longest trek

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Four day trek below the Annapurnas

Circuit, Ulleri, Gorephani, Ghandrouk

Steps going up up up

And up

The grassy terraced valleys giving way to swathes of red splashing rhododendrons

Wales with terraces

Mule trains

Steady trickle of trekkers and guides and porters

Peaks glaciers and icewalls

Crystal mornings and cloudying afternoons

Three nights of mountain village lodging

Not done anything like it before

And we went for an unambitious 4 day jaunt

[lots of folks we met were doing 10 or even 17 days]

Cos we didn’t know what we were capable of

But in the end, though it was certainly tough, we would have been fine with longer

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A heavy-breathed morning of two thousand upward steps

Taut tight calf muscles

The second day hard because we climbed for 2 hours and that was it so we had most of the day in a cold heatless Ghorepani with nothing to do but get colder

The third day fabulous... Up at 5.30 to jaunt up Poon Hill for the sunrise picking out high peak after high peak of the Annapurna Range... Fishtail mountain and more... then the updown saunter along the high ridge... then the two day descent... the flowering rhodos... the lush green moss... the vines... the waterfalls and steep river valleys... the 100 year steps... the 1000 year terraces... and the descent... rock to rock to rock to rock

The fourth day stiff... very stiff... stiffer than ever before... thighs as well as calves... lower limbs of setting concrete

All in all... a lot of hard work, some grief, one killer day, great views, 4 missed days of work on show, and a sense of achievement

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