BootsnAll Travel Network



Annapurna Circuit – almost there…

Day 12.  Ngawal>Manang.  3540 M/111,614 Ft.  2 1/2 hours.  After a quick snack we headed out early and down the hill where we had breakfast at Braga?  The town before Manang.  I think in 20/20 hindsight we would have skipped staying in Manang and stayed here instead, but since we hadn’t been to Manang we went on.  We stayed at the Thorung La – kind of a miserable place with pretty bad food and only lukewarm showers – had a good lunch at this place in the guidebook though (Malvis’s or something like that?) – boy, my recollections are starting to get really bad…

Anyway, we ran into Laura at a bakery and she said she was headed to this lake so we tagged along.  Beautiful, but FRIGGIN’ COLD!  I mean, really, it is fed by a glacier…

Day 13.  Manang>Letdar.  4200 M/13,780 Ft.  4 hoursish?  As usual, we got up early and after a quick snack were on the road.  It was getting to be our schtick – quick snack in the morning and then we’d stop in a couple of hours and grab a chicken noodle soup.  Apparently, this Spaniard from Barcelona was on the same schedule – he’d have a black coffee and a cigarette in the morning and then would stop and snack at teahouses along the way.  We’d often see him in the mornings or at a teahouse somewhere.  Today, we stopped at Yak Kharka for soup and apple pie – the Spaniard was going up to Thorung Phedi that day.  We thought, well, that seems reasonable – maybe we’d do the same.

Hmmm – that didn’t really work out.  I just about died in the stretch between Yak Kharka and Letdar.  For some reason I couldn’t regulate my breath.  So Letdar it was for the night.  We stayed at Churri Latta, one of 2 places, as did the rest of the people we would ultimately cross the pass with.  No shower, but it did have a nice warm stove they lit with buffalo dung. 

Day 14.  Letdar>High Camp.  4800 M.  We’re just about to leave the guest house when lo and behold, here comes the 2 German guys that we had leap-frogged with a bit along the trail.  We figured we wouldn’t see them again on the trail since they were going to the lake and it was supposed to be 3-day excursion.  But they must have been pretty speedy!  Anyway, we headed out, this time taking a break at Thorung Phedi.  We were feeling pretty good and it was very early so we went up this mega hill up to High Camp.  John started yelling at me because I was being slow (isn’t he a kind and considerate husband 🙂 ) but I just couldn’t regulate my breath.  But finally we made it.  This would take an hour off of our way to the pass the next day…within a few hours we were joined by the Israelis, the 2 German guys, the German couple (Lars & Barbara), the English couple (Caroline & Tom), the Canadian (Dale), the Australian (Laura) and probably other people I can’t remember off the top of my head.  Maybe it’s because I’ve been sitting in this internet cafe listening to the same Nepali songs over and over again.  At least the Jumbo Jumbo song they played over and over again in Tanzania was catchy.  Shoot me now.

Anyway, yeah, most of us got some symptoms of AMS.  I ended up taking some of that Diamox stuff but I was feeling better in the morning.  I had a raging headache that night.  And couldn’t force anything down for dinner.  Oh and we had a mouse that decided to invade our remaining chocolate stash that night.  Luckily he only got into one.   



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