travel lightly and carry a big stick

Trekking Rhinos and other photos

In the last month plus a bit I’ve been trekking in the mountains of northern Nepal and the jungles of the south. The Annapurna circuit, 300 km through the mountains of northern Nepal, climbing from 900m to 5416m and back through sub tropical, temperate and alpine terrains with a touch of semi desert. Frankly, it’s all fairly impressive. The journey started about 150 km from Pokara, Nepal’s 2nd city. The local bus achieved an average of 25 kmph to get us there in a speedy 6 hours. Due to the civil war going on here (yes, I am in a war zone, how very daring) the bus in regularly impeded by road blocks and young men with guns. Most of the buses and trucks here have "40 kmph speed limited!" written on the sides, with helpful advice such as "go slow, live long" so I suspect the Nepalese have never really been used to a completely smooth transport infrastructure.The trek can be split into three sections, firstly the climb up, following a river valley for 10 days or so (slowly in order to acclimatize and mineralize altitude sickness) to about 4500m. Then breaking away from the river (barely more than a stream at this point) you head up and over the 'largest pass in the world' Thorong La before dropping down into another river valley on the other side which then can be followed back towards Pokara.We set off in a group of six, although this dwindled to 4 after a few days, a couple of the guys eager to rush on ahead to get back for Xmas, hmmmm something I was to miss by 10 days. The scenery on the way up was naturally stunning. As there are no roads in this area the only traffic on the path are the long trains of mules that bring food and such trekking essentials as chocolate and beer. The mules jingle their way past, large bells hanging from their necks like Swiss cows with dyed yak tail headdresses, largely ignoring us walkers, (who if not careful may be struck by a packed saddle bag) as if to say ' I don't feel in the least bit silly with part of an ex yak protruding from my forehead'. The path is an ancient trade route between Nepal and Tibet and threads its way through numerous settlements, the inhabitants of which are either subsistence farmers or guesthouse/tea shop owners.As we climbed the temperatures quickly dropped, the 4th day or so, we were encountering kids tobogganing down frozen sections of the path and had to don our Tibet gear in order to stay unfrozen. After about a week we'd reached a small Tibetan style town called Manang where we holed up for a few days to acclimatize ready for the climb. Although I was keen to press on, concerned about the coming of the snow, we spent 3 days relaxing, just visiting the local glacier. The day we set off again my fears were realized, in the afternoon just as we reached a guesthouse a bit of a blizzard commenced. It snowed most of the night and as we huddled round a table with hot coals in a bucket at our feet I grew increasingly despondent. The next day the sky had cleared completely, and the valley had a thick layer of snow. The bushes of Yak Karcha (translation - Yak meadows) had been transformed into a field of huge white mushrooms on which a herd of extravagantly horned yaks munched happily. This commenced one of the hardest days, a climb from 4200ish to 4800m often in the snow, the last hour being a steep 300m slog into high winds. At one point, whilst follows a high path along a steep sided valley edge we heard frantic shouts from the opposite side of the valley. A couple of Nepalese, little more than pinpricks at this range, were waving a large red cloth at us and calling unintelligibly. Of course we thought this was some kind of distress call, so gamely I headed on a straight path down the snow covered slope, backtracking and losing 200m in height (understand every meter is hard won up there) before crossing a river and up the other side in order to help. However, my vision of pulling off some kind of high altitude rescue was soon shattered, when I realized it was just a cunning plow by the locals to get us to buy tea at highly inflated prices from them (they claimed the path we were on was dangerous.....a likely story). In our irritation proceeded to pull out Mars bars and munch them conspicuously whilst sitting on their seats, pointedly ignoring the array of biscuits they foolishly hoped to sell us. That night was spent at Thorong La high camp. At that height, it’s extremely cold and sleep is very difficult. Spent the first few hours of rest in a part hallucination, a kind of waking dream before eventually dropping off for a couple of hours, waking at 6 for the climb to the top. Set out at 7am, the wind having dropped, which is how it remained until the afternoon, (this is nearly always the case, clear mornings, the wind and clouds build throughout the day) but still in a partial darkness. My toes were ice cubes in my boots, having lost all feeling, whilst we tottered our way along a narrow and icy section of path with a smooth, steep and frozen slope dropping off on our right. As at Everest base camp, progress is slow, steps small and breathing controlled. Any overexertion leaves you gasping. After about an hour of climbing the sun broke over the mountains at our backs - a welcome tide of warmth, lifting spirits and defrosting digits. At 9.30am after a multitude of false dawns, we turned the corner around which was the top of the pass. A mass of prayer flags and cairns marked the top. I celebrated with unprecedented quantities of chocolate and by building a cairn to mark our passing. Then it was time for a knee jerking, calf killing, 4 hour and 1600m decent into Mucktinath. From Mucktinath onwards the walk took on a far more relaxed pace and attitude. No longer having to worry about the weather or any climbs we really took it easy. I took to loudly singing Christmas carols as we walked, much to the bemusement of the locals and the irritation of the zealously agnostic duchies that were in the party. On Xmas eve we wrote to Santa, and although he wasn't quite as generous as usual, he did manage a bounty bar in my stocking, I guess it’s a pretty long way from Lapland. Nearly at the end of the trek we reached the village of Tatopani, which literally translates as 'hot water'. This being due to the hot springs in the village which feed two steaming bathing pools by the rivers edge. The village is gathered around a single cobbled street, a mass of stone houses, fully laden mandarin trees and enormous point-setter bushes. The original plan had been to remain here for a couple of days before heading back to Pokara for New Year. Things however didn’t work out that way. The lure of a beautiful location and steaming ponds to sit in meant that New year and the days on each side comprised of sitting in the garden or springs reading and soothing my poor poor feet.Eventually the circuit was finished in a total of 25 days and made it back to Pokara. After a few days in this lake side town, again more relaxing combined with a bit walking and sailing and a very bracing swim in the lake, which slightly amazed the locals, who circled in their canoes in disbelief. From Pokara caught the bus for another very slow trip to Chitawan national park in the south of the country. The southern part of Nepal, which borders India, is known as the terrain. This is a flat plain rather unlike the mountainous north. Chitawan is famous for its Rhinos and Tigers which I was hoping to see. Hired a guide for a 3 day hike in the jungle. After seeing hundreds of crocs, both fresh water and salties throughout the first day, we arrived at a lake as the sunset. Just before reaching a hide a deep reverberating bellow in the bushes a flurry of birds taking flight indicated a rhino was nearby. Having heard a story from a guide about his battle with a rhino I wasn’t to keen to take it on, so when instructed to climb a tree wasted, no time getting up one, forgetting to take by large pack off first. A pair of these massive armored beasts had come for a quick drink. At the village the previous day, I had patted the ‘pet’ rhino that was hand reared by the residents so had become acquainted with the stone like quality of their heads. Over the course of the walk we encountered numerous monkeys and wild peacocks (which look amazing in flight) as well as going into some rarely visited (by foreigners) villages, where we became the animals of interest. Due to the Maoist rebels calling a bus strike on the last day, we stretched the walk to four days and had to stay an extra day before heading back to Katmandu. Which is where I am at the mo. Will be heading to Varanasi in India in a few days, will be sad to leave this place.

posted by justplainnigel @ 2:19 PM