It was a bit more challenging trekking for the last hour, but we got to Deurali aorund noon. We climbed 2,937 feet today, and we are now at 10,597 feet.
Shortly before we reached the village we crossed a really rickety wooden bridge and then we crossed on the snow at the end of a snowfield for a short time. It is really pretty in this area, with a couple of waterfalls, the river down below and the snow-capped mountians ahead.
We passed a fairly large group of trekkers and porters shortly before we reached Deurali, and Nar asked one of the porters what they had been doing. They had tried to summit Annapurna South but made it only halfway - too much snow. Apparantly except for the last couple of days, it was snowing so much up on the mountains that is was chest deep, and they weren't able to move ahead. It must be so incredibly disappointing to plan a major expedition and not be able to succeed because of bad weather.
We are all staying at the Panorama Guest Houst tonight. We sat and talked with Natasa and Danesh for about 2 hours after we got here and while we had lunch. Every day is so much the same it's nice to have someone new to talk with. They described life on a cruise ship, and they sure work hard for their money.
Lunch was pretty good. Shari and I split a pizza and I had a bowl of garlic soup - lots of garlic! After lunch we did our normal thing - took a nap. Shari usually reads for quite a bit, but I read for about only 15 minutes and then I listent o music and sleep. I am sleeping probably 10-12 hours a night and 1-2 hours during the day. Oh well, tomorrow - Annapurna Base Camp and then we start to head down to Pokhara. I can't wait to get there.It sounds very nice and there will be a lot more to do. Someone recommended the Evrest Steak House there (steak -WOW!) and I plan to eat there our first night in Pokhara.
I had the most fun evening in Nepal at the tea house tonight. After dinner I stayed in the dining room to read my book and Shari went to the room to read. All the porters were playing cards and after a while a young man who works at the tea house, Ram, started showing everyone tricks with matches. There were 13 of us around the table - the tea house owner and his wife, Natasa and Danesh and their porter and guide, a Japanese trekker and his porter, Nar, Pratik, Singa, Ram and me. We sat there for at least two hours laughing and talking and trying to figure out the tricks (I got two of them). It was so neat to listen to Ram explain something in Nepalese and then explain it again in English. It was nice and warm because they put one of those kersonese stoves under the table which had all the blankets hanging down on the sides. I am still amazed that nothing cathces fire, althugh our trekking book does caution against carbon monoxide poisoning. I didn't go back to my room until after 9:30. It was nice to be up after 7:30 for once.
5/11: We had a nice breakfast (boiled eggs as usual) in the dining room. Last night Ram told us he was the manager of the tea house so Natasa called him "manager" all evening. This morning she asked him how old he was and he said 17. His uncle is the real manager and Ram was just up from Pokhara during the school break. I think he will do well in life - he has such a great personality. In any case, his uncle also manages the Annapurna Guest House at Annapurna Base Camp so Ram told us to stay there tonight.
We started trekking about 7:45 today and got to Machhapuchhre Base Camp (at 12,139 feet) about 10 AM. Shari, Nar and I had a nice break there. I had hot tea and decided to try my peanut butter on my coconut cookies. It was quite good but it is an unsalted peanut butter, so I sprinkled salt on top of the cookies and peanut butter. I definitely will take a container of peanut butter with me on the next trek. Nar liked it too, and he put it on his butter crackers.
The rest of the trek up to Annapurna Base Camp was not as steep but I had to go very slowly because of the altitude. As usual, Nar stayed right with me. The views were spectacular on and off as the fog rolled in and out of the mountains. We will get up at 4:30 AM to take pictures of the sunrise tomorrow. We saw quite a few people coming down today and they said this morning's sunrise was great. By noon the fog covers the mountains, so we can't see much of anything right now. Hopefully, it will be there in all its glory tomorrow.
We are now at 13,550 feet and again I am higher than I've ever been except in Nepal. I feel terrific though, and ended up getting two servings of fried noodles with onion, and tomato for lunch. I think the food is better at the tea houses in the Sanctuary than it was on the Circuit.
5/02: I got up about 1 AM to use the bathroom and the mountains and stars were incredible. We are surrounded by big mountains and the moon casts enough light to see them all. We then got up just before 5 AM to see the sunrise over the mountains and it was quie lovely. Unfortunately, there was no pink sky before sunrise, but it was totally clear and we saw all the mountians around us. We stayed outside until the sun came over the mountain, about 6:10 AM and then we went back to lay down until about 7 AM. Nar came in to get us up and told us it was much warmer outside than in, and he was right. Neither of us had fallen back to sleep because it was too cold in the room.
The mountains were beautiful in the Sactuary but they didn't have that magical look to them that I've seen in other places in Nepal. Maybe it was because they were all right there around us and they almost didn't look real. I think sometimes when they are partly hidden by clouds or when I see them by moonlight they look more mysterious and magical. In any case, I took a lot of pictures including a number of panorama shots, but I'm not having the panorama pictures developed now as panorama. When I get home, I'll look at all my pictures and I'll have the good panorama ones reprinted in the panorama format.
We started down around 7:45 and it was a great trekking day. Even Pratik was happy with the prospect of a down day, and it was mostly all down, down,down. I thoroughly enjoyed it because I have no breathing problems when going down.
We had a nice break about 10:30 AM at the Panorama Guest House in Deurali (where we stayed the night before last) and we got to see the owners and "the manager," Ram, again. I had some peanut beuuter and coconut cookies and then laid down on a rock for a short 10 minute nap. The weather was great today - bright sun, but somewhat breezy. We have been so lucky with our beautiful weather throughout this whole trek. We got to Bamboo about 2:30 and decided to stay in the Bamboo Lodge tea house rather than the Buddha Guest House we stayed in on the way up. Natasa and Danesh had stayed at the Bamboo Lodge and they said it had a great shower and I agree. The first thing I did when I got here was take a shower.
Our total descent today was 5,890 feet, and it feels so good to be on our way to Pokhara.The only problem is we are so much ahead of schedule. We will talk to Nar tonight to plan our route to Pokhara. We could easily get there in 3 days (2 nights in tea houses along the way) but that would put us there on the 15th. We may try to stretch it to 3 nights along the way, but in any case we will probably spend 3 nights instead of 2 nights in Pokhara and we will still have extra time in Kathmandu.
We sat and talked with Danesh and Natasa for about an hour and a half before dinner while Danesh and I had a couple of beers each. It was a nice treat - sitting outside, drinking beer and talking, Thery are a great couple and have a really interesting stories to tell about life in India and Croiatia, and especially about life about a cruise ship.
We made it an easy cooking night for the tea house owner because we all got Daal Bhat (the 4 of us and all the Nepalis) for dinner. It was good, but I don't know how the Nepalis eat it every day.
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