Trekking the Annapurna Himalayas

Day One - Pokhara to Jomsom to Ranipauwa (Muktinath)

Washed, packed and ready to go, feeling just a little bit dazed at 5.30am. Shekhar, the manager of Giri Guesthouse where I'm staying, gives me a life on the back of his motorbike to Pokhara airport, east of the Baidam lakeside area.

The Gorkha Airlines flight is due to take off at 6.30am but due to cloudy and rainy weather conditions we don't depart until 7.30am and I almost miss it by dozing in the cafe whilst waiting. The plane bounces of the clouds shuddering with the winds, which causes a mild panic for a couple of fellow passengers, whereas it's rocking me to sleep. We land just over half an hour later in Jomsom, 2700m. From here it's a 1,000m hike up to Ranipauwa village just below the Muktinath monastery.

Leaving the built up surrounds of Jomsom's guesthouses and restaurant strip, the first stage is a long walk across a wide riverbed of pebbles and branching streamlets. It takes 2 hours to arrive at Kagbeni where I stop for breakfast. There are number of guesthouses and homely cafes in the village but I'm swayed by Mustang Gateway which has 'borrowed' the golden arches logo and named it's restaurant 'Yac Donald's'. The thukpa soup is a bit bland but the homebrewed cider is potent and warming!

Well breakfasted I set off again on what proves to be a lactic acid inducing, calf-busting climb. The environment is windswept and fairly barren on the exposed roads with greener valleys below. It's mid-afternoon when I reach the village settlement of Ranipauwa. Reading a book by it's cover again I choose the Bob Marley Guesthouse to stay the night. It's quiet and peaceful with colourful rooms, but the boiler doesn't want to work so the hot showers are a bracing experience!

Day Two - VIP Lama visit

The temple at Muktinath is just beyond the village and a short steep climb. On the roadside infront of houses and shops tables have been laid out with bowls of food including rice and fruits, flowers, and incense. There is a gathering of monks and local people on a plateau halfway up the path and a troop of mules and horses descending the mountainside following the outer-wall of the temple compound.

A VIP lama is visiting the Mustang region and it is coincidence that today he is here to inaugurate a new monastery building which has been recently built in the village. A parade is held from the temple to the new building. Villagers congregate at the archway to greet the Lama accompanied by a musicians, flower-bearers, people dressed in elaborate and colourful attires and an entourage of horse-riders. The gathering moves to the monastery and following a short ceremony inside the temple hall the throng of spectators and villagers enter a large assembly room. Along with a handful of other trekkers, we're invited to join a communal dinner with 300+ people seated on plastic chairs, sharing Dal baht meals (rice, curried vegetables, lentil soup) with locals and monks wearing orange and crimson robes, some sporting Nike trainers, and gold wrist watches.

Afterwards outside the neighbourhood gathers to watch young guys and a few older ones race horses up and down the main muddy road. Not racing in the sense of a joint start, the competition seems to be who can ride quickest whilst performing equestrian-handling skills including leaning back as far as possible in the saddle or reaching down either side to touch the ground in mid-gallop.

The guidebook entry says of Muktinath temple 'the Mahabharat mentions Muktinath as the source of mystic shaligrams... a Newar-style temple '. The temple itself is relatively small. The square courtyard surrounding has 108 shoulder high waterspouts that channel the streams into a trough on 3 sides. The mid-afternoon skies are bright clouds which provide a kind of hazy light. This accompanied with the wispy white spores of popular trees floating gently around the grounds like snowflakes (or for the more imaginative flight of fancy, faeries,) gives the temple compound a detached, other-worldly feel.

Day Three - Muktinath to Marpha

Fuelled by mountain water and trekker granola bars, I arrive at Jomsom just after midday and after lunch head further on down the track to Marpha. Before the village is a mhane prayer wall meeting travellers. It's a interesting village with an uneven paved road turning between rows of differently shaped buildings leaning above you, which reminds me a little of Czeky Krumlov.

I stop for a breather and something to drink. However, having tasted the apple juice and cider at the small restaurant/guesthouse I decide to rest here. My host is a very-friendly woman who offers me to try some of the apricots that are being drying, both on the balcony and inside the simple bedroom where I'm staying. This small guesthouse is possibly the most rustic living I've experienced so far, complete with an outdoors shower - a brick-walled hut with wooden roof at the back of a rear farmyard, to get to which you walk across the straw-strewn ground past a bemused looking goat loosely tethered in an adjacent overlooking shed.

Day Four - Marpha to Ghasa

On the outer edge of the village I meet Tiffany and Lamore, two fellow trekkers from the US who were also in Ranipauwa. We set out together to reach Ghasa. The landscape is becoming greener now with hillsides rising either side and waterfalls as we wind our way following the contours of the descending river-valley. Landslides render parts of the route tricky and at times nerve-racking, particularly when occasional gangs of workmen point to what proves to be a precariously narrow temporary walkway circling round a mound of rubble and earth with a sheer drop of a few hundred feet below.

Day Five - Ghasa to Tatopani

I'm walking quicker so spend most of time by myself. It's a significant descent to Tatopani which lies at around 1000m. By now the surroundings are covered in thick vegetation, many trees and wild grasses. The route cuts across the river a number of times to bypass landslides, each time passing over steel wire, rope and wooden planked suspension bridges that give me that familiar Indiana Jones sense of adventure.

The menu at Bob Marley cafe Tatopani lists 'special bread' for a significantly inflated price compared with other items. Smiling, the woman chef explains it is because it contains 'Bob Marley medicine', good for what ails you, although she adds promptly that it is better to consume by smoking. Wild cannabis plants cover the hillsides at this altitude and it seems this menu serves as a conveniently indirect way to advertise sale of hashish.

'Pani' means water and 'tato' hot, referring to the hot mountain springs in the village. We spend a good hour or more sitting in the steaming pool, soothing aching muscles and salving hiking blisters. Waking up the next morning the benefit is dramatic, not having to stamp out the nagging feet pains in the first 10 minutes of walking is welcome (although it doesn't last all day).

Day Six - Tatopani to Birenthanti

A group of other trekkers choose to go back via Beni, which involves a 2-3 hour hike to the next settlement where they can get jeep to Beni and then a shared taxi 5 hours back to Pokhara. Having only been trekking for 5 days I decide it would be more fun to go the alternative route via Ghorepani, which involves a 1700m climb to near the summit of Poon Hill and then a long walk down to Nayapul where a taxi back takes 1 hour. The trekkers' guide estimates it will take two days, more than 8hours to reach Ghorepani and a further 6-7 hours to get to Nayapul. Feeling in good condition from the hot springs and setting off at 7am I decide to see if I can do it one day...

The trail is beautiful, a steady stone path meandering steeply up a hillside enveloped in mist with persistent rain that refreshes. However, the going is tough, lugging my rucksack probably 18-20kg, the path becomes a series of short goals and frequent stops to catch a breath. My first proper pit-stop for a hot drink is at Sauta, maybe halfway up, 10.15am for 45minutes. I reach Ghorepani, legs burning and soaked to the bone at 2.30pm. The town seems deserted with hardly any of the guesthouses open as it is out of season. The only place I find serves hot drinks but the kitchen is not open. A hot chocolate later I set off at 3pm on the way down to Nayapul. The checkpost guards shake their heads and say it's at least 6 hours. Unswayed I continue on the path at a pace enjoying the reward of being able to go downhill. This turns into a different kind of challenge beyond Ulleri, the steps. More than 3,000 uneven stone steps weaving down the mountain that strain knees and joints regardless of speed. Around 7.30pm I arrive at Birenthanti, only half an hour away from Nayapul, but the dusk has given way to night and unable to see the path anymore I concede to common sense and stop at a small guesthouse for a welcome hot evening meal and warm bed.

Beni-ficial route?

The olive-green 1970s Toyota Corolla whisks me back to Pokhara from Nayapul. I wonder if I'll meet the trekkers somewhere by lakeside to tell them how I nearly made it in one go from Tatopani. I bump into Tiffany and Lamore a day later. As it turns out, their route was severely hindered by landslides that made it slow-going and prevented jeeps so they ended up staying over-night in Beni and only made it back late in the afternoon.