Annapurna Sanctuary Trek
Saturday, November 3rd, 2007Day 19 was spent hiking to Deurali. Deurali is the highest lodge one can stay at before getting to the base camps. The hike started with a 1500 ft descent down stone steps to the river and then climbed an equal distance back up the other side of the valley. It then turned into a much narrower valley that serves as the entrance to the sanctuary. The trail was ill behaved most of the day and continuously went up and down. The views were obscured by a fog that hung around all day. It was a very damp night.
Day 20 was another foggy day. We walked the remaining four hours to the Annapurna Base Camp and checked into the lodge. We caught small glimpses of the surrounding peaks throughout the day, but only briefly, as the fog rolled around. Most of the day was spent eating, reading, and sleeping.
Day 21 finally saw a break in the weather. We were up before sunrise to watch what else, but the sunrise. The moon was about half full. One could see satellites whizzing overhead. The sun made its debut at about 6:00. The mountains were on fire in the light with some turning a bright orange. We finally got the sense of being surrounded by the mountains on all sides. After this show, we decided to try to hike to the Annapurna 1 Base Camp. This involved climbing down slope and then walking on a glacier. The glacial surface was covered in rocks though at some points the ice could be seen. We never made it as the distance was further than anticipated, and we didn’t want to be stuck on the glacier if the fog came in. Coming back from the hike, we headed back down the valley to Bamboo Lodge for the night.
Day 22 saw me get sick. I woke up with a cramped stomach. I only got worse throughout the day. By the time we got to the 1500 ft step climb to reach Chhomrong, I was exceedingly weak. I had to stop at one point sit down because I was dizzy. I did manage to make the climb up to the lodges. Here we stopped where we had spent the night previously. I tried to put down a bowl of noodle soup but couldn’t finish it. The owner of lodge let me use one of the rooms to take about a two hour nap. I woke up filling a bit better and decided to walk some more. After an hour, I had to stop. I was sweating buckets and had trouble walking straight with my pack. We stopped about two hours short of our intended destination of Ghandruk. I didn’t eat hardly anything that night and spent about 13 hours in bed suffering from what I can only describe as feverish dreams. I felt very flushed and hot.
Day 23 I did not feel as dizzy and just wanted to be done with the trek. I hired the husband of the lodge owner to carry my pack up the huge hill to Ghandruk as I didn’t have the strength in me. The diahrea also started. Thankfully there were lots of villages along the way. In Ghandruk I once again took my pack as the walk was down hill from there. We walked to Naya Pul and caught a bus to Pokhara. We had to ride on the roof as the bus was full. I spent the 1.5 hour ride trying to keep my stomach settled. At the bus station, we caught a taxi back to Lakeside. I barely made it back to the hotel in time to use the bathroom. I spent the night watching TV.
The next day I started taking some Ciproflaxin as I was still dizzy and had diarhea. I also worked on my blog and began to up load pictures. Today my diahrea appears to be slacking off but is not completely gone. I am still dizzy at times and don’t have much of an appetitie. I did go see a kayaking company about my next adventure. There is a 10 day rafting trip down the Karnali river on November 7 in West Nepal. I have to go back after lunch and speak with them about it some more. I will make my final decision, hopefully tomorrow, if I feel better.
Notes:
I have uploaded my Nepal pictures to date in the blog. Now that that is finished, I am going to take a nap.
cjun