29/09/2010 Monday Day 10 Manang to Thorung Phedi

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.

First yak on the trail

Blacky and Beardy battling it out 

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.

Throng Phedi

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. 

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.

28/09/2010 Sunday Day 9 Manang Rest Day

Hurray sleep in this morning, which was greatly appreciated as my cough had worsened the night before. When we finally drag ourselves out of bed we continued the trend of wonderfully cooked breakfasts. It didn’t take much persuading to get Ollie to mix his peanut butter with the surplus jam to make an ultimate hybrid spread for his toast.  After taking a few month bites Ollie didn’t show any symptoms of power vomiting, even though the thought of this concoction was enough to turn my stomach, but like always I had to give it go and was quite surprised to find it very tasty. 

We decided to head up the side of Annapurna III, we walked up to over 3800m to a place where there were pair flags strung across the mountain side.  On the way up we passed a few locals carrying bundles of sticks down the mountain back to Manang must likely to use as fire wood. Seeing this was just another reminder how much easier we have life back in NZ.  

On the trip back down I had to stop and patch up a wee dam, whilst admiring the views of the surrounding mountains.  We went back down to Manang to find us some lunch from the Hotel next to ours. We started a game of chess, which somehow I managed to win even though Ollie was taking me apart.  I felt quite drossy after lunch, which I guess was due to a combination of my cough, altitude and lack of sleep, so we both took a short nap.

After a refreshing nap we discussed what we should do for the rest of the afternoon. Ollie was keen to walk up to cave, but after discovering it was above 4000m we decided to flag that idea and take our bikes up the track we walked up in the morning.  Without the weight of the dry bags on the bikes we were quickly able to ride and carry our bikes up the steep track. On the way up we noted all the good photo and filming spots. I began to film and take photos of Ollie descending the steep picturesque trails. This often required Ollie to carry his bike up to ride to repeat a section to make sure we got the right shot; it’s a hard job being a model, but Ollie pulled it off.   We even managed to get some helmet came footage by taping Ollies camera to his helmet.

Once back in Manage we visited our favourite bakery for some afternoon treats.  I wrote today’s diary log whilst watching the Sunset over the Annapurnas from the third story of the Yeti Hotel.  The sky turned from blue to red/orange and then to a deep pink bluish colour. The contrast of the mountains and the evening sky was as crisp as the cool mountain air. 

Onwards and upwards to Thorung Phedi at 4500m tomorrow. This requires over 1000m climbing and approximately 15km to travel, from there just a mere hop of 900m and then downhill to Muktinath. 

27/09/2010 Sunday Day 8 Timang to Manang

My cough that I inherited from Ollie a few days earlier reached a new level last night. It was persistent enough that an Israeli guy gave me a cough tablet and told me to wrap clothing around my neck, which seemed to work as I didn’t cough until morning, so we all got a good night sleep. 

We woke to a beautiful sunrise, with clear views of the surrounding snow capped peaks.  We had apple porridge and Tibetan bread for breakfast, both were large portions, I ended up having to finish of Ollie’s bread. 

Yummy Tibetan bread

Sherpas doing it hard!

We got under way at 7:45ish and were immediately spoiled by nice tracks to ride in the morning sun. We only had to do a short climb/carry before Koto, and then soon were in Chame, our goal from two days ago!  In Chame we found that the entire village of a few hundred people were watching a Vollyball tournament.  We pressed on and found that around every corner we were greeted with magnificent vistas of the mountains. 

Riding next to a 100m vertical drop

On the road to Chame

Around the corner from Bhratang we came across the Swargadwari Danda a mountain which has an almost smooth rock face, making an almost perfect giant natural wall ride. We quickly carried on another small climb of a few hundred metres and were greeted by a gently downhill to lower Pisang.

We had lunch at this beautiful village that looked up to upper Pisang and Pisang Peak.  After our lunch we carried on to Manang, we climb over a small hill called Deuralidanda, which then gave us a spectacular views of the valley leading up to Manang.  The riding up the valley was straight forward and I even got the Rohloff into gear 5 for change.  The cool tail wind made for easy riding and we made Manang around 1500ish.  Ollie called it and we stayed at the ‘Yeti Hotel’.  Our room even had an en suite with a lukewarm shower.  We cleaned ourselves up and went to explore Manang. 

Lower Pissang

Riding towards Manang

We followed our noses and found a bakery with chocolate rolls and croissants.  We strolled through town and found a local movie theatre, we chatted to manager, a 21 year old for a bit before the movie started. We also talked to Canadian from Toronto who was having difficulties with the altitude and was suffering from numbness in his face and limbs from the Dimonxia.  No problems for Ollie and me at 3540m.   We watched ‘Into the thin air’ and were glad that we were only going up to some 18000ft rather than above 2400ft. 

Just had my first bowl of fired momos for dinner, yummy.  Looking forward to bed tonight and an easy acclimatisation day tomorrow. 

26/09/2010 Saturday Day 7 Chyamche to Timang

River side town on Tal

We left Chyamche at an early start of 0720 to try and make amends to not achieving yesterday’s goal of Chame. We also needed to do a lot of bike carrying in morning as the map indicated several steep drawn out climbs, which certainly lived up. 

Ollie corssing under a waterfall

We had lunch at the end of a swing bridge at a place called Karte, and once again enjoy great cuisine for little cost. The dish consisted of beans, potatoes, vegetables and also came with very yummy corn bread, which is a type of sweet flat bread.

Karte

We literally pushed on for a short while and then to our relief the track became very rideable.  We made good progress and soon reached the next check point at Dharapani.  The track climbed upwards at a gentle consistent gradient, allowing us to make progress in both altitude and distance.  At Bagarchhao we came across an Austrian Civil Engineer who began to give us a lecture on the difficulties he was facing with the scoping of a 150MW hydropower station in the valley. One wonders why one would need that amount of power half up the Marsyangdi Nadi River. 

Once again we failed in reaching the elusive Chame, but Timang presented itself with a few nice hotels, the first of which was full.  This little village seemed to be undergoing a boom, as numerous new buildings were being built with great care and detail in both the stone and wood work. 

Climbing up the hill to Timang

At the hotel I had a cold shower only to find out that Ollie somehow got a warm one. Tonight was also the first night that we would actual need to unpack our sleeping bags, though I still simply used my bag as a blanket. The hotel was located just below the evening cloud base so no views of the surrounding mountains, hopefully the in the morning it will be clear. 

Still nursing my hip today from yesterdays embarrassing fall, but it feels much better compared to last night, where every time I would cough pain would shoot through me abdomen.  My back today was a little sore, most likely due to the hours spent carrying my bike over my shoulders.

Just ordered Yak curry for dinner; looking forward to this, as I thought about eating yak earlier in the day.  The scenery was once again amazing, the dense jungle has now thinned out to grasses and pine forest, with other plants filling the spaces in between. 

25/09/2010 Saturday Day 6 Besishaha to Chyamche

How not to cross a river

Finally first day on Annapurna track, living the dream! First 7km went with ease, signed in with the TIMs card before leaving Besishaha and showed the permits 7km later at the first check point. We then descended down to the swing bridge via some stairs, where I managed to ‘endo’ in front of a whole bunch of local kids.  No damage to the bike, but my self-esteem and hip took a hard knock.   The first part of the trek went well; most was ride able, and a waist deep river crossing in the main river made for some early excitement. 

Short cut through the river

Riding down some stairs

First swing bridge crossing

1130 came and so did the relentless heat. Things also started to get steep and rugged and we were soon carrying our bikes. We climb up to Bahundanda with seat pouring from our helmets. We stopped for lunch and a break from the mid day sun.  Once again the heat was taking its toll slowing progress. We filled our camel packs and we headed up the valley.  Progress was good after lunch, the tracks became rideable, despite what we were told by the restaurant owner who insisted we should hire a Sherpa, screw that!

We passed by some beautiful scenery.  I was totally blown away by at how the steep cliffs towered above us in their lush green colours. We crossed the swing bridge at Syange giving way to a donkey train, as I wasn’t too keen on sharing the bridge with half a dozen donkeys.  Shortly after the bridge we caught up to about 30 to 40 Iranian climbers taking pictures of monkeys, this was a must do, so out came my camera.

Donkey train

Monkeys

A steep climb approached, down Rohloff down, but no, this is odd I thought.  The Rohloff shifter mechanism had somehow jammed, and since we didn’t have the correct sized torx bit, it was single speed riding for me from now on.  No two minutes later Ollie’s rear tire punctured with a gash just too large for the “no tubes” to seal.

The track treated us to a nice piece of single track then hit us with a nasty climb, bikes over the shoulder and we progressed up the steep track. The sky began to grow dark as we arrived in Chyamche.  We decided to stay here for the night as we were both well spent. 

Waterfall at Chyamche

I had a shower and was drying myself off and I noticed I had a little leech sucking away between my fingers, awesome my first leech.  It was quite strange as you couldn’t even feel the leech sucking away having the time of his life.  Just as well the leech was having fun as I pulled out my lighter and a second of flame was enough for the leech to let go and squirm to its death.

My first leech

Well we didn’t make Chame today, but Chyamche was beautifully situated overlooking a 200m waterfall. 

Statistics: hours riding 0830 to 1730, 40min lunch.        

24/09/2010 Friday Day 5 Kurintar to Besishaha

Porridge and cooked breakfast was enjoyed at our exquisite resort overlooking the nearby river.  This provided fuel for the first four hours of riding, which we ended up needing as we took an extra 26km detour since we rode past the turn off to Besishaha at Dumre. The detour involved a good climb of well over 700m climb and about 1½ hours of riding.

Once we finally found the road to Besishaha the hot mid down sun began to beat down on us with vengeance. This proved to be a real damper on our progress.  I found the going very tuff as I struggled with the heat, but I keep drinking from my camel pack and refilled it once after midday.  In the early afternoon I finally succumbed to the heat and we stopped at the next river for a rest and soak in the cool water. The 15 minutes rest was greatly enjoyed and helped us carry on for the next 22km to Besishaha.

First glimpses of the Annapurnas

Today was the first clear day in Nepal and we got to see our first glimpse of the Annapurna Himalayan mountain range.  Although we were still well over 50km away the mountains showed their grand height by towering over the building fair weather cumulus.   The riding through the country side was beautiful, as we were surrounded by vibrant greens from the lush vegetation.  The handmade rice terraces also showed their impressive beauty.        

Ollie and some of the local boys who pushed us up a hill

Riding out in the lush country side

Me enjoying the cool river water

We finally came into Besishaha around 1630 and found a hotel next to the Danish Red Cross. Another top notch meal was enjoyed for a total of 1200Ru for both Ollie and I. The meal consisted of five cokes/fantas and curries to put any NZ curry to shame, this was followed by ice cream for dessert. After our dinner one of the Dane’s talked to us and gave us some advice for the trail as well as what he and his team were doing in Nepal.    

I’m looking forward to starting the track tomorrow. 54km to Chame, but may have to settle for a bit short of this as the going is meant to be quite tuff to Chame, but I guess we’ll see tomorrow. 

Statistics: 70 +26 km = 96km  from 0830 to 1600 = 7.5 hours.

24/09/2010 Friday Day 5 Kurintar to Besishaha

Porridge and cooked breakfast was enjoyed at our exquisite resort overlooking the nearby river.  This provided fuel for the first four hours of riding, which we ended up needing as we took an extra 26km detour since we rode past the turn off to Besishaha at Dumre. The detour involved a good climb of well over 700m climb and about 1½ hours of riding.

Once we finally found the road to Besishaha the hot mid down sun began to beat down on us with vengeance. This proved to be a real damper on our progress.  I found the going very tuff as I struggled with the heat, but I keep drinking from my camel pack and refilled it once after midday.  In the early afternoon I finally succumbed to the heat and we stopped at the next river for a rest and soak in the cool water. The 15 minutes rest was greatly enjoyed and helped us carry on for the next 22km to Besishaha.

First glimpses of the Annapurnas

Today was the first clear day in Nepal and we got to see our first glimpse of the Annapurna Himalayan mountain range.  Although we were still well over 50km away the mountains showed their grand height by towering over the building fair weather cumulus.   The riding through the country side was beautiful, as we were surrounded by vibrant greens from the lush vegetation.  The handmade rice terraces also showed their impressive beauty.        

Ollie and some of the local boys who pushed us up a hill

Riding out in the lush country side

Me enjoying the cool river water

We finally came into Besishaha around 1630 and found a hotel next to the Danish Red Cross. Another top notch meal was enjoyed for a total of 1200Ru for both Ollie and I. The meal consisted of five cokes/fantas and curries to put any NZ curry to shame, this was followed by ice cream for dessert. After our dinner one of the Dane’s talked to us and gave us some advice for the trail as well as what he and his team were doing in Nepal.    

I’m looking forward to starting the track tomorrow. 54km to Chame, but may have to settle for a bit short of this as the going is meant to be quite tuff to Chame, but I guess we’ll see tomorrow. 

Statistics: 70 +26 km = 96km  from 0830 to 1600 = 7.5 hours.