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Trek To ABC

Trekking Destination: Annapurna Base Camp

Trekking Date: Sep 20 2017 7:00 pm to Sep 26 2017 7:00 am

On Wednesday morning, all of the hikers came all set and ready to our office. Our bus ticket was that of 7 pm. Throughout the day, it was hard to totally concentrate on work for obvious reason. Bigyan and Angeela left early as they had to pick bigyan’s back pack from his room while me, Yuvraj, Kumar and Nawaraj left office premise at 5:30 pm. We looked around for taxi until 5:45 pm and were stuck in the traffic in front of office until almost 6 pm. Luckily, we made it before 7 pm. Since gathasthapana was next day, we were afraid we might lose our tickets as it is common for tickets sellers to resale sold seats in high price to other customers. Thankfully that hadn’t happened. PHEWW. Finally, we reached nayapul at around 7 in the morning. From there we took a jeep up to Sewai. There we ordered tea and noodles. After changing our clothes, morning schedule of brushing and etc and having our lunch, we officially started our trek at around 9:30 am.
Day 1 Sewai to Upper Sinuwa: We had checked the weather forecast early hand and rain was predicted throughout our trekking journey hence we were prepared with plastic raincoats. From the very start of our journey, it had been raining so with our temporary plastic raincoats, trekking shoes and trekking sticks, we started our journey. Because of landslide on the way to Somrong from sewai, we had to make a detour. The detour route (way to landruk) was full of leeches with the muddy trail and the rain aiding the blood suckers. We drank tea somewhere on our detour way, looked for leeches took pictures and started off again. We reached new bridge, by now already on track to our main trek route.

Since it was raining and we had raincoats on, I do not recall so much of the trekking route although I do remember we took a downhill route to somrong. Then after, we crossed a bridge en route to Jhinu. The route was a hard uphill. However, they have constructed a new suspension bridge, thus reducing a walk time of about half to an hour. We reached Jhinu at 1 pm. As our lunch was being prepared, we hanged our raincoats and jackets for drying. Some of us went by the fireside to dry our tshirts and socks. Bigyan, meanwhil,e took a powernap. After having our lunch , we again started a total uphill hike to Chhomrong. Fast trekkers took rest in tea shop and drank tea while waiting for other trekkers. After walking and climbing and climbing we finally reached chhomrong at around 4 pm.


There is a Lavazza shop, german bakery shop which was suprising to find. We had booked our hotel to upper sinuwa from Jhinu. From chhomrong village we could oversee sinuwa village. It did not seem very far and we were all excited to reach our destination. Which we mistook for sinuwa village was actually lower sinuwa. So in reality we had to cross lower-sinuwa, sinuwa and finally reach our destination on top of sinuwa hill: upper sinuwa. The trek was so made that you climb up from new bridge to jhinu to chhomrong, then you go downhill and again climb up to sinuwa. The route was so made that you visit the villages along the way. With all the excitement and darkness already following we had less idea of how much uphill climbing we had been making. Nevertheless, we reached our destination at around 8. I immediately took a hot shower. They use gas for cooking and shower hence they charge you Nrs 150 for a hot shower. I would say the price paid was worth after such a long day of walk. I had brought a sanjeevani oil massage , which some of us used to massage our tired muscles. We hanged our clothes in any space available for drying. After dinner, we all went to sleep with aim of leaving at 6am the next day.

Day 2 Upper Sinuwa to MBC: On the second day we started our trekking from 7am. It had been raining since morning. The route so far had been amazing. We had been told there won’t be much of leech attack henceforth. Also from here on, one is not allowed to take or travel with meat for religious purpose. I was happy since this meant everything we ate would be vegetarian. We came across waterfall, some small, some big. We walked through the thick jungle. Climbed uphill, went downhill and finally reached Bamboo, our next destination. We rested for about an hour. We ate light breakfast (egg, curry and tea). Our next destination was dovan, then Himalaya where we planned of having lunch.  We reached dovan in an hour, then we went again through a very uphill hike to Himalaya.

We rested there again. Took tea, ordered mushroom soup (we gave our soup for cooking). Most of us had their share of dry food (snickers/energy bar/nuts) on the way and so we decided to lunch at deurali as it was only 1.5 hours away. The hot tea and mushroom had warmed our body wet with sweat and rain and cold as our bodies were perspiring.   We also pre-ordered lunch at deurali’s New Panoroma Hotel.

It was again a very uphill hike. Right before reaching deurali (about 15-20 mins ahead) there was a cave where we decided to take shelter for a while. We opened our raincoats and took pictures. It oversaw deurali ahead, modi river on right and very big chatan pahad on left and right with waterfalls falling from those chatan pahad. We reached deurali at 2pm. Again, we left our shoes, socks, raincoats and jackets for drying and ate the most delicious lunch of the trek. We took pictures, massaged our neck and shoulder. We just enjoyed everything about deurali.  MBC was only 2 hours away from deurali and we had decided to stay overnight at mbc so all of us walked lazily after lunch. The weather was also lot clearer i.e. it was not raining so we were enjoying the little scene we could see. Throughout the way never realizing we had been walking with Machhapuchre on our right. We tooks lots of picture this time. We finally started seeing mountains far away. By the time we reached mbc it was pitch dark. We reached our hotel at 7pm. We could see a little of mountains around us but the weather wasn’t very clear and the air was very cold. We ordered dinner, washed ourselves, guys played cards, while we girls massaged our muscles. It was really very cold here. We were at a height of 3700m and the night was freezing.


Day 3  MBC to ABC:  We woke up at 4 in the morning and after freshening up, we took out our torch and started heading for ABC. We wanted to catch the sunrise from ABC. We left at around 5am in the morning. The morning was dark, it was hard to make out the trails and the uphill was making us breathless with each rise of altitude. The darkness was also slowly lifting and we could see Machhapuchre behind us white and high. Local bhote kukur were also leading our way. We reached ABC at 6 am, ordered tea and had biscuits with it. I met HIKE FOR NEPAL's trekking group  there. After warming up and admiring everything around us, the sun finally started to rise. Every one went behind the hotels from where we could get the best view. There was glacier beside the base camp, and at the end was where the mighty Annapurna started. The weather unfortunately was not very clear and clouds were strolling around some mountains. Though the mountains were glowing red the panoroma or the 360 was not up-to the par.
We took tons of picture in turn, with different poses. In an hour or so, the wind started blowing and within seconds everything got covered with white clouds. We decided to stay one more day to try our luck. Two of our friends decided other wise as they were having headaches and did not wanted to risk their chances. So they headed for MBC. We got bored to death staying inside our rooms. It also started raining later. We played cards, ludo and what not. 

Finally at 4pm some of us decided to head up to a lake on north of the hotel. As they were getting ready, the weather started clearing up.

Again, we were mesmerized by the view. We were happy we took our chances. And as before in a matter of seconds, everything got covered as easily as  we snap our fingers.
We had lot of options for our dinner. Spaghetti, pizza, pasta, dal bhat etc. After our dinner we went to sleep at 8pm. Later at 1am, Bigyan woke me up. The night sky was very clear and we could see millions and billions of stars and the shape of clear mountains. But it was so windy and so cold that star gazing for about 5 minutes became a struggle.


Day 4: ABC-Chhomrong
The next morning, we woke up to a clear sky. The stars and the moon up in the sky and the mountain shining in their light. We were surrounded by mountains in our 360 angle. As the sun rose, the view became even more dramatic. From gray, to white, to gold the view changed. We were astouned and unwilling to leave but we had to.

 So at 8am, we headed down. Jumping and laughing and smiling, we crossed the same path again. The way down MBC was so beautiful. We had missed it the day before as we were crossing it in the dark. The green grassland, the grazing sheeps, the guard dogs, the flowing stream which later became mardi Khola and the mountain around us, even the clouds high up were making many things by themself. The view was like a scene from a postcard. Wanting to catch up with our two friends who had left early the day before, we  increased our pace to catch them. We had no idea where they were as there was no phone network. At 10 pm we reached deurali, and there was where wee met our friends too. We ate our breakfast there and then headed again. Today it was not raining so it was more of a relaxing down /up hill. We stopped at places to take pictures or admire the nature, other than that we kept walking. We reached bamboo at 2pm where as promised before, we took our lunch. Then the uphill trail to Upper sinuwa began. Nawaraj had left his belongings in Upper sinuwa. We took them and started making our way to Chomrong. The way back to Chomrong was a down hill from upper sinuwa and then an uphill from lower sinuwa. The downhill became difficult than anticipated because some of us were having knee pain, some were facing back pain, and for some their new shoes were a trouble in their feet. As we continued, we were in a sheer shock of how much distance we had covered in day 1's darkness. At 7pm we reached Chhomrong. It was a relaxing night for all of us as the hard part was over. We chose to eat delightfully and stayed late.
Day 5  Chhomrong-Pokhara-Ktm:
Next morning we woke to the view of Annapurna South and Machhapuchre, the view we had missed when we were heading to MBC because of the weather. We had a decent and proper breakfast for the  first time in our trek journey. At 9pm we left the hotel in a good mood. The trail was a total downhill.

 The group got dispersed half way and waited for everyone to gather at a place between Sewai and Somrong where had noodles, tea and local milk.



We took a bus from Sewai at 2pm. We reached Nayapul at pm. It took us to pokhara at around 6pm. From Pokhara we took a night bus to Kathmandu. And the next morning we reached Gongabu Bus Park at 4am in the morning. We wanted to take a later bus from Pokhara estimating we would reach Kathmandu at 6 in the morning but our sister was in a hurry to reach home so we opted otherwise.




I support Local Empowerment. So, I’m sharing this Everest Base Camp Trek to promote a new way of trekking where trekkers can empower the local service providers like lodges, guides and porters by booking services directly through them. #empoweringthehimalayas #freetriptoeverest

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