Pete & liz's Magnificent Adventure Part 1

This Way ... Track marking painted on a rock walking on the Annapurna

We are back! We have had an amazing time ... taken heaps of photos ... as usual not sure how to put our experience and photos together into a post. I really wish our photos could tell our story, but as you know already our photo skills are very amateur. Sharing our story is sometimes hard ... hard to express or describe what we have seen and experienced. I find myself overwhelmed by photos, emotions and experience ... where to begin and what photos to post. As I have said before, I hear lucy's voice in my head ... 'photos, lots of photos of you both.' As many of you know I am camera shy, so I find it hard to pick photos of me ... but I have tried. 

Firstly, thank you for your FB messages of concern for us during the tragic snow storm that hit the Annapurna circuit on October 16. There are lots of things about the storm that were tragic as well as the people that died! There was a lot of confusion in Manang, no official information about how many people had died or were missing, whether to go over the pass or not. In the first two days there was an exodus of people. Guides stopped taking parties over for about 2/3 weeks. It took a few days to remove bodies and longer to remove their belongings that were left on the pass. The locals that lived in villages along the trail said that it was the worst snowfall in October for 60 years.  

There were quite a few individual walkers who stayed in Manang and waited until they thought that it was safe enough to go over the pass. We had a 10 day permit dated October 24 to go into Upper Mustang and there was no flexibility with the starting date and this gave us little waiting time. We also felt uncomfortable going over the pass when so many people had lost their lives. After thorough consultation with our guide GS, we decided to turn back and go to Pokhara and catch a plane to Jomsom so that we would be in Mustang on time. This was a hard decision for both of us ... we felt sad turning back, we had got so close! There are moments when we realise that we are not in control and this was one of those moments. On this occasion the mountain and weather had made our decision for us, as hard as it was to accept. On the way out we heard some very distressing stories from fellow trampers and this affirmed our decision.

Anyway let's get started on our trip ... 

Our bags all packed and ready to go. Our poles were great, especially on the uphill ... 'my pole is my friend and I will not let it go!' Yes those are our bladders on the outside ... we did not have enough room on the inside. My pack was too heavy for me. On day two I transferred some things to Pete's pack ... I tried to be a man but I couldn't quite do it. We were climbing from the beginning and doing regular 8-10 hour days and I knew I would never make it with the weight of my pack. Pete very kindly took some things for me. The heaviest part of our packs were our sleeping bags. We didn't have much gear but our sleeping bags were the biggest and heaviest thing in our bags. Next time we'll buy some proper light-weight, down sleeping bags. They were a combination of heavy and cold. Pete cursed them every night of the trek.

On Nepalese buses they have a drivers assistant. He's always male usually a smooth, street-smart teenager. They take the money off passengers, open the side door, call out to potential customers as the bus is still moving, help the driver reverse by hanging out the window as above and banging the side of the bus... I am not sure how that helps the driver, but it does. Not sure how OSH would deal with the above!? The bus was moving when he climbed out the window to check the bags on the roof and continued to do so while he was hanging there. Meanwhile in front of us a Nepalese woman was spitting and vomiting into a blue plastic bag that the coach provided for free and when she had filled it threw it out the window and grabbed the next bag. She did this many times.

The beginning of our tramp ... Pete eating under the 'Tree of Enlightenment' ... a little too much footpath and not enough tree! 

I really think Pete looks like Rob here ... what is your verdict? Certainly a Rob Hat.

I had to take a photo of this ... Nepal is second in the world for water. The Annapurna trail walks along some amazing rivers! India has sealed a deal with Nepal to build a damn that supplies electricity to India who then sell it back to Nepal, I think that is how it goes. India has contracted the building of the dam out to China. The above sign was at the damn building site. I particularly like #1 ... 'Come to work happily, go home safely'.

The Nepalese dress up their trucks and buses inside and out. Most of the trucks are Tata's made in india. They decorate them with ribbons and paint them lots of different colours as you can see and paint slogans on the front and back like 'Speed King' and 'See You'. Lots of the decoration is religious and designed to generate good karma. I loved them, they have taken something so ordinary and made it into something colourful and eye-catching. These trucks were at the damn site we walked past.

All along the Annapurna trail are villages that have 'Tea Houses' or what we could call hotels for trampers to stay in, they are very basic but oh so appreciated at the end of a long hard uphill walk. In these villages there a lot of vegetable and crop gardens, like rice and barley. I saw this basket of chillies out in the sun being dried for winter. I love the colour. Corn is hung over balconies some with husks and some without, to dry. They look an amazing marigold colour when they are drying.

In all of the 'Tea Houses' they sell water, biscuits and snickers bars. I discovered that I could walk for two hours and then I could literally feel my energy drain away and I had to have something to eat, like right now ... snickers bars were it, the amazing blend of chocolate and nuts that my body needed for the next 2 hours.

We stopped for a cooked lunch every day at the Tea Houses and we had some really yummy meals.  In most of the Tea Houses they use wood stoves for cooking, power is very expensive and there are regular power cuts. Everything is cooked from scratch and their kitchens are always neat and orderly as you can see from our photo. These two young women did our cooking, 16 & 12 I think. The people live off the land and are very poor by Western standards and the trekkers provide important extra income.

Lots of water falls ... just for your information.

This is definitely Planet of the Apes terrain on this part of the Annapurna. Very hot/humid and a lot of rain forest. I was so excited by these Apes. We also saw them when we were walking out. You can see the trees moving and leaves falling and then suddenly you see Apes, kind of creepy. They followed us for a while on our walk out. These Apes we saw on the way in.

I hope this gives you an idea of how much climbing we were doing. Every day we were climbing up, up, up into the mountains. Remembering to look up is so important otherwise you miss so many beautiful views, but sometimes we found it a little overwhelming looking up as there seemed to be no end to our climb. We got very fit and lost a lot of weight (most of it muscle)!

We are still quite warm here and as you can see the mountains in the background. The views through here are spectacular. The scenery got better and better everyday. We were totally blown away by what we saw. Its hard to capture on a photo (particularly for us) and so hard to describe. I don't think we've seen scenery anywhere in the world that compares with Nepal. 

Dahl Bhat ... 24 Hour Power. Dahl Bhat is a traditional Nepalese meal and most Nepalese eat this every day if not twice a day. I found it amazing how there are so many different versions of the same dish. I liked it. Rice, dahl, green veggie, potato and pickle. I love how they cook their potato dishes here. They are yummy ... I think lucy would love them.

The most common form of carrying things is on their backs with a rope or belt strapped around their foreheads. This is an older woman carrying rice ... sometimes all you can see are feet.

This is a Buddhist Chorton (a kind of mini-temple) ... whenever you see one of these you walk to  the left of it. They are religious icons that are built to bring good luck and keep demons away. They are usually decorated like this one. There are many different forms of these along the trail some modest and some ornate and colourful.

Hand sanitiser ... I am not sure if we have enough!! Pete was quite obsessive about hand sanitiser and using it. Even though there is heaps of water here in Nepal not all of it is safe to use because it is used for  everything ... you could be bathing and washing clothes in the same water and then there is all the animals that walk through it and do what ever they do in it. It might have paid off because we had very few problems with upset stomachs.

Another Buddhist Chorton ... we saw this on the way out of Chame which is the district capital of Manang. Chame is where we started to get cold and had to pull out our woollen gear, leggings and long pants. The storm hit on the evening of this day. The only indication we had of bad weather coming was from a German woman who had checked her iPhone and it said there was going to be rain for the next 3 days, we had no idea how serious it was going to be. 

Remember to look up ... the ceiling of the Chorton. The colours they use here are amazing ... particularly the blue they use.

Heaven's Gate ... we came across a group of women who had walked up here to pray in their best "Sunday" gear. They stayed over night and we saw them on their way down. The next day it was completely covered in snow from the storm.

Not only do the Nepalese dress up their buses/trucks they also dress up their donkeys/mules and horses. Donkeys really smell when walking down wind of them. When the storm hit mules were the only way to get supplies into the Annapurna. They are amazing to watch. One or two of the donkeys  wear bells (obviously the leaders), and the rest of the group follow them. The shepherds use very little noise or force ... they might whistle or call out for left and right and the mules seem to recognise their instructions and follow obediently. I wish parenting was more like that.

This is Upper Pisang ... the storm hit here about an hour after this photo. We were staying in Lower Pisang and went for a walk to visit the above monastery. We met this very nice Buddhist Monk from Bhutan whose motto (he told us) is 'Gross National Happiness'. He is 19 and had been a monk for about 18 months, he had moved from Kathmandu to Upper Pisang for a few months. We asked him why he was a monk and he said his parents made him. We asked if he liked it and he said 'No' ... he missed home and was cold and miserable and he cried a little. He has an older brother who is an Abbott which is quite the deal in Buddhism and his brother was getting ready for a 3 year, 3 month, 3 week, 3 day, 3 hour meditation retreat where they have no contact with anyone and are not allowed to have their hair cut or finger nails and toe nails cut. They are standing in the doorway of the monastery ... the colours around the door are beautiful and pretty much the same in every Temple. We saw a lot of these.

The deadly snow storm that hit on October 16th. The higher up the track the worse the weather. It was heavy rain lower down. We were stuck here for a day. The irony of this is that all along the Annapurna people are using cell phones ... there are no dead spots you can call anyone from anywhere in the world or Nepal on this track, but no one from official sources bothered to phone through to Manang and close the pass!! After the storm there were broken power lines lying everywhere. As a result there was no power in most of the villages and probably won't be for a while.

Note ... Heavens Gate after the storm ... 

After leaving Lower Pisang we were sinking into snow all day ... my feet were like solid blocks of ice. By the time we stopped to rest for the night we were very tired from having to pull our feet out of snow which was up to our knees in parts. It was a long hard day. We climbed from the valley below to the point where I am standing

We stopped here for lunch and took our boots and socks of to warm our feet ... this felt so nice, so warm!!

I know this seems out of place but we gave up on showers or washing ourselves with freezing cold water at day 2 ... baby wipes became our regular daily ablution ... I will never go anywhere without them now!!

A panoramic view of the mountains ...

Our last night in Manang which is the last village before Thorong pass which is 5416m high. It was only when we got here that we started to hear about the casualties caused by the storm. The outside world knew far more about it than people on the track. During the snow storm nearly 50 people died from exposure and avalanches including a number of people who died trying to cross the pass.There was so much chaos and uncertainty in Manang. Helicopters were flying for days bring bodies and stranded trekkers back to Manang. It was very sad and dramatic and then very difficult to find out exactly what was going on. In the confusion people were reported dead or missing who were quite safe. A couple of women we met were front page news across Canada after being reported missing (presumed dead). As some of you know we were also unaccounted for, for a few days.

A panoramic shot of an avalanche that came down during the night next to Lower Pisang. We came across it on our way out. We heard it come down when we were staying in Lower Pisang on the way in ... it made such a noise. I think the avalanche was about 30 feet high and was right across the road as you can see and it was solid ice when we walked across it. It was pretty clear that it was not going anywhere in a hurry. We have heard since that they managed to clear a path through the middle of it so that supplies could get through to the villages.

An out door bakery that made the yummiest deep fried bread! GS, our guide really liked the bread here.

Pete with a beard ... he reminds me of Andrew Stewart in this photo.

Inside a Buddhist Ghompa by Manang ... the colours are so beautiful in these Temples and some of them are so old ... the books in this photo are made of cloth.

We took five days walking into Manang and two days walking out. We were pretty tired walking out and walking long days. We got a ride from the above jeep the rest of the way out ... a Mahindra made in India. We had to get out here so that the driver could get the jeep through the waterfall easily. I need to say here that these jeeps are full ... there are people usually on the roof and 3 people sitting in the front, 3 people sitting behind the front and about 6 people sitting in the very back. As well as luggage.

I had to put this photo in ... it just seems so Nepalese to me, building a bridge on top of a rock that could at any stage be washed away by a flood.

These tasted so good ... we have been eating Vegan now for a while and by the time we got to Pokhara we were hanging out for something rich and disgusting. We found a western type restaurant and had pizza and cake ... it was delicious.

This post has taken ages ... uploading these photos has been very, very slow so there are a lot of photos that I have not put up. Look out for Part 2 in the next week.