Slowly, slowly walking! Little bit up, little down.

We hired a porter / guide for our first trek in Annapurna. Mr Lama is a knot of muscle and sinew who has spent his life carrying loads in the Himalaya. The mountains here are not great for a guy's machismo. The knotty Mr L could carry "eighty five kay gee, no problem!" usually in the traditional style - in a basket suspended from the top of his head by a rope. We saw porters carrying huge and diverse loads this way. There are no roads or motor vehicles in the mountains and so everything is carried by porter, from food to building materials to live chickens. We saw the lot.

Mr Lama had a comparatively easy time of it during his 2 weeks as our porter. The 15kgs of Mary's rucksack were small beer, despite her best efforts to defeat the knotty man with a great diversity of hair and skincare products. I packed each morning to ensure that my pack weighed as much as Mr Lama's. This effort of macho self esteem backfired as each day Mr L would try both packs and say "Same same! Very strong man!" which when you know that he can carry more than your own body weight using only his scalp, is a crushingly patronising thing to say. He meant well I'm sure.

I think we are a little fitter and stronger on our return, however. My calf muscles, once like knots in thread, might now possibly be described as knots in steel thread. We're going to pack a little lighter for our Everest trek and try and manage without a porter for the first couple of days to see how we go. Mary is dreading the packing process more than the prospect carrying a pack for 3 weeks. I'm confident she may change her tune.

Another of Mr Lama's favorite phrases was "Slowly, slowly walking! Little bit up, little down." He is certainly right about walking slowly. Good trekking would seem to be an exercise in avoiding injury, by a fall or sprain, or by repetitive strain, particularly on the downhills. His second statement was less accurate. It is very difficult to walk anywhere in the Himalaya without a *great deal* of up and down. On the way to and from Annapurna Base Camp we ascended and descended over 12,800 meters (over 42,000 feet) which is one-and-a-half times the height of Everest. Perhaps after our next trek I will have knotty Lama legs too!

The indefatigable Mr Lama.

Everything was carried by porter - although some foodstuffs are self propelled! This is a sobering thought as you tuck into your evening meal and know that everything before you has been carried on someones head - rather like knowing that all the atoms in your body were created in a supernova! (perhaps not)

Lodges on the trail at Landrung. At every stop the views were a million dollars and the room rates a little under a dollar-fifty.

A rare moment of sober contemplation by a young Nepali.

We saw a couple of people airlifted out of the area. One English chap who had collapsed was sedated by one of Mary's super-strong and slightly trippy (pico trippy!) codine tablets. Our little medical kit comes in handy again.

Annapurna Sanctuary

The Annapurna Sanctuary was the turnaround point for our trek. It is a valley in the middle of the Annapurna range surrounded on all sides by huge mountains, including Annapurna I, the tenth highest in the world.

We were blessed with 2 days of clear weather when we reached the Sanctuary. Previous days had seen cloud and rain roll in by early afternoon and this would have meant snow and zero visibility in the Sanctuary had it continued. Because of the enforced early finishes we started walking early in the morning and by lunchtime were sipping hot tea, eating Dahl Baht and settled in a lodge for the night. This meant lots of time for reading and backgammon! Current backgammon score: Mary 'doubles' Brett - 23, Matt 'luckless' Darby - 18.

Tip: click the grey play button in the center of the video to play it in this page (clicking outside the play button will take you to the youtube website and play the video there).

Annapurna, Nepal

Just when you feel you have begun to understand a little of India and your affair with her, you discover she has a more charming and beautiful sister! Nepal is that rarest of places, somewhere of which I had high expectations, all of which have been exceeded.

Mary and I just arrived back from 12 days walking through the Annapurna mountain range. We were 'teahouse trekking' - staying at small lodges in villages along the mountain trail. The scenery was amazing, slowly transforming from hot and humid rhododendron forests at lower altitudes to a cool, spartan, alpine landscape as we approached the base of the big mountains. Our turnaround point was the Annapurna Base Camp in the Annapurna Sanctuary. The Sanctuary is a gently sloping valley in the middle of the Annapurna range where one is surrounded on all sides by enormous peaks, of which more in another post.

The lodges were great - basic but comfortable - run by local Nepalis who we found to be friendly, open and fun-loving. At first glance the big difference between Nepal and India seems to be the attitude of the people. Each village we stayed at was spotless and each lodge carefully and charmingly built, particularly the slate terraces and patios on which each building perched. I can't help feeling that the landscape and villages would be tended very differently in India, and we saw evidence of this in the Kashmiri mountains. Indians seem to be infected with a slap-dash, make-do attitude and there seems little quality in anything that is built. In contrast their northern neighbors do a terrific job in more difficult circumstances: Nepal is much poorer than India, although at first glance the opposite seems true.

The Annapurna region is not typical of Nepal however, benefiting from the two largest sources of foreign income - trekkers and the British Gurkas, of whom many are drawn from the local villages. Still, our first impression is that the people here seem richer than in India, if not economically then in their outlook and character. Always smiling the Nepalis we met were an unusually happy people who enjoy life to the full in some of the most beautiful country imaginable.


Mary rests by one of hundreds of waterfalls that cascade into the deep valleys of the Annapurna. Many of these waterfalls might be the centerpiece of a European or US national park, but here in the big mountains, they're just a part of the amazing scenery.


Annapurna I, one of 14 mountains in the world over 8000 meters tall and the first of the 14 to be climbed. In the foreground is a monument to Anatoli Boukreev who died on Annapurna I in 1997. Boukreev is famous for the controversial role he played in the Everest disaster the previous year when 8 climbers were killed descending from the summit of Everest. The book "Into Thin Air" criticised Boukreev's actions, although he saved several lives in a solo rescue during the night of the deadly storm. "Into Thin Air" is a cracking read. I've just finished "Into The Wild" also by Jon Krakauer and also a ripping yarn.


Butterflies were our constant companions throughout the trek, particularly at lower altitudes and in the blooming rhododendron forests. There seemed to be many dozens of species, several as large as small birds. We saw a lot of other wildlife including a couple of snakes, one an 8 foot Python (Mary says 10 feet!). There were also many raptors and we watched one golden eagle from a ledge as he flew below us in the valley, then steadily climbed above us and the mountains, riding thermals without a single flap of his wings.


Nepalis are always laughing! Their lodges and houses, particularly the wonderful wood-fired kitchens, are always filled with non-stop chatter and laughter.


Your intrepid reporters in the Annapurna Sanctuary hiking down from Annapurna Base Camp (ABC) back to Machupuchare Base Camp (MBC). The peaks Annapurna South and Hiun Chuli are in the background.