Annapurna circuit

Saturday 13.1.

- 5:15 alarm clock
- 6:30 bus to Bisishara
We meet Melina from Germany and John from England and we will start together with them

Day 1 (13.1.18)
Pokhara - Besi Sahar ~ bus
Besi Sahar - Nadi Bazar ~ Jeep
Nadi Bazar 940 - Chermu 1200
10 km /3 hours walk
Great weather

Day 2
- Map 1820
18km / 6 hours (+580 altitude meters)

Feet hurt, weather changes, cloudy and colder...

Day 3
- Charme 2700
16 km/ 6 hours (+800 altitude meters)

First blister, weather is great again but slowly it's getting really cold...
But today there was a stove in the hut. Great!!

Day 4
- Upper Pisang 3300
14 km / 4 hours (+600 altitude meters)

Very warm in the sun, but windy. Extremely windy and cold in Upper Pisang...
Landscape: forest, brown, great view of Annapurna 2 and 'door to heaven'...
I have a headache.

Day 5

- Manang 3500

15km / 4.5h (+200 altitude meters)

Beautiful day, I feel great

Landscape like on the moon

Delicious Yak Burger for dinner

Day 6

Rest day

1.5h hike at 3950m...

Great view but extremely exhausting....

Afterwards apple crumble - delicious!!

Day 7

- Yak Kharka 4050

10 km /3.5h hike (+450 altitude meters)

Dry area, only thorn bushes, some yaks and great view of the white mountains.

From now on, two steps forward, one step back.

To acclimatize, we go further to the next village, 300 altitude meters. That's an additional two hours of hiking...

Day 8

- Thorung Phedi 4450

7 km / 3h hike (+400 altitude meters)

After lunch, an additional 1.5h hike up to 'High Camp', 4850, and back for acclimatization

In the evening, something really bad happened to me...

My money, about 150 euros, is not where I thought it was.. now we're in the middle of the mountains and there are no ATMs.. we calculated exactly how much we need and now half is missing!

John lends us some money and there should be an ATM in Jomsom. We hope it works!

Day 9

- Thorong la Pass 5419

5km /3.5 hours hike (+969 altitude meters)

Extremely exhausting! I didn't feel very well twice...Patrick walked behind me thankfully, made sure I found a rhythm and didn't stop too often. I really doubted if I could make it across...

On the way, we met John and Melina who started one hour before us (at 6).

John didn't feel well and he wanted to give up - one kilometer before the pass.

Patrick even took his backpack and carried it to the pass.

Great guy, Patzi :)

- Muktinath 3760

9km/ 4.5 hours hike (-1659 altitude meters)

We are incredibly happy when we finally arrive and find a nice hotel (the rooms are always free if you have dinner and breakfast)

and finally - a hot shower!

That's the first one in 9 days.. as a shower at all... either it was too cold or the water froze.

So sometimes no washing hands, sometimes no brushing teeth,....

doesn't matter, everything will be good again now.

And I'm very proud of us!

Day 10

18km total

3.5h hike (-960 altitude meters) to Lupra

Beautiful, brown landscape with many horses...

- Jomsom 2800

2h hike through the riverbed

Day 11

Bus to Tatopani 1200

-Shikha 1935

8km /3h hike (+735 altitude meters)

Mega warm, sunshine

Day 12

- Ghorepani 3000

7 km /3.5h hike (+1065 altitude meters)

It started raining at night and halfway on our route it started snowing - great!

Our lodge has a big stove with sofas in front of it....

We'll see tomorrow if it clears up so we can see the sunrise

Day 13

315 altitude meters / 30 minutes uphill to POONHILL

4:30am alarm clock

5:30-6:30 standing in the cold/ when it got light quickly going down to the warmth.

Breakfast

- Birethani 1145

16 km / 5h hike (-1855 altitude meters)

Taxi to Pokhara

Feet hurt like hell!

But it was wonderful!

But now we've had enough walking for a while