After Poon Hill I was trekking on my own, heading off towards Annapurna Base Camp. In the area right around Poon Hill there had been muggings in the past, and not wanting to have a repeat of my episode in Tibet I kind of hung around other groups during that stretch of the trail. By lunch time I had pretty much passed all the other groups and I was on my own again. I tend to walk faster when the weather is cloudy, which it was during the afternoon, and I made it to the town of Chomrong around 4:00 in the afternoon and pretty exhausted from the steep up and down hike. It was actually probably one of the toughest days of the hike since it was a lot of steep up and down switch backs and staircases, as well as the fact that I was doing it in one day when most people do it in two. From Chomrong it was another long 7 hour day of hiking to the Machapuchhre (Fishtail Mountain) base camp, a somewhat superfluous name since the mountain is considered sacred and forbidden to be climbed. The M.B.C. as it is known is only a short 45 minutes below the Annapurna Base Camp (A.B.C.) so the next day I got to the A.B.C. early enough to enjoy the good weather and watch as the clouds closed in on the Sanctuary eventually obscuring the spectacular 360 degree view. The Annapurna Base camp lies in the middle of the Annapurna Sanctuary a bowl surrounded by soaring Himalayan peaks. It is certainly on of the more amazing mountain views I have seen. I spent a little over 24 hours at the A.B.C. on a day which also happened to be a full moon. When I headed out around 1:00 am to use the toilet, I took one look up at the majestic moon lit mountains and made an about face to grabbed my camera and tripod to photography the amazing sight, nearly forgetting why I had been awoken in the first place.
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