Our family trekking adventure in the Himalayas

Checking the route with his new torch

You can’t really come to Nepal without trekking. Whenever I speak to people about their visits to Nepal, one of the first questions that invariably arises is “Which trek did you do?”  So we figured that it would be a logical progression from the one day treks we did in Patagonia to extend ourselves to something longer and, because these are the Himalayas, after all, higher. 

We chose the Ghorepani circuit, potentially getting us up close to the Annapurna range. May is not a great time to visit, with pre-monsoon rains shrouding the mountains in clouds for most of the day, but nevertheless we hoped for glimpses that would make the walking worthwhile. And Poon Hill, the high point, at just over 10,000 feet would be a great milestone for the boys, with little risk of altitude sickness that could arise higher up.

The investment in warm clothing proved thankfully cheap - four double strength fleeces and full length poncho-style waterproofs for about £30 all in, plus lots of chocolate bars, dried fruit and nuts and granola bars for energy - and encouragement  - on the trek.

Some nagging thoughts occurred to us before we left: Would the boys be up to it? Five days is very different to a one-day trek after all.  Would Frankie’s trainers hold out as he’d outgrown his walking shoes? How would we cope with the leeches? Would the boys just be bored and want to leave? Would we get any views at all, given the persistent cloud cover?  

With Ratna, our guide on board, we left Pokhara on a 90 minute car journey to the start point at Nayapul, sitting at an altitude of about 1000 metres. It was raining as we started and probably the only time we all used our waterproofs, ironically, given we’d been warned to expect permanent heavy cloud and daily pre-monsoon storms.  The timing was such that we walked less than an hour before our first meal! 

Yummy cake!

Day 1 was about 4 hours uphill to Hile (Heel-lay) at 1460 metres. We stopped here in a little tea-house, a mere £2 per night, providing you have dinner with them.  You pay a bit of a premium whilst you are trekking, but £10 for a meal for 4 is still pretty reasonable. Over dinner of egg vegetable noodles, I explained to Ratna, our guide, the story of Gerald Ratner and his business that failed after his prawn sandwich comments.  He explained that “Ratna” ironically means “fine jewellery” in Nepali. After we’d finished, we got talking to an American couple who were at the end of the Annapurna Circuit after 16 days. Suddenly a big chocolate cake was brought out, by their guides as a thank you.  Louis and Frankie were practically drooling, so the couple decide to offer them some!  

The shared bathrooms - well what do you expect for £2 - western toilets? Cockroaches provided in the sink at no extra charge.  They took off with that deep-pitched buzz that warns you that something big and probably not very agile is flying towards you. The boys were amazed that they actually stayed up in the air at all.  

We found a room with four beds - and not much else - but it did the job. The rooms proved surprisingly bug-free, given the wide gaps between the walls and the ceiling, with the exception of one spider that woke Jules up as it crept across her face, shot across her pillow and disappeared behind the bed!  We could tell the boys were tired - Frankie fell asleep while doing his bedtime Kindle read. 

We’d read about the dreaded steps we faced the following morning from Tikhedunga to Ulleri - apparently 3,760 of them to take you from about 1,500 metres to 2,100 metres over a fairly short distance.  We began the climb about 30 minutes after setting out from Hile.  The steps were very uneven and slippery and we were often near sheer edges and drop-offs that you wouldn’t want to drop off. The boys would occasionally say something like “Are these steps ever going to end?” or “What are we climbing all these steps for?” At this point the reassurance of spectacular views wasn’t really meaningful to them, so we’d focus more on what we were going to eat from our ample supply at the next rest stop. 

The boys pace was influenced by their conversation.   If the boys got talking to each other, perhaps about which video game they were going to get next on the IPAD, as we’d promised them one each if they complete the trek - then they would tend to walk on up a little faster. If we got talking as a group or playing a game - we have quite a few games for long walks/bus rides/car journeys that we’d gathered this year - then it was more likely we could keep the group a little less strung out.  We enjoyed the ‘In my grandmother’s suitcase’ game as we’d had a couple of alphabet’s worth of things that we made up last September in Brazil that every now and again we’d see if we could still remember. Frankie nails it every time.

As we approached half way, we had a rest stop and Jules and I weren’t surprised that our shirts were pretty soggy, (as Louis thoughtfully pointed out.)  The boys weren’t even sweating at all.

As we continued our climb upwards - we needed to get to Ghorepani for the second night, at 2810 metres - our attention turned variously to passing horses, buffalo, Nepali people carrying inordinate amounts of weight - such as a chap with four long concrete posts -  and the occasional other trekkers with their guides. 

After lunch at Ulleri, and a celebration of completing all those steps, we headed on to climb the same height again, but at least it was spread out over a longer distance, so it didn’t feel as steep. Louis and Frankie were very matter of fact and got on with the walk, and it was only as we approached the end, nine hours after we’d started that day, that there were a few “How much further” type questions;  At one point we had a ‘balloon debate’ about the point of trekking.  Not surprisingly the boys were both against while I was proposing in favour! At this point, we still hadn’t seen any mountains, but had definitely seen plenty of clouds very close up - in fact you could literally see them passing right in front of you.

We settled in early at our tea-house in Ghorepani for our second night, knowing that we’d have a 4.45am start, if the weather looked reasonable, for a 4 km round trip that would take us to Poon HIll, 400m higher at 3,210m (as high in metres as Scafell Pike, the highest mountain in England, is in feet!) Ratna woke me up and we assessed the situation. It looked very cloudy, but we figured we might get some breaks and we agreed to leave at 6am. It wasn’t the most popular of our trekking decisions with the family, but half way to Poon Hill, we turned and saw our first glimpse of Annapurna South, between the thinning clouds, it was almost as if we’d seen a spaceship!  
“Wow, Daddy, look at that mountain and there’s another one beside it” - that was Annapurna 1, the 8th highest mountain in the world.  And then a few moments later, Frankie chimed in

First glimpse of Annapurna South.....

“.......And Daddy, look, you can see a bit of Dalgoolie” referring to Dhaulagiri, the 7th highest mountain at over 8,100m.  We carried on up, frequently looking around, buoyed by the sights we’d seen.  Although we got to the tower - Frankie was actually running when we passed the “15 minutes to go” sign - the thicker cloud had set in, so whilst there were no views from Poon Hill, we satisfied ourselves with congratulating the boys on becoming members of the prestigious 10,000 feet trekking club, by virtue of reaching the top. 

It was the geographical high point of the trek in distance, but the emotional one was to come later that morning, when we enjoyed some fabulous views of the same mountains and more from the Duerali Pass. Clear, snowy peaks set against blue sky, with clouds beneath them making them almost island-like.  And over to the right, Machapuchare, the sacred, unclimbed ‘Fishtail mountain.’  We spent at least 30 minutes at this rest stop, taking it all in.  At one point, Louis remarked contemplatively, as he gazed across to the mountains, “I could stay up here all day.”   It was as if in that moment he understood what all the walking was all for. We walked about 7 1/2 hours in all that day, including the 1 1/2 hours pre-breakfast excursion to Poon Hill. 

Annapurna South.......

The boys admiring Dhaulagiri

Yes, that's how far we've climbed!

Great view of Dhaulagiri - so lets all look the other way then!

The Annapurna Range

Bit of a squeeze that night......

The third night we stayed at Tatapani and enjoyed some wonderful early morning views of Machapuchare.  From there the remaining two days trekking were much easier as the altitude fell away, and we ended with a short Jeep ride to Nayapul and then on back to “normality” in Pokhara. 

The trek had been demanding - because of the sheer altitude of the first couple of days; revealing - because it proved the boys were fitter than us; and ultimately rewarding - because of the memorable views of these awesome mountains. 

And whilst there had been some doubts beforehandand as to whether this was a good plan or not, we all agreed we were very pleased we did it. And it will give the boys a reference point against which to measure future tough challenges - if I did THAT then surely I can do THIS!

Machhapuchare at dawn

Yippee!  We made it down again......