Flying to Pokhara

After a massive sleep, which seems to have reset my body clock, I had a lovely breakfast at the nearby Gaia cafe. 

Then it was off the domestic airport, through the amazing Kathmandu.  They have a major infrastructure project trying to widen all the roads, and oopsie! Many people have built the front half of their homes on government land, so down they come! 

Passed a group of soldiers on a training run, some of them looked like I feel when I run, but they have full gear and a 35kg pack on!

The airport was chaotic, very full of trek parties, locals and people moving cargo. Met an interesting Irish woman who is married to a Nepali man and works for the universities here, she gave me her window seat on the plane. And what a view!

The mountains are amazing. We have 14 peaks in the world over 8,000m and 8 of them are in Nepal. I’m trekking to the base camp of Annapurna 1 (at 4130m), which is the smallest of the 14 at about 8100m. It was a 45 min flight and I gawked out the window the whole way!

The land looks so lush, it’s surprising that Kathmandu has water shortages for most of the year and people have underground tanks and buy in water ( if your cannot afford it the government does provide some but its not a lot).  And it’s all undrinkable, so it must be boiled or purified before use. My steripen is getting a workout already!

I was greeted at Pokhara by the Chetri sisters’ driver, a lovely bloke,  and taken to their guest house which is now my base. Had a lovely long walk through the main street of Pokhara, which runs beside the Lake and has magnificent views of the mountains to the north (today in cloud). There are lots of trek stores, cafes, souvenir shops, and supermarkets with the trekker in mind (nuts, chocolate and baby wipes in good supply!). And the Nepali coffee is delicious and available everywhere, along with my now favourite lemon, ginger and honey drink, called a Nepal Warmer.

The Phewa Tal lake is really beautiful, people in colorful blue and purple boats taking a paddle, paragliders above, and the World Peace Pagoda (built as a gift by Japanese Buddhist monks after the war)  high up on the south side ( that’s a job for post Trek if I have any legs left).

 Lots of local people (and animals) stroll along the lakeside path. Women in colourful sari’s, immaculate school children in white shirts and ties, and European trekkers with t-shirts tucked in to pants ( I thought Europe was the house of fashion??) .  I’m glad I have a few days here when I return.

At the moment I'm doing lots of sitting and watching the amazing sights go by, expeditions returning to town, girls in beautiful saris speeding along on motorbikes, cows going where ever they like. sadly there are lots of Tibetian refugee (women here from a nearby camp) who beg or sell handcrafts 

Notice board at the guest house saying Annapurna temperatures -4C to -16C, holy shit!! It’s up to 29 here so I think I will be going through lots of change as I walk.