Day 3: helicopter over Victoria falls

We met our small group of 6 women last night along side our guide, cook and driver. After a briefing of the next few days, we headed off for dinner out and an early night. 

This morning we got up at the crack of dawn to get a helicopter over Victoria falls. It was amazing! So epic to see it from above a get an idea of scale that you just cant comprehend from the ground. It was incredible. 

Afterwards we headed back to the hotel and moved into the tent. 

We then headed for a guided tour of the falls, just in case we hadn’t see enough. Our guide was great and we managed not to get as soaked as yesterday. 

Lunch was back in town in this elephant walk shopping place mum can’t get enough off. Sadly we can’t buy too much because of our small backpacks. 

The rest of the afternoon has been spent relaxing by the pool and having massages and drinking g+ts. Tonight is dinner out with the whole group before we head to Botswana tomorrow and chobe National

Park! 

(Backup) Girls on tour: taking the mothership to Africa: day 1 and 2

Following my amazing Africa adventure with Stephen, I was super keen to come back to do the next part of the overland trip, Namibia to Victoria falls. 

I was delighted when the Africa travel company had a 241 offer and managed to persuade/ bully my mother to coming with me. We found a trip in her Easter holidays going from Vic Falls down to Windhoek for 9 days, and after a few gins over Christmas, decided to book.

We flew with virgin to Johannesburg, and after some confusion at the airport managed to transfer to our South African airways flight to Victoria falls. We arrived, managed to navigate the visa system, we’re delighted to see our bags actually arrived, then successfully found the transfer to our hotel. Then we could breath. We arrived around half 2, had a quick dip in the pool and relax in the sun, then got changed for a sunset cruise along the Zambezi.

It was amazing. We boarded and got our first g + ts. As we started cursing up river we were greeted by two hippos flancing about in the shallows. We continued up street to see the beautiful sunset between Zimbabwe and Zambia. 

It was then back to our hotel for dinner and an early night. 

Day 2, we awoke early and had a completely free day. We had breakfast then decided to head on our own to the Victoria falls park a short 15 min walk down the road. 

We thought we were appropriately dressed and kitted our with waterproofs but we still got completely drenched. The falls were stunning. We walked along the opposite cliff, getting covered in spray, but completely in awe of the sheer size and volume of water. It was stunning.

We popped back to the hotel to get changed then headed to the rather fancy Victoria falls hotel, previously frequented by the royal family on multiple occasions. We were early for high tea so had a drink and a wander around the grounds. Tea was delightful and as we finished a stunning rainbow appeared under the Victoria falls bridge. 

We headed back to the hotel for our group briefing for the tour. More on that tomorrow.

Day 17: tadapani to swyauli bazar

It was a rather cold night at tadapani, but we awoke at 6 to another beautiful sunrise over the mountains. From our lodge we had a beautiful view of fish tail mountain and Annapurna 2 and 4.

We started our trek down through the beautiful rhododendron forest, again with glimpses of mountain views through the thick lush jungle. It was almost magical. It was also much more quiet than the previous day, so felt like we were the only people there. 

After a mini run in with a rouge cow, we came out the other side of the forest to the largest down we have been in all trek, ghandruk.

The town seemed huge after days of walking through villages with just a few houses. There were quite large hotels and restaurants here. We stopped for a quick cold lemon drink then continued down for another hour before lunch. 

I was noticeably much hotter today. We were trekking in the heat of the day in direct sunlight. I now have all the freckles.

After lunch we had a steep climb down to our home for the night over looking the river. We arrived early afternoon to WiFi and hot showers. I think it was the best shower I’ve had all trip so far! 

We spent the rest of the afternoon sat in the sun chatting and reading Harry Potter. Dinner was Dahl bat all round before our last night in the mountains. 

Tomorrow we head to porkhara! 

Day 16: poon hill and to tadapani

We awoke at 4am for another headtorch lead steep climb up to poon hill for sunrise. This time there was no coffee first. Because I’m slow (as I keep being reminded of by our guide) we left before everyone else and got up there in under an hour (its suppose to take 90 mins). It was a steep climb up steps, which most trekkers were sick of after the full day of uphill steps yesterday, there was a little snow on some of the trail. 

As we got to the top we wrapped up and waited for sunrise. Within 20 mins hundreds of trekkers joined us. Many people do shorter treks from porkhara just to poon hill, so there were lots of clean people around. 

The sun rose to reveal the most amazing mountain view, of the whole of the Annapurna range that we’d spent the past few weeks hiking around. It was absolutely stunning. Lots of trekkers we’d spent time with along the way were also there, so it was a lovely way of bringing us all together towards the end of our hike.

The valley below was a dense forest of rhodedendron trees, with pink flowers in bloom.

After taking all the photos, we decided to head back down to breakfast before continuing our trek for the day. 

At this stage we turned onto the Annapurna sanctuary trek and headed towards tadapani. 

The trail was stunning. A dense forest trail of ferns and rhodedendrons with glimpses of the snow capped mountains through the trees as we walked out of poon hill, a group of wild white horses were also heading up the trail. It felt like something out of lord of the rings. It was the most beautiful trail I’ve even seen. We walked passed waterfalls, rock pools, through the most beautiful tree roots. Just before tadapani we saw black faced monkeys playing in the trees. 

The teahouses on this trail aren’t quite as nice as the ones on the circuit, with lots of added costs like WiFi and hot showers, but we were joined by friends from the trail for an evening of dal baht, rum and heads up (the game). We were also reunited with some friends who didn’t make it over the pass because they got sick in manang, so we’re coming the other way. It was lovely to have a nice big group for the evening and relax together. 

Tomorrow is our last full day of trekking before we head to porkhara on Monday. 

Day 15: tatopani to ghorapani

Last night there was the most tremendous thunder storm over tatopani. The rain was so loud on the corrogated iron roof. The power also decided to switch on around 3 am ( electricity has aims of its own here, and often is non existent ). Needless to say we didn’t have the best night sleep. 

This morning was the daunting task of the biggest climb of the trip up 1750m. We started along the dust road, luckerly not too dusty because of the rain last night, then crossed a rather long suspension bridge (Stephen is not a big fan) then the climb began. And it was relentless. Steps steps steps. And every time we went a little bit down hill we moan because we knew we still had so much to climb. Luckerly the scenery was breathtaking. Lush green rice paddy fields, banana trees, and then the start of the rhododendrons. 

We had lunch at silka, half way up, and sat on a lovely rooftop. Stephen was struggling after no sleep last night. I think the cumulative nature of over two weeks of hiking is catching up with us all. Lots of us are just exhausted now and ready for a break. 

After lunch the steps up continued. It was tough. To be honest I found it a lot easier than previous climbs. I think because I’ve got fitter over the course of the trip.

We took another break for some cold lemon then put my motivational running playlist on for the final slog. Luckerly we were surrounded by rhodedendrons by this point along a beautiful trail. It was simply stunning.

We arrived through the arch that said ‘ghorapany’ only

To find it was at least another 10 mins of up before we came to our tea house. It’s much more build up

Here and a much bigger village. There are lots of people on short treks from porkhara, pushing our group of circuiteers closer together.

Tomorrow we get up to watch sun rise on poon hill with most of the people we’ve met along the way. Very exciting.  For now it’s time for an early night. 

Day 13 and 14: kagbeni to tatopani

After a fantastic night sleep in kagbeni with the most amazing food, we awoke to beautiful mountain views. 

After discussions with our guide we decided to walk to Jomsom today then get a jeep down to tatopani, as the trail was now a dusty dirt road. In exchange, after poon hill we would head into part of the Annapurna sanctuary trek.

We set of to Jomsom in a river valley, surrounded by desert, pine forests and mountains. It was really beautiful. We walked along side the river for a couple of hours before coming to Jomsom. Here we walked through the first slightly bigger village and had lunch whilst our guide found a jeep for the afternoon journey.

Despite our guide’s best efforts, he purposefully god a jeep instead of making us get the public bus because Stephen had had such a rotten time on the bus at the start.

Sadly for stephen the jeep wasn’t much better. He was sat in the back seat with 3 other people, whilst me and 3 others weee squeezed on the seats in the boot. We drove along narrow cliff side roads with a steep drop on one side. Stephen got thrown around quite a lot and really did not enjoy the journey.

On a plus, the road was so dusty, hiking along it for 3 days would have been terrible. The new trail they’ve tried to build along side has a reputation for being dangerous. So it seems despite the pain it was the best option.

We arrived in tatopani. A subtropical oasis, to our tea house with a garden full of orange trees, positioned above the ‘hot springs’. 

We had a quiet evening of good food and showers.

The next morning we awoke late for a rest day. We had a delicious breakfast then headed to the hot springs to relax. It was an interesting experience. During the course of the day lots of people we’ve met along great the way rocked up in tatopani too so by mid afternoon we were all back in the hot springs. We even had a sneaky gin and tonic.

It was great to wash clothes and relax ahead of a big hike up 1750m tomorrow. Character building.

Day 12: muktinath to kagbeni

After a less than great night sleep, despite stephen kindly lending me his super duppa sleeping bag, we started the day with an explore of Muktinath.

We were both achey and tired, with sore knees and I was up wheezing all night, thankfully Stephen had an inhaler with him. 

We hiked up to the temple of muktinath, a sight of pigrimage for both Hindu and Buddhist from around the world. Particularly bordering India and Bhutan. Our guide dependra broughta basket for the offering with us. We walked through thebeautiful grounds, and visited the main temple for a blessing from muktinath, god of nature. There were 108 fountains people when cleansing themselves under and two freezing pools in front of the temple.

We then went inside and gave our offering to muktinath, this involved dependra smashing a coconut over a rock and lighting insense. We then each received a thread necklace and a mark on our forehead. 

We then visited a second temple with a natural flame, which is suppose to burn eternally. It was a nice change for a morning. After a very late breakfast we hiked down for 2.5 hours to kagbeni. There was a new tarmac road built in the last two months we ended up walking along. Despite the road, the views were amazing. This area is know as the desert of Nepal. The surrounding area was desert and canyons with snow caped mountains in every direction. The further down we ascended the more mountains came into view. 

We then turned a corner to a beautiful green oasis below us which was the old town of kagbeni. We arrived at our lovely guest house to WiFi and warm showers, and a beautiful view down the valley. The food was also amazing. A much needed relaxed day after yesterday.