Our hiking adventures still continues and the Annapurna circuit is still challenging us. We are on our way to concur the mountains and ourselves. Are you ready for this?
As I remember we didn't tell you WHY exactly we chose to hike the Annapurna circuit. Most likely, you know that everything starts with a dream, so we had one - to do the hike in Himalayas, we put some effort to prepare and during the preparing we checked some videos on Youtube, after that the first thought was - hell yeah, we need to get there for sure, because this trek is very special.
Every day gives you new landscapes, new people and even NEW SEASONS! What does it mean? We were quite surprised to enjoy all of the seasons while hiking the whole circuit, the first was Autumn - the smell of leaves after the rain and we saw a bit of golden tone wherever we looked. The next one was Summer. We did the hiking wearing T-shirts, with sunglasses on and the Sun was warming us up all day and even the summer breeze in several places got us into the childhood memories of Summer. After the Summer came Winter. The beautiful Winter started with snowy peaks like a pie with an icing sugar. With every step further the weather got colder and colder and the the Christmas miracle happened, it was snowing one evening in Manang, it was so lovely and nostalgic, sitting near the fireplace with a good book and ginger tea made the cozy feeling, which we missed so much.
Last story we finished with a village Danaqyu which was just the beginning of 'the most beautiful trek' in the world. And after that Village we were out of electricity and Internet as well and in this case we captured a lot of pictures and now we are several days ahead, so we will slowly describe you how it was.
Danaqyu - Chame, 12 km
Day 4 started from Danaqyu, the path was quite difficult, because it was a road.. and trail.. and steep trail..and sweat and suffering... and after 3 difficult days for beginners it was some kind of a hell for our legs, but we made it :D
On our way we crossed few waterfalls like from a fairy tale.
Oh yeah, forgot to tell you, we guess there is no path without losses, so Yan lost his sunglasses, luckily I was better prepared and had 2 pairs of sunglasses with me. Sharing is caring :D
That day was very colorful and views changed literally every hundred meters. Starting from forest and ending with some snowy peaks. Actually, you have no idea how excited we were when we saw all the beauty around. After getting out of the forest we arrived to a very peaceful village which was surrounded by snowy mountains with snowy peaks, kids playing football and a looot of goats. Then we decided to have a little 'tea-stop' and take some pictures.
Every day we spend about 6-7 hours on our way from one village to another and between those hours we have a lunch break, that we start to dream about straight after the breakfast. Food is life and I don't know why, but I am always hungry here :D We stopped in Thanchok to have a lunch, because we were starving after those steep, steep paths and even the energy bars couldn't save us.
For lunch we ordered Dal Bhat and sweet Tibetian bread with jam, which made us happy and we paid about 800 rupees. After Thanchok the road was like from heaven - straight road through the forest without any 'going-ups'. And after few easy hours we finally got to Chame, the village which has everything, drinking water station, electronic service, drug store, bank and even the luxury hotel (comparing to others) :D We stayed in New Tibetian Hotel, which had a hot shower and the most delicious and fresh food so far, we really enjoyed staying there. Need to mention about the lovely fireplace they had, a great place to dry wet clothes as well.
We decided to eat the dinner and the breakfast like a real sports men, that means we ate a lot, because the next day was promising to be very long and difficult. For staying and eating in Chame we payed 3000 rupees for two.
Chame - Upper Pissang, 14 km
Day 5 woke us up with an amazing sunlight playing with snowy mountain peaks and after the breakfast we started our way to Upper Pissang, which we expected to be the most beautiful part of the Annapurna circuit.
The scenery around us was breathtaking and during the trek we saw a lot of so called idyllic views just like described in fantasy books. To add, we had a lunch, probably with the most stunning view in Dokhur Pokhari and guess what we had..of course it was Dal Bhat and Tibetian bread.After having such a good lunch we moved out to reach the destination of this magnificent day - Upper Pissang.
Upper Pissang welcomed us with even more stunning views, no electricity, small wooden buildings where winter coldness was creeping up through many slits. At least the view from our window was spectacular and so was our dinner in romantic atmosphere of candle lights. It is okay to have no electricity for 1 or 2 weeks, so be aware :D Actually Nepali people love playing cards, so this is what we did for the whole evening. For staying in Upper Pissang (dinner+breakfast) we spent 2600 rupees.
Upper Pissang - Braka, 19 km
Day 6 was the MOOOOST difficult so far. We decided to do the trail, not the road as we planned the previous evening. Guys said that
the road is 3 hours faster, but not so beautiful as a trail. We didn't even know what is ahead of us, what kind of struggle :D The first kilometers of the path were quite easy, going through the forest and enjoying the life..but after that, the adventure happened.
We saw a veeery steep path going up for many kilometers and I thought we won't survive, but as soon we got our thoughts in the right direction, repeating to ourselves, breath in, breath out, step by step, just breath, you can do it, so it got easy to walk, but after that trail, we were pretty exhaustedtireddead :D
The most scary thing was that about 14 km were still waiting for us to go, but they were outstanding, like literally, out of this world. Hiking and being in your own thoughts, seeing the mountains and the clouds playing with the sun is kind of a bliss. I mean, the main thought that you are somewhere on the other side of the world, feeling so tiny between the huge mountains.
Anyway...after 9 hours somehow we made it, but arriving to hotel in Braka, the first thing we did was falling into the bed and thinking what the hell we are doing with our lives :D It was such a pleasure to have a rest and a loads of food. Only after couple of hours we understood what a distance we just walked.
Day 7,
In Braka we stayed for 2 days, to have a proper rest and do nothing. When the next day came, we felt so lucky, that we don't need to wake up so early. The rest day went pretty cool, we were relaxing, eating, reading books, drinking a lot of tea and taking naps.
Ice lake - 8 km
Day 8,
The reason why we stayed in Braka (3600m) is that we wanted to go to the Ice Lake, which is located at altitude 4600 meters and good for acclimatization and the view from there is blissful, all the peaks around are seen. The acclimatization is very important, cuz if you don't want to get the altitude sickness it is good to follow the rule - GO HIGH, SLEEP LOW and don't forget keeping your body hydrated.
We and 2 guys from Slovakia started our way up to Ice Lake. Everything was okay while I saw the end of the hill, which as I thought is the destination, but... it wasn't, we needed to go up on like 3 hills to be at the Ice Lake. The hike was very hard, we moved very slowly, luckily without bags just several bottles of water, some energy bars and walking sticks. The way up was partly of rocks and the higher we went the more our feet stucked in the path because of the melted snow in combination with dirt. I remember myself thinking, if the pass will be this difficult I am not going..ha ha, of course I am going, no steps back.
In 4 tough hours we reached the Ice Lake. You know..nothing surprising, the lake was covered in snow and we felt some kind of disappointment, but when we turned around, we saw a lot peaks in the blue skies. Well, this view was worth it. Absolutely stunning.
We took a rest for about 30 minutes, drunk a tea, took some photos and after that the cold wind started to blow and we ran back as fast as we can, cuz it was the only way to warm up.
Thank God, during the whole altitude thing, we didn't have any altitude sickness symptoms. The whole Ice Lake trek took about 6 hours, when we came back to hotel we had a lunch and a big pot of tea.
These were 2 days in Braka, very small village, with only one opened guest house (not a season yet) and we spent there about 6300 rupees.
After Braka we went to Manang, only 2 km away. We stopped in Tilicho hotel, which was kind of luxury, because it had electricity generator for 5 hours a day. :D There we did another rest day, preparing for the 3 most difficult days, (how many times did I mention the world difficult? :D ) getting over the pass. We spent 10000 rupees in Manang. We bought 2 pairs of spikes for 1800 rupees each and payed 200 rupees for a room.
Manang is beautiful, but not so big as we expected. Definitely worth of staying there for 2-3 days, just to chill or do some side treks.
Our biggest dream was to get to the Tilicho lake (one of the highest mountain lakes in the world). Unfortunately, because of the heavy snowing it was closed. Instead of that, we filmed a lot of videos, took some amazing pictures and had a time to prepare for the next days.
P.S. 1$ = 102 rupees
Next post is going to be the most important I would say. We will describe everything about the Thorung La Pass, for us it was the most important and the most amazing thing we have done in our lives. So stay tuned and we will cook something nice for you.
Only original content. Photos are taken on Sony Alpha R7II.
Sending you a lot of inspiration.