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So being that I am in Nepal, I feel that you can't be here and not do at least some trekking. Before I came I really wanted to do a big trek but since then I have changed my mind and think a short trek is actually more up my street. So using Sarah's guide, she went to Everest Base Camp with, Gelbu, we head off on the 5 day Annapurna Poon Hill Trek.
The journey starts with the long 7 hour micro bus ride from Kathmandu to just past Pokhara where the Trek is to begin in Birethanti. From there we are heading up, up, up. The first day we covered, what someone has counted as, 3323 steps. Now clearly I wasn't quite listening when Gelbu told me this as I thought he meant over the whole trek we would climb that many stairs, but no, he meant on the first day. Thinking about it, it was actually a good thing I didn't know this when we started that morning. But with plenty of breaks to view the stunning scenery and rest my aching legs, we made it to our tea house, where we spent the rest of the afternoon reading and playing cards, lovely. The next day was only a short walk to Gorepani, as apposed to the other days there seemed to be lots of trekkers here, it is a pretty big village and I think most people stop here the night before heading to Poon Hill in the morning. While we were here there was a wedding ceremony happening in the village and so we, like many other tourists, headed over to watch the celebration of singing, dancing and the giving of gifts. In the morning, very early morning, we head up to Poon Hill for sunrise. It was so cold but totally worth it, the view was amazing. On one side the stunning mountain landscape and on the other the whole of Pokhara seemed to be covered in this perfect blanket of cloud. It was now time to start the long journey back down the mountain. This, it turns out, it actually much worse than going up. My knees seem to be unable to take the strain and after a couple of hours the pain kicks in. The 'Nepali flat' (lots of up and down) was fine but the times when it was constant downhill steps were becoming quite painful indeed. At last though we make it back to Birethanti and the end of the Trek. It was almost sad that it was over, if there wasn't so much downhill I would even have liked to have done more of the Annapurna trails. Once you get into the swing of walking, you just get used to it and it feels like you can just keep going, day after day and there is nothing like the wonderful scenery to spur you along!
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Mum Just wonderful Christy. It's funny that it's worse walking down hill,it is so hard on the knees! X