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.