Trekkers have a split personality. When they are moving on the trail, it’s everyone for themselves. It’s about being faster, stronger, better than others who occupy the route. But when they stop — for a rest, for the night — they are all hale and hearty and sweetness and light. As we all tend to […]
Archive | April, 2012
Annapurna Circuit: Day Four
I have used an entire tube of superglue on my boot and I hope it works. I also hope the superglue wasn’t counterfeit, as are so many things around here, but I paid a reassuring equivalent of GBP 1.50 to a chap with one eye, one leg and a parrot on his shoulder, so what […]
Annapurna Circuit: Day Three
Following the directive of my gorgeous travelling companion, we are up at 5.45am but there was still a panic and no little swearing as we missed our departure time by two minutes. Had we been Swiss or German this would have been unacceptable, had we been Spanish we could say we left on time, maybe […]
Annapurna Circuit: Day Two
Today’s plan was to be up at 6.00am, breakfast at 6.30am and be on the trail at 7.00am. We didn’t miss it by much; ten minutes maybe. The holdup was caused by our inability to sort out and pack up our kit for the day quickly enough and, as punishment, Debbie has decided that tomorrow […]
Annapurna Circuit: Day One
We are up at 5.45am to pack up, check out and get trekking. It’s another bright, sunny day and the transport is ready, as always, promptly at 0700. Jeevan tests our backpacks for weight and declares them “A bit heavy.” We have weighed ourselves with and without our backpacks in the bathroom. Debbie’s pack is […]
Kathmandu
We have arrived in Kathmandu, capital of Nepal, to begin our trekking adventure. It’s a fairly typical Asian city that has been catapulted into modernity and is not coping particularly well. Town planning, such as it is, is entirely reactive to problems and town planning, as we know and love it, is an art that […]
Environmental villain
Political ineptitude. Nepal is the second richest country in the world for water resources but there are no plans to harness the potential hydro-electric power. According to local businessmen, the reason is that the politicians won’t trust one another to be responsible for tenders to build new capacity. Instead the rivers are used for waste […]