opposed to the “huffing and puffing” associated with “I think I’m going to keel over any minute”. At step 1789 we pulled over, as it were, and checked into a tea house for the evening. As I was feeling pretty tired, sore, and still fighting my cold, I ate then went straight to bed. (And that is why Day 7 and Day 8 are tied together.)

I had a wonderful night’s rest. I slept seven straight hours, woke up, then slept another three. Yay!

I actually slept through my alarm the next morning, waking twenty minutes late, and emerged from my room to another bright, sunny day waiting for me. The view, as usual, was spectacular and not being able to resist, I took a few more shots of the mountain looming over us. It was hard to believe that just two days ago I was on the complete other side of it!

Our goal today was a village called Landruk, not that far away, with the plan of getting there early so we could relax. As I mentioned above, the pull of a shower, being able to do some laundry, and just sitting and soaking in the views, was very attractive. But first, more steps. I picked up my count as we set out. In total to the top of Chomrung from the bridge at the bottom of the hill were I had started my count yesterday, was 2200 steps (likely +/- 10%). I’m in “step condition” now, so I still felt fresh at the top and ready for the rest of today’s up and down adventures. From the top of the Chomrung hill I could see our destination. We had to walk two hills over, which meant the same number of ups and downs. No problem!

It was weird to see our destination straight away in the distance, seemingly so close, but knowing that getting there was not as simply as connecting the dots. We had to follow the topography of the landscape, which meant a more meandering path. As I was contemplating that thought, it occurred to me that these hills and contours are a good analog for understanding and picturing how gravity warps space-time. I am not going to elaborate on that theme here, merely put it out as a teaser, as I am considering writing a whole blog or article on that thought.

Since I am now in “mountain goat” shape, the trek over to Landruk was fairly easy and we arrived late morning, around 11:15 am or so. That meant plenty of time for the day’s important tasks of showering and laundry. I feel clean for the first time in eight days and it is wonderful! The rest of the day has been spent going through photos, catching up on the blog, but most important, sitting on the balcony outside my room, just taking in the scenery. The scale of the landscape here still impresses me. On the hill across the narrow valley we are adjacent to, is a road with switchbacks climbing to a village on the top. As I sat and watched a white truck climbed the road and it looked like a small matchbox car, completely dwarfed. A bit further up the hill I spotted a local hydro-electric plant. At the top is a small building from which a pipe extends, what has to be hundreds of feet, to another building that houses a turbine, turned by the water flowing through the pipe. Potential energy to kinetic energy to electrical energy, all locally derived. Ingenious. (We have passed several of these set-ups throughout the trek.)

The folds and creases and collision of terrain here is absolutely amazing. Thinking of the forces that were required to create such a rugged, dramatic shape to the Earth is truly mind blowing. Now, at night time, I can look out across the hills and see the at all altitudes the lights of the small villages and homesteads dotted all around. The darkness hides the hills, so the lights appear as stars populating a dark sky. Magical!

Tomorrow we head down the trail further towards Pokhara as we get close to the end of this part of my adventures in Nepal. It’s been a great experience so far.