Let me just start by saying this was my first trek and it was wonderful. To be honest I never thought I will go on this trip and I would not have completed this without the help of Backpackers and City Freaks‘s BCF – Only Hikes and Treks Group. It was well organized, and everything went as planned. We did this with a very professional guide (Bharath Madhava Reddy).
Before the trip, everyone decided to take Covid -19 RTPCR test before we start this trek and our Trek Lead (Bharath Madhava reddy) took care of it and he helped everyone to take the RTPCR test the safest way possible. We took and the test and luckily everyone is negative so there is nothing that stops us from going to Annapurna base camp (Tenth Highest Mountain).
Day 1: The Trip Began!
We started from Hyderabad on a flight as it’s the COVID time I had to wear the PPE kit which looked funny. Our flight was at 10: 45 AM so we reached early and completed the back check-ins and waited for the flight to take off and we had breakfast at the airport and boarded the plane. After 3 hours of journey time, we reached Gorakhpur. Gorakhpur is the meeting point, so few people joined us at Airport and one-two joined us at Gorakhpur so that made us a total of 16 people. From Gorakhpur we started to Nepal border in a minibus arranged by Backpackers and city Freaks Sonauli we had Brunch on the way and reached sonauli by 6 PM then we had to wait for 3 hours at the border because the Nepal border security wants money, so they made us wait for 3 hours and our trek lead made few calls and after a long wait they let us go. It was a good thing we waited because it gave us time to get mingle with everybody cause no one’s mobile is working as we crossed the border and technically, we were in Nepal, so Everyone talked and made fun of our situation and laughed Then we started to Pokhara in an AC bus. We stopped on the way for dinner, and we had Dhalbhat for the first time and it was very tasty. The road to Pokhara from sonauli was not so great it is only 170 Kms but it took almost 8 hours to reach Pokhara so you can imagine the road. We could not sleep because of the road but we are lucky cause we have a rest day at Pokhara to sleep. We reached Pokhara by 4:00 AM in the morning and checked in to the Hotel manasulu which was already booked by BCF so the hotel check-in was hassle-free. Checked in and slept off after that long journey.
Day 2 – City Freak at Pokhara
Woke up at 10AM and a few woke up early and we had breakfast at the hotel and started to roam around since it was a rest day, so we went to International Mountain Museum. It was not included in the trip but that’s the thing with BCF they go out of the line to make us feel we enjoyed the trip. We learned a lot about the Nepalese culture and the mountains of Nepal then we had lunch at the café in the museum then we walked back to see the most beautiful lake and we did little shopping near the lakeside and went back to the hotel and had dinner at an Indian restaurant and called it a day.
Day 3- Trek starts
The journey to ABC starts from Pokhara. We took a Scorpio car from Pokhara to Gandaki. The total duration was around 3 hrs. If somebody in your group has motion sickness, please take preventive measures as appropriate. The road can be really dusty with turns and gutters but you get to see the beautiful; view of mt. Fishtail. We reached Gandaki by 9 AM and we gave our bags to the hired ports who are super friendly also few people decided to carry their own bags and luckily I’m one of those. Only three people decided to take a photo of them carrying bags at the end of the trip and they didn’t let me in their photo because they said Trek lead carrying my bag won’t count so I backed off. We started with descending stairs I mean a lot of stairs. After descending for 2 hours we stopped and my legs were shaking since I’m not habituated to these many stairs. I learned that there were around 5000 steps and I had only completed 400 thus far. After two hours the stairs were gone and the trail care and we are slowly gaining altitude and reached one of the Longest hanging bridge in the world. We crossed the bridge and reached Jhinu. This is where we had our first lunch after a long hike. We have already climbed so many stairs at this point in time and everyone is so tired and they can’t even move their feet. Everyone came here and used their rucksack as a pillow and slept. I still remember Rajesh bro snoring and everyone recorded it and that was very funny. Then we had to wait for lunch. Unlike the traditional way, here they prepare food only after we reach there and then they serve hot so we had to wait for 1-hour food. During this 1 hour, we met a trekker from Germany and he was coming down from Annapurna Base so we all very excited to know his opinion and he said it was great and then we have met few people coming down from ABC and asked their opinion as well this is the first time we were warned about the weather up there and we didn’t take it that much serious since it doesn’t look that way so we had lunch and started to chommrong for night stay. This is where we met Hooman(dog) and he is guiding us to chommrong and dogs here are very friendly. A woman at a guesthouse warned that it would take 2.5 hours to 3 hours to get to Chommrong, Besides, I am fairly fit, so I figured I could probably beat the estimate. How very wrong I was – the first lesson learned: we ran into stone steps that never seemed to end. It was already 4:30pm too, so we wouldn’t have made it there before sunset. Thankfully there are so many guest houses everywhere, It was pretty standard, with a full kitchen, comfortable mattresses, and warm blankets. The pickle the added to Dhalbhat was not that good so some of us had a little problem, an overall comfortable night. Before we slept we ordered a chocolate pudding to celebrate Bharath’s birthday. I woke up to Rajesh bro door knocking at 11: 45 PM and it was very cold and I never used to be in such cold places so I’m having a little bit of trouble. I woke up and I called Bharath and we went to the Dining hall and everyone was already there so it was a surprise to Bharath. We completed in the cake cutting part and went to our rooms to sleep.
Day 4: Trek from Chomrong to Himalaya Hotel (8,793 ft / 2,680 m)
The next morning I woke up to Bharath wake up call and freshen up and had breakfast. It was not so great but he had enough to start our trek. From here you can take in a great view of Annapurna South, as well as impressive views of Machhapuchhare. After you drop down to the Chomrongon steep stone steps, you’ll climb with the trail up again, Today’s walk is always either up or down on steep paths that are often paved. You will occasionally find tantalizing glimpses of the Annapurnas and Machhapuchhare ahead, but more often, you’ll be treated to the lush green forest. we passed entire forests of bamboo, moss-buried rocks, and over streams that gushed down to the steeply-rising valley floor. I had never seen anything like it. We spent three days climbing up and down through this growth, splashing our faces and drinking straight out of the spring water that bubbled up alongside the trail. Few of them are maintaining a steady pace and few are going along with porters that made us split for lunch. We stopped at Dovan for lunch and a few had lunch at Bamboo. By the time we had lunch it was raining and we had to walk in the rain to reach the Himalayas. This turned into a mossy forest after passing Bamboo, about a third of the way up. Complete with a mossy waterfall and the beautiful waterfall. Since it was raining we could not stop there for longer and take pictures. We managed to take a couple of pictures and we left but the waterfall is very beautiful. It felt like we were walking through an enchanted fairytale forest all the way to the Himalayas. Then follow the trail high above the to day’s end at Himalaya Hotel. We had Pizza and Garlic soup for dinner which helps us to t get acclimatized to the weather and so we all slept early in anticipation for the next morning. The entire guesthouse was basically shut down at 8pm, or “hiker’s midnight,” as they say. A full night’s rest before the big day.
Day 5: Hotel Himalaya to ABC
By 8:00pm we were all asleep, alarms set for 5:00 AM to begin the hardest day of the trek. While the rest of the world slept, we geared up, filled our water bottles, pulled our hats further down over our very cold ears, and set off into the Mountains. But to see the biggest mountains in the world, you must leave the tree line behind eventually, and we did so on Day 5, entering the village of Deurali around 9AM. We hiked four hours, crossing patches of snow that eventually became a landscape completely covered in white. We are following the barren valley upward, we covered our faces from the cold wind given off by the river. At one point, the trail dead-ended into the side of the river. Turns out, an avalanche had wiped out the traditional trail. This bridge was a new, improvised one the locals had put together. And then we saw the lights – Macchapuchre Base Camp. We had been gawking at that mountain all week from different angles as we got closer, with her iconic fish-tail peak jabbing into the sky. Local law forbids climbers from attempting the route, as it’s believed the mountain is extremely holy. It’s hard to stop yourself from imagining though what it would be like to stand at the top. We had lunch at Macchapuchre Base Camp. One of our team members had to stay back at machapuchare base as he was having breathing issues so we covered our bags with rain covers as it was snowing heavily. You can’t see anything more than your immediate surroundings. By the time we reached ABC, it’s 5 PM in the evening. I, Vamshi, and Gopika was going as fast as we can and we met Sid. The rest of our group was moving a bit slowly. We saw glacier lake and we named it Bindu’s point after our group member. Annapurna Base Camp is a tricky thing – you can see her coming from 2km away, which makes it look close. The thing is though, she’s positioned right at the base of Annapurna, right in the middle of 7,000 and 8,000-meter peaks. We could not see a thing everything is covered in snow. I’d seen the signboard and no one was there since it was snowing heavily. We took pictures, so it was this strange sense of familiarity to see it myself, but it’s what is behind it that is the star of the show. Suddenly it didn’t matter that my body was exhausted, that we had hiked at least 80 Kms and at least 10km hiked today- I felt strong, amazed, and thankful. We spent a day at Annapurna base camp. We all stayed in the dormitory and it was a bit suffocating because of the altitude. I woke up in the middle of the night and went out and I saw the beautiful sky filled with trillions and trillions of stars. It was very beautiful and I felt I’m very close to it.
Day 6 – Final day of descent
We woke up at 4 AM to see the sunrise and we looked out of our window and stopped still when we realized the entire Annapurna range is behind our tea house. Last night when we arrived we could not see a thing but now everything is visible and it was very beautiful. We went to the viewpoint to watch the sunrise and we witnessed the mt. Annapurna glowing a fiery gold as the sun began to rise. We watched Sunrise and it was the most beautiful thing I saw in life. We went back to the tea house and had breakfast. We said bye to Mt, Annapurna and begin our Journey. On the way climbed the mountains and used the rain covers to slide from the Mountain and we had so much fun playing in the snow. We began our two-day journey down, reuniting with the bamboo and stream water and a thick undergrowth of the jungle. We stayed at Bamboo one might and we get to watch IPL here as they have a TV. We had dinner and played card games while watching IPL. Cards got mixed up and no one getting the card that they anticipate so we felt it was very funny. We went back to our rooms and slept.
Day 7 – Back to Pokhara
We woke up early and got freshen up to have breakfast. Our trek team arranged a nice breakfast and a treat for everybody. We started our trek to Nayapool. What we were all interested in though, was the hot bath. We had not showered in 7 days, and our bodies ached from the week of trekking we had just completed. We went very slow pace this day and the weather was beautiful till we reached Nayapool luckily. Again Mountains create their own weather saying that it started raining heavily but we were in the bolero by that time.
While returning, we took a Bolero from Nayapul and reached Pokhara in 3 hours. We didn’t visit the hot spring. That’s how the trek ended.
Also Read : Things to know – Annapurna Base Camp Trek
We were a team of Sixteen and our trekking to Annapurna Base Camp (ABC) started on Apr 11, 2021, and ended on Apr 15th, 2021 (total of Five days – 3 days for ascending and 2 for descending). Our overall experience was excellent as we enjoyed each and every moment of the trip. We had many tiresome ascends and breathing difficulties. But once we reached the ABC, we forgot all the troubles encountered as the view from above was really worth it, especially since we were lucky enough to see the first rays of rising sun falling on the Annapurna Mountain top.
As I have always dreamed to be in an area surrounded by the beautiful scenery of mountains and snow, my dream was fulfilled when I reached Annapurna Base Camp. It shows me the whole mountain range that is magnificent and beautifully snow-covered mountains. The morning view of Annapurna when sunlight kisses the snow-covered mountain was amazing and memorable which I can never forget.
Notes from BCF:
We organize this trip regularly. You can follow us on Instagram for regular updates. Insta ID –bcf.official. For more info on BCF upcoming events visit us here. About logo you can read here.
Visit our website – www.backpackersandcityfreaks.com
Article by Devender. Thanks a lot to Dev for penning down your experiences from the event.
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