My cough progressed to the next level last light and kept me up hours. It seemed as soon as I fell asleep I was waking up to the beautiful Annapurna sunshine. The set breakfast of fried potatoes, eggs and our finest blend of peanut butter and jam on toast set us up for days riding to Thorung Phedi. We settled the bill and hoped on the bikes to start our 1000m climb.
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| First yak on the trail |
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| Blacky and Beardy battling it out |
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| Looking back down to Manang |
The track was surprisingly rideable given that it went all the way up 4500m, however I still had to push my bike more often than I would of like too due to my lungs struggling with the depleting oxygen. Ollie however seemed to dominate the tracks, his legs simply keep pedalling away like a perpetual motion machine.
I arrived at Thorung Phedi at 11:30ish. We had a nap in our little cabin and then went and had some fried potato and vege for lunch over a game of chess. The altitude and tiredness was getting to me as Ollie won convincingly. Depressed from the lost I retreated to the cabin to return to dream land. I slept until sunset and then went to in search of Ollie, only to find him chatting up a Swiss girl from Australia.
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| Throng Phedi |
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| The evening donkey train coming down from the pass |
I took my camera out to get some sunset shots, when I noticed two mobs of blue sheep. This revitalised my spirit and I began to stalk up to the closer mob, I got to within 30m and watched them for awhile. The mob then slowly began to descend towards me, they eventual came to within 15m of me. This was my highlight for day, being able to see the blue sheep, the highest living mammal in their natural environment. This however could have been topped by watching a rare snow leopard pounce on top of a blue sheep, or even better seeming the mystical Himalayan Yeti.
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| A female Blue sheep |
We had dinner with the Swiss girls, went to bed shortly after to get some sleep before tomorrow’s early start.
Statistics: Manang to Thorung Phedi 4hr, 1000m vertical, 15km distance.
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