Trek 2

Tilicho Lake, Throng La Pass and Annapurna Base Camp.



Yes it was beautiful, the mountains high, villages remote and valleys deep and took 26 days. I won't bore on about how beautiful it was as it would become quite repetitive to read. Instead I have about 23,765 photos of mountains, villages and valleys that I can show you all on an individual basis, with of course a running commentary explaining each pic. I'm sure you'd all love that...

Anyway the trek started in the sun at Beshishar. I initially thought I would be trekking alone but whilst in Pokhara I met two Swiss sisters, Dominica and Sylvie and a German guy named Roland who became my trekking partners. As a four we were soon joined by more as we left the bus. Unfortunately as a large group we were unable to stay together as sickness broke the group up. I think during the walk we all fell ill at some point, whether via altitude or stomach problems. And I can now vouch that trekking with the Eartha Kitts is no fun. I just spent the day stomping about in a huff thinking "Don't like it, feel sick, need a shit. Don't like it, feel sick, need a shit..."

Anyho the first part of the trek took us to Tilicho Lake. Advertised in these parts as the world's highest lake at an altitude of 4919m (16138 Ft) - and no its not Titicata, that is the world's highest navigable lake. A small amount of research has revealed that Tilicho is not the highest lake, but the 20th highest lake. But still bloody high never the less. The walk there was fun. Many very steep gravel slopes with a very precarious path traversing them. Sometimes it got a little exciting as the gravel slipped away from under ones foot leaving a very steep and deep drop down to the river below.

From the lake we headed to the Throng La Pass (apparently the world's widest pass. But I can't be bothered to corroborate that. Its not the most exciting of statistics). I was rather nervous before trekking about the pass. It's at 5416m (17769 ft). At this altitude one encounters approximately 50% of the oxygen normally observed at sea level - in other words 2 breaths at the pass equal one breath at sea level. I have partaken in high altitude treks before in Ecuador - with out much success. The altitude got the better of me. 5416m was destined to be the highest I have ever been.

My worrying was in vain however. I found the ascent quite easy. Not wishing to blow my own trumpet, but the walk to Tilicho was much harder. Steeper slopes and snow made the trek quite tiring. Where as Throng La, although steep in parts, has a steadier ascent and firmer, wider path - and thankfully no snow! Not that we were not confronted with the danger of altitude sickness. Roland suffered a little the day before we reached Throng La. But thankfully he recovered over night. However whilst ascending we were confronted with a very sick lone Korean trekker who was being very hurriedly stretchered down the slope by a group of Nepalese guides and porters to a rendezvousing helicopter. He was unconscious at the time and we later learned that he had been 2 days at Throng Phedi (one of the last stops before Throng La, at 4100m (13451 ft)) getting steadily worse. A worried hotelier checked up on him in his room and found him unconscious. His blood oxygen level was checked and observed to be 40%. The guy was dieing. However with a speedy descent one can recover quickly from altitude sickness and thankfully that is what he received. A second brush with altitude sickness happened about 15 minutes before we all reached the pass. We caught up with a very tired looking porter who seemed unusually breathless. Dominica asked him how he was and it became rapidly clear that he was feeling sick, utterly breathless and later vomiting. We gave him water, took his bags and helped him to the pass, where other guides/porters noticed him and rushed him as quick as they could down the other side. We caught up with him later the same day and he was totally fine. A rapid descent had fixed his problems.

The descent in question tho is steep, and long. Approximately a mile down. This I found to be very tough on the knees, and also the head. As one walks down the steep path, the constant jarring on the feet, legs and rest of the body really shook my brain - giving me a bit of a head ache! I guess it's a small organ in a big church.

Perversely tho I found that much of the lower parts of the trek are the most taxing. The higher parts seem to follow river valleys and for many days one can either be ascending or descending at a slow steady rate. However at the lower levels the path seems to be forever going straight up or down the steepest of stone steps, with daily ascents and descents sometimes being greater than 1 mile.

The final part of the trek took me to Annapurna base camp (4130m or 13549 ft). This part of the trek I did solo. I was rather worried whilst ascending as the weather started to get quite bad. Lots of cloud obscuring the view and cutting visibility down to about 20m, rain and as I reached the Base Camp snow. But I was lucky. The following morning the sky was clear. Perfectly clear. The views were fantastic and a great way to finish the trek. A 2 day blast back down the hill took me back to Pokhara, pizzas and beer!



PS. If you really are desperate to know the highest lakes in the world here is a link

http://www.highestlake.com/highest-lake-world.html


As ever pics on dandispaintravels.blogspot.com and flickr.com user dandispain.