Annapurna base camp trek during the monsoon season
Annapurna Base Camp Trek during the monsoon season
Day 1: I returned home the previous night after finishing the Helambu trek with a family. I got up after a restful sleep. My new trekkers consisting of a father and son from Singapore, arrived this afternoon, landing at 12.30 pm. I met them, walked to the domestic airport, and caught a 2.50 pm flight to Pokhara on the same day. I was getting ready to pack up while checking my Flightstats app on their flight status. It showed that their plane was to land 25 minutes before the estimated arrival time (ETA). We had agreed to meet outside the arrival terminal, and they were given my description, although I was already connected to Kevin – the dad, on Facebook and WhatsApp. The father and son trekkers – Kevin and David Kho.
When they came out of the arrival terminal, I waved at them, and they walked toward me. We had a quick handshake, they were welcomed to Nepal, and we walked over to the domestic terminal, which is less than a 10-minute walk from the International Terminal. After going through the security check for a light meal, we went to the restaurant. Then, we boarded the flight on time for a short 25-minute flight to Pokhara. We saw some Himalayan Summits peeking out of the monsoon clouds on the flight. Upon landing in Pokhara, we boarded our pre-booked van to our hotel and agreed to meet up to go for a walk along the Lakeside shops to purchase what they needed for the trek. We were lucky to see Mount Machapuchare (Fishtail) 6993 m with fresh monsoon snow. It had more snow now than the rest of the year. We had an early dinner of tandoori chicken, fish, and naan before retiring for the night.
Day 2: We woke up early for our 6.30 am breakfast. We had a two-and-a-half-hour drive to our starting point, followed by a 3-4 hour uphill trek to our next destination, Chomrong. We stopped and picked up our support crew after an hour of driving and continued. Fifteen minutes before we reached our stop, we had to change into another jeep on the other side of a small landslide, which had taken place the previous night. We were informed that falling rocks had injured a local trekker on the Westside of the Modi River’s regular trail. The rockfall was caused by an excavator constructing a new road. We had to walk on the newly made path east of the Modi River. I briefed the Singaporean trekkers on being careful on the wet stone, slippery roots, and trail and avoiding moist areas to avoid leeches. In advance, we stopped at New Bridge for lunch ordered by Ram, our porter. We had another two and a half hours of the uphill trek until we reached Chomrong village, our destination for the day. We were making good time on the hike when it started to rain 35 minutes before Jhinu Danda. We decided to stop here – an hour before our target destination to avoid walking in the rain, and we didn’t want to exert the trekkers on the first day as they had a very early start. We had time to enjoy some hot beverages and hang our wet clothes to dry at the lodge. Kevin and David’s trekkers talked about Nepal, its topography, and ethnology before dinner. They retired early to get ready for a long trek the following day.
Day 3: We got up early with our Ayurvedic energy-boosting drink as usual and started the day before at 7.30 am to get into camp before 3.30 pm to beat the rain. We had a steep 300 meters of climbing to Chomrong village. They made a good time getting to Chomrong, and we discussed pushing on to Bamboo, which was a further 4 hours away for lunch, so we had only an hour to our final stop at Doban. This was a physically demanding day as, after the 300-meter climb, we had to descend on steps down to Chomrong river and a 75-minute ascend to Sinuwa at 2340 m. I asked the trekkers if they were hungry or needed to get some snacks, as there was nothing once we left this place until we reached Bamboo for lunch.
The area from now on until Annapurna Base camp and back is called the particular management area. No bottled water is allowed for environmental reasons, and fresh or dried meat for religious beliefs. During the “off-season,” the lodge owners take annual turns to man each stop: One lodge will serve food; however, if there is a need for more rooms, the other lodge owners leave the room keys operating lodge owner so trekkers can sleep in their lodges.
We trekked through a lush area of Oak, Rhododendrons, and Bamboo forest with numerous waterfalls. The last time I hiked in this area was during the Christmas period of 2014. Then, I noticed that the lodge owners had widened the trails, laid slates, and made steps to conserve the path, and the difficult rocky trail had been flattened.
We reached Bamboo at 1 pm and were served our order of mixed fried noodles within a few minutes as Ram, our porter, had gone ahead of us to order our lunch. It takes 60-90 minutes for meals to get ready, as it is freshly prepared. Kevin loved the fried noodles and said that these particular noodles would do very well in Singapore (he was in the food business for six years, so I guess he knows what he is talking about). The cook of the lodge was delighted when I told him this. Feeling energetic after a sumptuous meal, we continued to Doban 2600 m, our daily stop. We were glad to have covered an extra hour of walking with no problems for anyone. Upon getting there, we learned that two other trekkers were going towards Basecamp, and a big group of 19 trekkers from a London school and their support crew were coming down from Annapurna Base Camp (ABC). This was encouraging to see these many trekkers on the supposed to be the offseason. When the students arrived, we learned they were booked with a UK company called World Challenge.
Day 4: We got up early after a restful night of sleep. We were greeted by the summit of Mount Machapuchare (Fishtail) at Doban. Kevin had gotten up earlier and saw some wildflowers on his morning walk. We started trekking as usual after a hearty breakfast. Kevin pointed out the flowers that had taken his notice, and soon we were mesmerized by the abundant wildflowers in bloom. We enjoyed the fresh bamboo shoots used on the food we had eaten for lunch the previous day. This was a beautiful day admiring the flowers, waterfalls, and raging streams. We had a mixture of undulating to steep uphill walk until we reached Himalaya 2900 m, where we stopped for a hot drink. We continued uphill to a rock outcrop named Hinku Cave, where we could see Deurali – our lunch stop. After that, we had to go through a slight descent, cross two wooden bridges over torrential streams, and a short climb to Deurali 3200 m for a welcome lunch. We had a 2-hour trek until we reached Machapuchare Base Camp (MBC) at 3700 m. Once again, the trail widened, and some climbs were made more comfortable by contouring rather than climbing. We saw many more new types of flowers on our hike to MBC. For the 2nd day of the trek, we didn’t get rained upon. There was a Spanish couple at the lodge we were staying at MBC. Kevin had a long conversation about their shared interest in mountain biking.
It was good to see Dilip, the lodge owner, after a long time. I requested him to add wild herbs and edible plants to our dinner.
Day 5: We woke up early, as usual, with our herbal drink in the morning. I stepped into the lodge’s front yard to be greeted with views of Hiunchuli 6441 m, Annapurna South 7219 m to the West, and the cloud to the east covered Machapuchare 6993 m. The sun’s warmth soon cleared up the view of Fishtail 6993 m, and I called out to David and Kevin to come out with their cameras; being the monsoon, this was a real bonus, and one couldn’t tell how long the clouds would remain down. Today is a short 2-hour hike up to Annapurna Base Camp with a gain of 400 meters. We started hiking after breakfast with plenty of stops to take photographs of the mountains and an abundance of flowers on the fields with raging streams on the way to ABC. We were greeted with Panoramic views of Fishtail, Gandahrba 6248 meters, Annapurna III 7555 meters, Singuchuli 6501 meters, Annapurna I 8091 meters, Barahi Shikhar (Annapurna Fang) 7647 meters, Annapurna South 7219 meters, and Hiunchuli 6441 meters. We arrived at ABC at around 10.15 am; the clouds slowly began covering the peaks. We were the first ones to get there on this day. Upon asking the lodge staff if they had bookings, they said a group of 16 Koreans and 11 Nepali support crew came later in the afternoon. By 2 pm, the peace was gone, as were the views of the majestic Himalayan peaks. It had started raining from 11 am on and off most of the day.
Day 6: We were greeted by the 360-degree views of the surrounding mountains, but this morning the cloud cover took place by 7.30 am, so we were fortunate to have gotten the views we did when we did. Today was a long day of about 7-8 hours of retracing our steps back to Bamboo and a whopping 1700 meters of mainly descending. Although we came up the same way, it was much more comfortable admiring the flowers and views on the way down when breathing was so much easier. We stopped at Himalaya 2900 meters for lunch, which Pemba, our trekking chef, had prepared – macaroni in
“Himalayan” Carbonara sauce sprinkled with Parmesan cheese. All of us suffered from a “food coma” after that deliciously creamy pasta meal. We decided to continue towards Bamboo after a good rest. We passed many trekkers heading up towards Basecamp on the way down, which was supposed to be the monsoon off-season. We arrived in Bamboo in a total of 6 hours of trekking – for the first time. We weren’t rushing in particular. David and Kevin were given a talk on Buddha, his life, practices, and philosophy before dinner by yours truly, which the father and son enjoyed and hadn’t heard this version of the story. David and Kevin opted for the mixed fried noodles they enjoyed on the way up for dinner.
Day 7: Our usual wake-up call with the herbal drink, packing up, and coming for breakfast was routine. We retraced our steps back towards Sinuwa, Chomrong – we stopped for lunch here. We finally got to sink our teeth into some chicken as we came out of the Special management area. It had started drizzling and raining from 9 am onwards with varied intensity. We continued downhill to Jhinu Danda, our stop for the night. We were relieved to get out of the rain for the day. David, Kevin, and Ram went down to the hot spring, 20 minutes downhill, next to the Modi River. They decided to go despite being told the pools were under the Modi river’s waters, and they had to be extra careful in case of a flash flood, which was why I sent Ram with them. They returned two and a half hours later. They ran all the way up as the trail was leech-infested. Ram was bitten in 2 places, whereas David and Kevin had leeches on their clothes but hadn’t been bitten yet. They used the “anti-leech pouches” we had given to eliminate the leeches. The Khos were treated to a lovely South East Asian style chicken curry, stir-fried wild edible plants, herbs, and mushrooms in oyster sauce, followed by Apple cakes with maple syrup for dessert.
Day 8: To the pleasant surprise of the Khos, they were treated with waffles for breakfast. We had a 3-hour trek to the road head and a two-and-a-half-hour drive back to Pokhara. We were happily hiking on the trail until we came to the part that was a diversion to avoid the falling rocks from the road construction on the opposite side. This area was infested with various leeches, and the most significant type had yellow stripes on the sides. Apart from being bloodsuckers, another common thing they had was – SPEED. They were sprinting towards us. Thank god for the “anti-leech” pouches. Most of us were spent asleep on the drive back to Pokhara. We bid farewell to Pemba and Ram in Pokhara. The afternoon was spent in a relaxed mode by the pool, wandering around town shopping for souvenirs. We agreed to meet for breakfast before going to the domestic airport.
The Annapurna Base Camp Trek is a hike to the amphitheatre of the Annapurna Sanctuary surrounded by many famous Himalayan peaks – including Machapuchhre (6,997m), Gangapurna (7,454m), Annapurna I (8,091m), Annapurna South (7,273m), and the unclimbed Fang (7,647m).
Day 9: We met up for breakfast and left for the airport. Our flight was on time, with some views of the Himalayan peaks. After landing at Kathmandu domestic airport, we collected our baggage and walked to the international terminal. It was a long farewell; another wonderful trekking vacation had ended. We departed by promising to meet up again soon.
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