Annapurna Beauty

Well, we  made it to Annapurna Base Camp (ABC), with a side trek to Poon Hill in 8 days.  These mountains are incredibly majestic.  They do remind us of the Rocky Mountains in Western Canada – rugged and snow-capped….but these are so much larger in comparison.

We will update more about the trek itself, but know that we had the most amazing time.  We learned so much from Gyanendra along the way about the history, the culture, the people, the land…he has been a great guide and has become a good friend.

I developed a bit of nausea the morning after our overnight stay at Annapurna Base Camp (similar to how I felt summiting Kilimanjaro), so I know that my body reacts to altitude with this side effect.  No headaches for either of us and Mark handled the changes in altitude without any problems at all.  As such, the day of trekking following made it a bit slow-going for me until about noon,when I took some stomach-settling meds and shortly thereafter I was back in stride.

Trekking with Mark is like trying to keep up with Usain Bolt.  He’s an Energizer Bunny that keeps going and going.  Thankfully, he was quite happy to go at my speed. 

Still, the guide said that we were very fast compared to the majority of trekkers and some of the teahouse owners were often surprised when we arrived at the end of each day and heard where we had trekked from that morning.  In one case, we arrived more than 4 hours ahead of the previous group that Gyanendra had taken along the same route in one day.