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Trekking from Pokhara to the Ghandrung Valley | |
| 19th
- 23rd Feb 2000
Snugpak equipment report |
The
Trekkers: Richard, Andrew, Helen, Dean The morning saw an early start with a 20 minute taxi ride to Pedi the start of our trek. I was a little apprehensive as memories of my 1997 trek in Nepal came flooding back! We faced a steep uphill climb and within the first 2 hours we were higher than Ben Nevis! I'm not sure that Helen was too impressed with her introduction to trekking however we made it successfully to our first night stop at the Annapurna Lodge and spent a pleasant evening chatting about the days climb. We woke to an amazing view of Macchapuchere and Annapurna real breathtaking stuff at 7am! Day two’s walk was slightly easier and the majority was spent winding round the valley and the most gigantic scenery imaginable. We stopped for lunch at a village called Landrung where we spent a couple of hours re-inventing our own version of a card game. This was the fateful place where Richard left his Dryflo pants. The afternoon saw us headed down towards New Bridge which incidentally was drastically in need of repair and was therefore re-named "Needsa". Eventually we arrived hot and sticky at our night stop. Without hesitation we equipped ourselves with the necessities and headed downhill for the hotsprings - a warm water pool along side the freezing mountain river. We wallowed for ages not daring to expose even our shoulders to the cold! Clean and refreshed we hurried up to the lodge ready to eat. We had a huge room where we all slept together it was very amusing rather like being on a school trip. After dinner we retired to our welcoming Snugpak sleeping bags giggling! We awoke early and peeping out of our tightly drawn sleeping bag hoods we were again treated to some of the most fantastic views any of us had ever seen from our beds! The next day was the dreaded down hill section! The views however remained superb for much of the day and compensated for the painful knees and shaky thighs! Although Helen seemed to be the only one not having knee trouble! We passed a school where the children sat attentively in front of a blackboard, amazing views of the Himalayas in front of them - how could anyone concentrate on maths in these surroundings? Day three finished in the early afternoon giving us a much needed opportunity to shower! We were offered a bucket of warm water in a small shower hut, but by now we were all comfortable with the toilet arrangements and have the hole in the ground toilet stance off to a tee! We celebrated our last evening with bottles of cold beer and numerous rounds of our new card game! Dean NB see Snugpak equipment report
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