Annapurna Circuit Trek: Days 14-15

After a couple of pretty so-so days (relative to the beginning of the trek), Day 14 was a return to excellence. The next section of the trek, from Tatopani to Ghorepani is a 1700m climb. That's a lot of up. Most itineraries call for this section to be walked in one day, a task for which one should budget an absolute minimum of five hours but could realistically expect to take at least six or seven (we later heard of one girl who had taken 12 hours to complete the stretch in one day). Our group, however, was a day ahead of schedule (finally an advantage of our pushing forward on the previous few days became clear), so we opted to break up the climb into two days. It seems so obvious to break such a long climb, particularly since there's a lovely village half way up, that I don't understand why this is not standard practice.

Since we had a relatively short day ahead of us (four hours of steep uphill now counting as relatively short!) we were allowed to sleep in until 8am and then had time to go for a morning soak in the hot springs. By the time we set out, at 9:30, I felt totally rested and relaxed and, for the first time since crossing Thorung La, my legs and feet didn't hurt. After a gentle first half hour, the path was steep up jagged stone steps for the next three and a half hours, the scenery alternating through terraced fields and rhododendron forest. Frustratingly, the haze reduced what was supposed to be a great view into almost nothingness:

Despite the heat and the steepness, or perhaps because of it, I felt GREAT; fit, happy, glad to be off the road and full of energy. For the first time I realised I was in noticeably better shape then when we'd started out, my legs are much more adept and climbing up than down (my knees had been giving me a lot of trouble) and I even enjoy sweating (it makes me feel like I'm working harder!) For once, I was bounding ahead of the group as Vivek and Henry lagged behind. I hadn't felt this good in days, though I did start flagging towards the end of the climb.

We reached the guesthouse, Hotel Serendipity in Sikha, where we planned to stay in time for a late lunch. For all the trumpeting of the place where we'd stayed the night before as having the best food on the trail, the food here was better by a long-shot. I had dal bhat, of course, but it was prepared to perfection; fresh, flavoursome, the different elements perfectly balanced. It was magical and I still (now writing on June 6th) rate it as the best meal I've eating during my entire travels.

The Hotel Serendipity was charming and comfortable and a wonderful place to rest and relax for the afternoon and we reveled in having nothing to do but sleep, read and watch the world go by. Despite the apparent peacefulness of the village, it was apparent that the women were working extremely hard; in the fields, portering loads, preparing meals and looking after the guesthouse.

There were two small boys there and Maria and I, both missing the kids at Orchid Garden, pounced at the opportunity to play with them and Vivek went to work making them toys to play with our of sticks, wire and a couple of old flip-flops he found lying around. Here is the youngest playing with one of them. We asked his name and were told that it was 'Babu' (literally, Baby!)

It was a fabulous day, one of my favourites of the entire trek.

The following day, it was with some sadness that we said goodbye to the place and continued our way uphill to Ghorepani. I was still feeling good and kept up a fair pace, enjoying the increasingly dense rhododendron forest that the were walking through as well as the view over the valley whenever it opened up:

I was, again, very happy and at one point couldn't help but since 'zippedy doo dah'out loud (it was the only time on the whole trek that I belted out a tune).

It took us about two hours and forty-five minutes, our shortest day, into Ghorepani. I didn't much like the village. It's a popular end-point for a four day trek coming up the circuit in the opposite direction, and it was full of big, relatively charmless lodges, which was a disappointment compared to the previous night. It didn't help that these all had names like 'Nice View', Éxcellent View' and 'Super View Lodge', though in the haze 'Can Just About View the Back of Your Hand' would have been more appropriate. Moreover, Maria had lost the path coming into town and by the time she caught up with us with understandably shaken and mad at Vivek for leaving her behind. All these factors combined into a tense and unpleasant hour as we waited for our lunch.

Maria and I spent the afternoon exploring the village and attempted (successfully, I might add) to overcome our duldrums with a deep-fried Bounty roll. We also caught up with Rabbi Dan and Simon, neither of whom we'd seen since we'd left Kagbeni a few days earlier. Other than that we rested and I counted down the hours until I could reasonably go to bed.