Nepal, Himalaya

September - October 2017
A 20-day adventure by Michael Read more
  • 6footprints
  • 1countries
  • 20days
  • 27photos
  • 0videos
  • 376kilometers
  • Day 1

    Kathmandu

    September 26, 2017 in Nepal ⋅ ⛅ 22 °C

    Namaste kathmandu!

    What to tell about kathmandu?! We stayed 2 days here awaiting our trip to annapurna circuit. Besides some nice spots with temples the city is really overcrowded and dirty. But i like the mo-mos (nomnomhh) and lemon soda😄Read more

  • Day 3

    Gateway to Himalaya

    September 28, 2017 in Nepal ⋅ ⛅ 23 °C

    Puhh.. i have not realized that it will be that tough to get to the foot of Himalaya. We were kind of shocked as we were told that during dashian (nepalis most important Festival) nearly all People from kathmandu (almost 2 Mio inhabitants) were on the way to their families in the mountains or in the valleys outside of the city.. it seemed that every bus in kathmandu was on the track and we were among all of them. As you might imagine it was not an easy ride to the gateway to himalaya in besishahar.. we were sitting 12 hours in a small crumpy old loud dusty hot indian songs playing bus until we could fell asleep in our guest House...
    The next day it went only marginally better.. this time we drove in a 4 wheel jeep but with the same minimal space inside.. and even worse road conditions.. my knees and the right flank of my head have now some scars 😄🙈 however along the very adventurous ride we had the chance to see how families celebrate the holy dashain by sacrificing their goats. Even one live sacrification we could watch.. but seeing how nepalis decapitate a goat is not everyone taste but interesting 🙈
    Finally we reached our point from where we started our trekking 🎉 After driving in a car on a bumpy road sometimes scaring close to the abyss it was an awesome feeling to walk the real first kilometres in the Mountains until chyamche.. now annapurna trekking is on fire 🔥
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  • Day 7

    Hello Himalaya

    October 2, 2017 in Nepal ⋅ 🌙 17 °C

    On our last days from chyamche to manang I really discover the Himalaya spirit after seeing the summit of manaslu (8137m) and annapurna II (7937), III (7555m) and IV (7525m). It is hard to describe how you feel walking along the valleys surrounded by those giant mountains. A bit intimidated maybe but at the same grateful and pretty satisfied. Along our trek I can't stop raising my head to see the beautiful white summits while I am taking not care about our path.. so stumbling about little stones is included😄
    Another big surprise to me was that we crossed pretty different landscapes and climates. From humid tropical climate and green vegetation with many waterfalls to hot very dry climate with dusty soil and minimal flora there was everything. Now we are taking care of our sunburned faces 😋 and acclimate one day in manang until we further trek to Tilicho lake..
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  • Day 11

    Tilicho Lake

    October 6, 2017 in Nepal ⋅ ⛅ 15 °C

    After a really tough walk from Upper Pisang to Manang (feeling like crossing Sahara) we spend one additional day for acclimitazing in Manang (3500m) to be ready to ascend further to Tilicho Lake (4900m). On our way to the lake we made a stop in between in Kursung (4000m). At that time we realized and our guide himself was really suprised that many locals were trekking to Tilicho Lake as well. And the reason for this invasion was that they pilgrimming to the lake because a famous nepalesian movie was partly shooted around the lake recently. You cant believe your eyes how badly equipped and prepared those people were. Many of them maybe tried to ascend a mountain for the first time in their life! We tried as good as possible not to be disturbed by that mass of people and continued our way along a narrow but beautiful path (feeling like trekking to Mordor 😄) towards Tilicho Base Camp. There we were really lucky to get a free room. After having little lunch we started the final passage to Tilicho lake. It was a tough ascent, definitely feeling the thin air. But with every additional meter the lungs and the legs were not burning anymore. And in the end we got the reward! An outstanding scenery with the blue painted lake surrounded by the snow covered mountains! Amazing😍 If I would call something like a magic or special moment then it must be this!Read more

  • Day 14

    Thorong La Pass

    October 9, 2017 in Nepal ⋅ ⛅ 12 °C

    5416m... at a first glance maybe not that high if you think of all the people that manage to climb mountains like Everest or Lothse. Still 3000m higher..
    BUT.. for a normal human being, without practise for high altitude nor perfectly equipped, it is a big challenge.
    Over the last couple days we felt perfectly acclimitazed for the high altitude and were also ready to start the ascent from thorum pedi (4500m) at 4.30am. I never expected that a full moon could lighten up a path in the mountains so well that wearing head lights was almost useless! Wonderful😊 And if I would have wished a condition for our ascent it would have been like that what we had: almost no wind, no clouds, almost full moon in front, sunrise in the back und no sign of altitude sickness.. Better than I could dream of! Because of those incredible moments during the ascent and of reaching the final peak, the nasty descent to muktinath over 4 hours (to 3900m) was pretty easy to forget😄 As a little reward we enjoyed a little beer (nepalese volume: 650ml - small people but big bottles of beer😋) in muktinath and we did not think of the "dangerous" and bumpy long ride to tatopani on the next day.
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  • Day 20

    Last Days Nepal

    October 15, 2017 in Nepal ⋅ ⛅ 20 °C

    😭 nepal and Himalaya Trekking is coming to an end.. although the last days were not as exciting as our way to thorong la pass we still were amazed about the last part around ghorepani. Especially our first sunrise we saw from poon hill was beautiful. Unfortunately we were not the only one.. if someone is doing the same: better start hiking to poon hill earlier than 4.45am otherwise you will stick in tourist jam 😌
    Trekking around ghorepani means more tourists as well as more stairs! Because the region is quite hilly but with many little villages there are really a lot of stairs. In combination with the rain forest character of that region it makes it kind of mystic.. like finding a hidden treasure.
    Our really last days we spend in pokhara, the second biggest city in nepal and main starting point for diverse adventure activities. The city is obviously more touristic with many international restaurants. But compared to kathmandu not as crowdy and dusty..
    Although we had a pretty decent shower since weeks we were kind of melancholic not to be surrounded by the beautiful giants anymore. In our minds we still were trying to conquer the little brother mountains and enjoying the wonderful views.. definitely not the last time! See you again Nepal! Namaste
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