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Trekking in Nepal |
One of the activities that is most popular in Nepal are the many treks which can be done. Much of the trekking which is available is on the various routes to the base camps of the many mountain climbs in Nepal. Nine of the tallest 10 mountain peaks in the world can be found in Nepal, so a very popular destination for mountain climbers. Of course the most famous is Mt. Everest. The trek to Everest Base Camp 1 is a seriously long trek with the shortest trek being 9 days long. This is basically because of the elevation of the trek. It is not possible to climb too quickly, or altitude disease can set in. So, the trek might not be so long in distance, but it is long in time. You can only climb a maximum of 500 m in a day, so it takes time.
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Stall in Pokhara |
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Shoe repair man |
I did a short trek while I was in Nepal. This was the first day of the trek to the base camp for the Annapurna Mountain climb. Even on this short trek, it was up! up and more up. What goes up my come down. The "up" is not as bad as the "down". I find the jarring on my stuffed knees to get pretty sore on the way down. In other words, I battled quite a bit on the trek. There was a Sherpa (porter) with us, who carried my small overnight bag up for me. I still had my camera bag on my back with all of the camera equipment in, which can get quite heavy when you are climbing a mountain! The aim of this trek was to get the most amazing views of the Annapurna mountains. Just as my luck would have it, all I saw was cloud! The mountain range was covered in cloud. The day before the trek, I could see the Annapurna mountains from the town of Pokhara. This was one of the towns which got very badly damaged in the terrible earthquake in Nepal. The epicentre of this bad earthquake was quite close to this city. I have been to Nepal twice, once before the earthquake and then again after the earthquake. Many of the heritage sites in Nepal were very badly damaged. I will do another post on this later.
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Boats on the lake |
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Bride in Pokhara |
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I started way down there, and this was just the first stop! | | |
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Another stop - the trail just keeps on going up |
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Farm house along the way |
My trip started in the very interesting city of Pokhara. There is a beautiful lake and on a good day, there are wonderful views of the Annapurna mountain range. There is also a small island on the lake with some holy site. There are many small boats which take pilgrims to this holy site. A great place for photos. I also visited a hilltop temple, where there was a wedding in process. The children just loved the camera and I had some great photo opportunities.
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Getting tea ready |
Back to the trekking. All along the trail are small farm houses and villages. Hiking up is not the only way to get there. There is a road on the side of the valley that I was on.
After reaching the overnight guest house, which was very primitive, but clean, we had lunch. A good hearty meal and a nice ice cold bottle of Everest beer. After a short rest, the guide took me on another walk.
Again, up, up and away. This was to another guest house with an even more amazing view. This was not above the cloud layer, so again all I saw was low clouds. Looking at photos which have been taken there, the view is amazing. Always leave something for next time. Next time I will take the jeep! I have done my trekking in Nepal, and really enjoyed it. Now, the likely hood of me actually walking up there again is pretty slim, and gets slimmer each year!
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What I shoul have seen! Not my Photo |
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