ABC is Annapurna Base Camp, and this was the major activity I had planned for Nepal. Of course, you can't exactly go to Nepal and not make some attempt at the Himalayas. I booked a 10-day trip (big mistake, I should have organised it myself, and saved $200. Ah, well, now I know), and left on a Saturday with my guide, Nakul.
I admit I had expected the ascent to ABC to be quite a lot harder. I was badly sick on my first day, and throwing up. I hardly made it to Ghandruk, where we spent the first night. I don't think Nakul quite believed that I wasn't hungover, or that I am normally a fairly strong hiker. After Ghandruk though (and I credit my reaching there largely to the kindly Nepali lodge owner who gave me 2 litres of purified water (I drank 4 in total) as well as a rehydrating salt/vitamin mix when I desperately needed it), I was able to stretch my legs properly, and we ascended to ABC in just three more days, two days ahead of schedule, via nights spent at Chhomrong (the most idyllic mountain village I have ever seen) and Himalaya (a small collection of lodges).
The weather was iffy all the way up, and we got badly soaked on the second day, but mostly managed to avoid the heavy afternoon rains by finishing around 1/2 every day. At ABC I spent a whole day, apparently unusual, since I had a lot of time, and I was hoping for some good sunset views. Nothing doing. I got beautiful views, and pictures, around dawn on both days, but then the mist set in and we were lost in a cloud for the next 18 hours. I got a lot of reading done.
Finally, with 5 days to go, we started to descend. Some other travellers had told me of a lodge in Chhomrong that served delicious chocolate cake, and so we ran down to Chhomrong by 11:30 am (it took us three days to ascend from there), so I could add chocolate cake to both my lunch and dinner.
The next day, still with tons of time on my hands, we walked only about 45 mins to Jhinu, which features a natural hot spring, and is otherwise generally just very pleasant, and I spent the day there.
Finally, I spent the 8th day hiking to Dhampus, from where we would catch a 4x4 the following morning back to Pokhara. And so I finished almost two days early.
The views were stunning, and it was fantastic meeting and talking with the great variety of people on the route, of whom there was not too many. The whole trek, in fact, I felt like I was walking through a massive deserted theme park, or a computer game: lodges at regular and convenient intervals, shopkeepers manning little stalls and all selling the same list of goods at inflated prices, and a massive infrastructure set up for masses of people who simply weren't there. If you don't like crowds on your mountains, as I don't, then this is the perfect time of year to go, though the views are limited and the temperature/humidity stifling at lower altitudes.
Anyhow, pictures after the jump (many):
