DAY FOUR (Friday March 8th): Bagarchap to Chame (2,710m)
14 kilometers, 5 hours
After my SteriPEN stopped working (first on day two, only to tease us briefly on day three before permanent failure by this day), we mostly relied upon the Safe Drinking Water Stations placed along the trail in various villages. There were a few times during the circuit where we had no choice but to use my chlorine pills, but otherwise these stations were our pot of gold at the end of the rainbow--that we planned ahead for and looked forward to every day. The stations were operated by the community and all the money collected for the water (we paid 40-60 rupees per liter, about US$0.50 or more) went back into the community through local women's organizations, often "Mother's Groups." I'm not exactly sure of the process by which they purified the water, other than that it was ozonated (and never made us sick).
So, on this lovely morning we stopped 40 minutes into the trek at the next village of Danaque to fill up at one of the stations. A few hours later we arrived to the village of Tamang, probably one of the most picturesque villages on the trek. We decided to stop for a little water break to enjoy the views--but so had many other trekkers so we didn't stay long before continuing on a little up the trail to take our snack break away from all the other trekkers (though, not without the cows). We stopped in a field and ate a granola bar while we just stared at all the mountains around us. Magical.
We got to a police checkpoint in Koto just before noon, handed over our permits and had a brief chat about the trail. Anytime you pass a police or ACAP (Annapurna Conservation Area) check-point, it's mandatory that you check in and answer a few questions about where you've been and where you're going while they record all your information into big notebooks (sometimes a computer).
We got to the day's end point, Chame, before 1pm. We had planned to stop here so we'd have time to shower and do a little laundry--with enough sunlight hours in the afternoon to dry our hair and clothes before the cool air of the evening set in. We chose a lodge at the far end of the village, just across a long suspension bridge over that beautiful turquoise river I've mentioned a few times already.
The trail on this day was quite different from the previous few days of bamboo and dry, dusty trails and roads. A lot of the trail on this day was through pine forests full of moss-covered trees and rocks--a lot like Oregon, actually! This was also the first day that we felt entirely surrounded by huge mountains on all sides at all times. It was stunning and there are no words to describe what we could see... The clouds always crept in during most afternoons and covered the mountains up, but we'd usually be given the gift of clear skies come the mornings and evenings.
We had a nice relaxing afternoon and evening in Chame. We ended up having dinner with an American, Richard (58 years old from Southern California) and Yolanda (18, German), two solo trekkers who had met a few days prior on the trail and been trekking together. They are both incredibly independent, but I imagine it's nice to have some company on the trail--especially someone else there in case anything happened along the way. We had assumed they were a father-daughter duo. We ended up spending the next handful of days together off and on with both of them before Yolanda took her leave to volunteer as a teacher in a small village Tibetan school before Manang. Richard was in our company quite a lot until we got a few days into the sanctuary hike in our last week.
It started getting cooler in the mornings and evenings, but still quite sunny and hot during the daytime hours... We went to bed early, as usual, as we had a big day ahead tomorrow going to a village over 3,000 meters.
DAY FIVE (Saturday March 9th): Chame to Upper Pisang (3,300)
14.5 kilometers, 6 hours
We decided on this day to start taking things a bit slower. The previous four days were still low enough elevation that altitude wasn't an issue, and we had the energy to push ourselves a bit (due to our excitement, I think). We made ourselves walk a bit slower and take a few more breaks (though short), and it felt nice.
We left at our usual 7:40am departure time. We walked for quite awhile along a road that paralleled the canyon with the roaring turquoise river below and the mountains above. Despite being on a dirt road and not a real trail, the views were still stunning. We also came across our first glacier on the trek.
A few hours later we reached the town of Bhratang, famous for apples. Richard and Yolanda were there waiting for the apple pancakes they'd ordered (Yolanda's German guidebook said they were worth the stop), so we joined them and ordered some apple tea for ourselves.
After we ate lunch with Yolanda in the last village before Upper Pisang, we had only a fairly easy walk for just over an hour left. The trail was mostly flat, going through a vast open area with the river on one side and mountains surrounding us--including Annapurna II in all her glory. The land was dotted with pine trees that had the long needles of a ponderosa pine, but were much smaller trees.
At one point when we were up on a mountain side again walking along a dirt trail, I had seen a flash of tan-colored animal run down the mountain side quite a ways ahead of us. I thought they were moving too fast for any goats or cows, and hadn't seen any horses, but had (naively) assumed it was one of those three animals. About five minutes later we suddenly heard a commotion behind us, and looked back just in time to see a herd of bighorn sheep run up the mountain and stop on the trail about 20 meters behind us on the trail. I was able to snap a few photos, though they're not great quality. They were incredible, with their--well, big horns! :-P
The reasons we chose Upper rather than Lower Pisang were because the views were supposed to be amazing up there (and on the route that continued from there on the next day), and because it was at a higher elevation and was supposed to help one acclimatize better.
Being at over 3,000 meters on this day, the thinner oxygen was definitely more noticeable. The shortness of breath while hiking came quicker and easier, though we still felt good. We had a nice little lodge on this night, with paper thin walls (typical of tea lodges on the trek) and a stunning view of Lower Pisang and the river below, and all the mountains across the river and above.
There was supposed to be some safe drinking water down in Lower Pisang so once we got settled, we went straight down about 50-100 meters to Lower Pisang in search of water. Turns out, there was no water in the area at all, so we were not only stuck without drinking water for the next four hours, but also had the long, steep climb back UP those 50-100 meters with thinned out air. It left us a little disheartened, yet again.
The village of Upper Pisang was fascinating--it looked like a little medieval stone village on the mountainside, every house and structure made of stone, making the entire village take on the same shades as each other and the mountain in which it rested upon. We saw few inhabitants, despite there being an unusually large number of houses, and most of them were old women. It was quiet and a bit eerie walking around, but amazing nonetheless. We saw one of the dozens of prayer wheel walls here (we were always passing them on the trail), where you'd always walk in a clockwise direction spinning the wheels as you go by. Up at the very top of the village was a temple, which we were let into by a monk in full garb. Most of the trekkers could be found here throughout the rest of the daylight hours, as the views were stunning. This was definitely one of my favorite villages along the trek--minus the water mishap.
14 kilometers, 5 hours
After my SteriPEN stopped working (first on day two, only to tease us briefly on day three before permanent failure by this day), we mostly relied upon the Safe Drinking Water Stations placed along the trail in various villages. There were a few times during the circuit where we had no choice but to use my chlorine pills, but otherwise these stations were our pot of gold at the end of the rainbow--that we planned ahead for and looked forward to every day. The stations were operated by the community and all the money collected for the water (we paid 40-60 rupees per liter, about US$0.50 or more) went back into the community through local women's organizations, often "Mother's Groups." I'm not exactly sure of the process by which they purified the water, other than that it was ozonated (and never made us sick).
So, on this lovely morning we stopped 40 minutes into the trek at the next village of Danaque to fill up at one of the stations. A few hours later we arrived to the village of Tamang, probably one of the most picturesque villages on the trek. We decided to stop for a little water break to enjoy the views--but so had many other trekkers so we didn't stay long before continuing on a little up the trail to take our snack break away from all the other trekkers (though, not without the cows). We stopped in a field and ate a granola bar while we just stared at all the mountains around us. Magical.
We got to a police checkpoint in Koto just before noon, handed over our permits and had a brief chat about the trail. Anytime you pass a police or ACAP (Annapurna Conservation Area) check-point, it's mandatory that you check in and answer a few questions about where you've been and where you're going while they record all your information into big notebooks (sometimes a computer).
We got to the day's end point, Chame, before 1pm. We had planned to stop here so we'd have time to shower and do a little laundry--with enough sunlight hours in the afternoon to dry our hair and clothes before the cool air of the evening set in. We chose a lodge at the far end of the village, just across a long suspension bridge over that beautiful turquoise river I've mentioned a few times already.
The trail on this day was quite different from the previous few days of bamboo and dry, dusty trails and roads. A lot of the trail on this day was through pine forests full of moss-covered trees and rocks--a lot like Oregon, actually! This was also the first day that we felt entirely surrounded by huge mountains on all sides at all times. It was stunning and there are no words to describe what we could see... The clouds always crept in during most afternoons and covered the mountains up, but we'd usually be given the gift of clear skies come the mornings and evenings.
We had a nice relaxing afternoon and evening in Chame. We ended up having dinner with an American, Richard (58 years old from Southern California) and Yolanda (18, German), two solo trekkers who had met a few days prior on the trail and been trekking together. They are both incredibly independent, but I imagine it's nice to have some company on the trail--especially someone else there in case anything happened along the way. We had assumed they were a father-daughter duo. We ended up spending the next handful of days together off and on with both of them before Yolanda took her leave to volunteer as a teacher in a small village Tibetan school before Manang. Richard was in our company quite a lot until we got a few days into the sanctuary hike in our last week.
It started getting cooler in the mornings and evenings, but still quite sunny and hot during the daytime hours... We went to bed early, as usual, as we had a big day ahead tomorrow going to a village over 3,000 meters.
DAY FIVE (Saturday March 9th): Chame to Upper Pisang (3,300)
14.5 kilometers, 6 hours
We decided on this day to start taking things a bit slower. The previous four days were still low enough elevation that altitude wasn't an issue, and we had the energy to push ourselves a bit (due to our excitement, I think). We made ourselves walk a bit slower and take a few more breaks (though short), and it felt nice.
We left at our usual 7:40am departure time. We walked for quite awhile along a road that paralleled the canyon with the roaring turquoise river below and the mountains above. Despite being on a dirt road and not a real trail, the views were still stunning. We also came across our first glacier on the trek.
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| (Can't seem to rotate this photo, sorry!) |
A few hours later we reached the town of Bhratang, famous for apples. Richard and Yolanda were there waiting for the apple pancakes they'd ordered (Yolanda's German guidebook said they were worth the stop), so we joined them and ordered some apple tea for ourselves.
After we ate lunch with Yolanda in the last village before Upper Pisang, we had only a fairly easy walk for just over an hour left. The trail was mostly flat, going through a vast open area with the river on one side and mountains surrounding us--including Annapurna II in all her glory. The land was dotted with pine trees that had the long needles of a ponderosa pine, but were much smaller trees.
At one point when we were up on a mountain side again walking along a dirt trail, I had seen a flash of tan-colored animal run down the mountain side quite a ways ahead of us. I thought they were moving too fast for any goats or cows, and hadn't seen any horses, but had (naively) assumed it was one of those three animals. About five minutes later we suddenly heard a commotion behind us, and looked back just in time to see a herd of bighorn sheep run up the mountain and stop on the trail about 20 meters behind us on the trail. I was able to snap a few photos, though they're not great quality. They were incredible, with their--well, big horns! :-P
The reasons we chose Upper rather than Lower Pisang were because the views were supposed to be amazing up there (and on the route that continued from there on the next day), and because it was at a higher elevation and was supposed to help one acclimatize better.
Being at over 3,000 meters on this day, the thinner oxygen was definitely more noticeable. The shortness of breath while hiking came quicker and easier, though we still felt good. We had a nice little lodge on this night, with paper thin walls (typical of tea lodges on the trek) and a stunning view of Lower Pisang and the river below, and all the mountains across the river and above.
There was supposed to be some safe drinking water down in Lower Pisang so once we got settled, we went straight down about 50-100 meters to Lower Pisang in search of water. Turns out, there was no water in the area at all, so we were not only stuck without drinking water for the next four hours, but also had the long, steep climb back UP those 50-100 meters with thinned out air. It left us a little disheartened, yet again.
The village of Upper Pisang was fascinating--it looked like a little medieval stone village on the mountainside, every house and structure made of stone, making the entire village take on the same shades as each other and the mountain in which it rested upon. We saw few inhabitants, despite there being an unusually large number of houses, and most of them were old women. It was quiet and a bit eerie walking around, but amazing nonetheless. We saw one of the dozens of prayer wheel walls here (we were always passing them on the trail), where you'd always walk in a clockwise direction spinning the wheels as you go by. Up at the very top of the village was a temple, which we were let into by a monk in full garb. Most of the trekkers could be found here throughout the rest of the daylight hours, as the views were stunning. This was definitely one of my favorite villages along the trek--minus the water mishap.
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| Mule train on the road across the way from the trail |
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| Upper Pisang Mani wall |
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| View on the way to Upper Pisang |
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| Temple in Upper Pisang |
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| View from the temple in Upper Pisang |
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