Category Archives: diary

For the last few days thunderstorms have been a feature of the afternoons in Pokhara. They tool in around 3pm and put on a spectacular display. No wind, just great bolts of lightening and nerve shattering thunder, perhaps amplphyed by the surrounding mountains. Life goes on though and three oxen have just walked down aContinue reading “Sunday 6 March 2016”

Sam, our taxi driver from yesterday and uncle of the groom, picks me up at 10.15am in the wedding taxi. We go to where the groom lives for the start of the wedding ceremony. There’s music and dancing in true Hindu style. The women are in beautiful traditional dress and the men and boys inContinue reading “Saturday 5 March 2016”

We leave Jhinu in usual style, around 8am. This is the last day of the trek. We lunch at Kyune right on the Modi River. Modi is the Nepali name. Each ethnic group along its way has a different name for it, as happens with all the rivers apparently. The trail has been easy withContinue reading “Friday 4 March 2016”

We leave Shinawa around 8am and make our way across the river valley up into beautiful Chhomrong. We follow some school children. From Chhomrong we divert onto a new path aiming for Jhinu. There is a lot of steep downhill, all the time passing through people’s back yards. All these little places have set themselvesContinue reading “Thursday 3 March 2016”

Ganesh knocks on the door at some horrible hour. It’s time to get up for the sunrise. It was well under freezing last night. It’s ice everywhere. The sky is clear though and the hidden landscape from cloudy yesterday is now revealed. We’re surrounded by snow covered peaks and ridges, including Annapurna. We walk upContinue reading “Wednesday 2 March 2016”

Happy Birthday Dad. We leave Deurali in bright beautiful sunlight. As well as snowing yesterday afternoon it must have fallen heavily because the countryside is just white. What an amazing sight. The sun lights up the snow so everything is like some fairyland. It’s a rare experience for me to see a landscape in suchContinue reading “Tuesday 1 March 2016”

Happy leap year! We leave shivia around eight. We start to go up so today will be hard. Ganesh says a little bit up but I know it means more than that. We are following the Modi River now, literally following a path clinging to the side of the river. The constant sound of waterContinue reading “Monday 29 february 2016”

We leave Tadha Pani around 8am after a typical breakfast of omelette, potato and milk coffee. We go down through more magnificent rhododendron forests. We come across an elderly American trekking on his own coming back from Annapurna Base Camp. This is his fifth visit to the base camp. The forests suddenly open out intoContinue reading “Sunday 28 February 2016”

The day started painfully. When you come to Ghorepani it’s a popular thing to climb up Poon Hill well before sunrise so you can witness the rising sun coloring the Annapurnas. It’s like ‘looking at heaven’. The climb up the many stairs is tuff in air thinned of oxygen and it’s freezing. I’ve got soContinue reading “Saturday 27 February 2016”

No rush to start today. We aim to get to Ghorepani, which will take about five hours. We get there in four because I set the pace and we didn’t stop for smoko. It wasn’t deliberate on my part. I like to walk at a pace and just expected Garnesh to pull me up whenContinue reading “Friday 26 February 2016”