I have recently completed what I called my ‘trip-ofa- lifetime,’ a two week trek around the Annapurna Circuit1 in Nepal. I made the most of the trip and visited a Nepalese cement plant at the end of the trek (see page 64). I thought I would share some of the ‘learnings’ that I brought back with me at the end of the trip.
This was a journey that I had wanted to take since reading Maurice Herzog’s book ‘Annapurna’ 30 years ago, bought in a Belfast second-hand bookshop for 10p (Euro/$0.10). Herzog essentially had his frostbitten fingers and toes amputated after ‘c onquering’ the mountain (the digits were subsequently eaten by dogs after being brushed from the surgeon’s railway carriage in India, as I recall). I did not want quite as much peril, so I trekked with an organised group, of 13 other mostly-young trekkers, with local Nepali guides and (sup)porters - a total of 24 people. I was the oldest person of all of us - at the tender age of 55 - but that did not seem to matter. I kept up as well as anyone.
We stayed in ‘tea-houses’ which are really trekkers’ hostels, mostly wooden-built and sparsely insulated, with separate bedrooms and a communal dining room heated by a wood-burning stove - the focal point of the cold evenings. The supporters carried our main bags, and we carried a day rucksack, which might weigh 5-7kg, since it had to include all our rain gear and water for the day.
We flew in to Kathmandu, and took a bus and a jeep over extremely rough roads to the start of the trek, in a place called Taal. The village was obliterated by floods in 2021, destroying 50 of 57 houses, and washing away most of the tea-houses. I did not sleep well that night.
Over the course of the next 10 days, we trekked 8-21km per day, rising in altitude by around 400m daily. I started each day with a dawn birding walk, followed by a shave in the bracing open air. We would be on the trail by 8am, with a mid-morning tea-stop and would most often be at our destination for lunch. The food was generally very good (and cheap by Western standards). Dal Bhat is the staple - rice, vegetable curry, bean soup, popadom and pickles - and uniquely on the menu offered endless top-ups. Most other options were simple curries and vegetable dishes (although I did have yak spaghetti bolognese, yak burger and sweet-and-sour yak as well). I would often go out for an additional birding walk in the afternoon, in order to ‘climb high, sleep low.’ The whole thing was extremely convivial, with as much pleasure derived from co-trekkers, guides and supporters as from the scenery. We were lucky with the weather, with crystalclear air, and the views of the 6-, 7- and even 8000m peaks (Manaslu, Annapurna and Dhaulagiri) were constantly and literally awe-inspiring. I often shook my head at the huge scale of the place.
We visited frozen Tilicho Lake (5030m at our viewpoint) and crossed the Thorong La pass (5416m, 17,769ft). I saw 60 bird species on the trip, trekked 170km and ascended over 11,000m. I topped it off with a 5km run at 2800m altitude (in 28 minutes), and tandem paragliding in the lakeside town of Pokhara. This was everything that a trip-of-a-lifetime should be.
So, what were my take-home lessons? Here they are:
1. We were an extremely privileged group - it cost around Euro3000 each for the trip, in total;
2. The major environmental impacts of our trek were the flights (2.7t of CO2 for my own return flights). Having researched offsets, I didn’t trust any of them: instead I made an equivalent donation to a wellregarded woodland charity in the UK;
3.There was a lot of litter in Nepal, much of it produced by locals, but also plenty obviously produced by ignorant trekkers. I litter-picked as much as I could, but I concluded that ‘you cannot fix everything’;
4. There are very few fat people in Nepal, compared to the West, and a lot of skinny people - leading an active life and eating a calorie-restricted diet leads to weight reduction (as I found out);
5. Nepal is in the process of being lifted up by plate tectonics, and at the same time being pulled down by both gradual and catastrophic forces: the country is shoring itself up, and making its constructions more resilient, with lots of cement and concrete;
6. I will never again take for granted a good road, a hot shower or a flushing toilet;
7. Faith and a degree of fatalism seems to help Nepalis cope with the uncertainties of life, and a determination to enjoy life goes a long way;
8. Due to poor internet access we had an unintended but welcome digital detox, but no news of great importance occurred during the three week trip;
9. My work colleagues coped perfectly well in my absence, and my wife was very pleased to get a bit of peace and quiet for three weeks;
10. It is never too late to take a trip-of-a-lifetime!
1 https://www.muchbetteradventures.com/products/9924-adventures- trek-the-annapurna-circuit
