Educational Origami

Wow what an experience this has been. Its been 10 days of trekking and we have had a ball. I.

We have seen and learnt many things. The first lesson came very early.
The first hill from Pheni to Dhampus was (in my limited Annapurna experience. It was a big hill but nothing compared to later ones) huge, We climbed for 2 hours move horizontally 2km and vertical 700 metres.
This experience was quickly followed by the second experience. The importance of clean water and its corresponding result of a systemic flush for those unfortunates. I managed to avoid this one, but as team medic, I got to see alot of it.
The next 9 days of trekking saw us move from Dhampus to Landruk, crossing a huge ridge in a 6 hour marthon in high temperatures, From Landruk to Chhomrong after another gruelling climb of over 700vertical metres. We had a notable encounter with local flora here when one of the party sat on Stinging Nettle. Sting-goes is a brilliant and very fast acting product.
After chhomrong we left the semi cultivated areas and headed into the sanctury proper, moving on successives days up the valley to camp and lodge at Dovan Then at 12,000 feet at Machhupatcarie ase camp. The views were incredible and the scale of the Himalayas is immense.

We stayed two nights here - 1/2 the group in tents the others in then lodge. It was very cold - the trip up the last two hours we walked past avalances and had a 2 hour hail storm. In the morning it was 1.2c

We did a day trip upto Annapurna Base camp, which is tucked under the 8000m Annapurna I mountain. This took us to 14,000ft, breath-taking in more ways than one.

We then reversed the trip back to Chhomrong with the 2000+ stairs leading to our lodge almost killing us as we climbed from the river in to Chhomrong village.
The next day we moved away from retracing our steps and climbed up and then down to the river below Ghandruk and then climbed 800m vertically into the top off Ghandruk hill. Having climbed an 18,000ft pass in Leh, I can safely say this was the toughest climb ever, It was hot, dry and draining and we had to dodge donkey trains coming down. Donkeys don’t know road rules (but then the question must be asked are there road rules in nepal?) and the only difference between the donkeys and the cars is the cars have Horns and the Donkeys bells, the rest is the same… Its a game of
CHICKEN.

Donkeys win this game every time.

Our Porters were amazing - 40-50Kgs loads carried on head straps and they beat us to each and every lodge by hours.
And the trekking staff, they give a new meaning to service - you can not fault them.From Ghandruk, we walked out to the road end, a leisurely 4-5 hour walk to make it to lunch.
And here I am in Pokara - showered (the first in 10 days), clean, and appreciating the pleasures of a western style toilet.
Oh the simple pleasures.

The kids were brilliant, even feeling under the weather, they cleaned the tracks, and filled the ACAP bins with litter. What a brilliant group of students and staff to trek with.