Himalaya Trekking

Since Rusty had ten days to recover from his Kidney Stones, we thought it would be nice to get out of the CRAZY streets of Kathmandu. We decided to sign up for a 14 day trek (done by some in up to 21 days), but last minute thought we ought to at least hire a porter to carry Rusty's pack. It wasn't just the walk-a-about Kelsi had in mind, but rather a rigorous lengthy climb from about 4,500 ft. elevation up to nearly 18,000 feet. The trek was called the Annapurna Circuit, covering well over 100 steep and rugged miles. We started the trek in the monkey jungled forests of the Himalayan foothills. The photo below is from a temple nicknamed "The Monkey Temple" since there are so many monkeys found there.

Because the Annapurna region is geographically isolated, all food must be packed in by Mule or Human porter... as you can see here. It was a constant source of amazement to see skinny, 120 pound Nepali porters carrying as much as 80-90 pounds, all resting on their heads. Talk about needing a chiropractor!

Kelsi originally wanted to name this blog "Waterfalls Forever." The steep Himalayans constantly drain off in thousands of waterfalls along the entire distance of the trek. It was gorgeous. Any ONE of the waterfalls could have been a destination.

For the same reason that waterfalls are so plentiful, rockslides are equally common. A porter had been killed by a falling boulder 6 days before we passed one section. Although the government is trying to build a road in the next few years, we will be surprised if they ever build a functional road that isn't buried each monsoon season. Here's a picture of one section of the enormous rockslide on the road near the end of our trek.

Tibetan influence can be seen everywhere. To stave off high altitude sickness and acclimatize, we stayed in one town an extra day and hiked to this stuba.

One of the highlights of the Annapurna trek is crossing Thorong pass (almost 18,000) feet. We woke at about 5:00 am and reached it after almost 4 hours of slowly climbing.

At the end of our trek, we stopped off in a town on a lake named Pokhara. We decided to brave the crazy traffic on a little motorcycle and found our way to these "bat caves." Aside from being an excellent source of Batman and Robin jokes, they are loaded with thousands of boomerang bats, clinging to the stalactites.