This morning we were up and ready to leave by 8.00am as wewere trekking to the Australian Camp on the Annapurna Circuit. We drove for about 1 ½ hours to reach a smallvillage over very bumpy roads. They areconstructing the road so there is a lot of dust and rocks. It will eventually be the road to China. We reached a small village and picked up oursleeping bags or rather a porter carried them on a strap around his head!Picked up our bamboo walking poles and began our ascent. And we kept going up and up and up andup!! It was challenging especially forLexie who had developed a head cold overnight and was finding it difficult tobreathe.
We stopped at a small village after a couple of hours wherewe watched some incredibly huge eagles flying about us! It was amazing. We also watched some ladies have rocks loadedonto baskets on their backs that were supported around their heads. They were building a new path. I asked Anup if I could take pictures ofthem. He said he had mixed responseswhen he asked them. Two were worriedthat they were wearing their ‘working’ clothes and if I put it on Facebooktheir sons might see!
We continued up and up and up again finally stopping at thevillage of Damphus for lunch. Youwouldn’t believe it, but the children had deep fried mars bars and snickershere!!
Again, we started more up hill bits!! By this stage Lexie was quite tired (as weall were) but she has decided to move bedrooms again, so the talk ofredecorating kept her going.
Our weary bunch finally arrived at the Australian Camp about5pm. Unfortunately, the clouds were in,so we couldn’t see as much of the Annapurna Range as we had hoped but it wasstill incredible being close to the mountains.
The camp had been booked out by 30 Japanese tourists whowere all very friendly and wanted to take our pictures. This meant we were in tents for thenight. Much to Lexie’s delight they hadalready been put up!! We mainly stayedin the dining room as it was cold by this stage and the children were thrilledthat we could connect to the Wi-Fi – I couldn’t believe it! We were all into our sleeping bags early.
Up at 6.30 the next morning to see the sunrise. We were not having much luck with weather andthe mountains were still covered in cloud. The sun struggled to get through the clouds, but we thought you couldsee a bit more than we had seen last night. Anyway, it looked spectacular to us.
After a light breakfast we packed up and started our hikedown the other side for about 1hr 15 mins. From here we were picked up and driven back to Pokhara which took about2 hours over very bumpy roads. Arriving back,we checked into our hotel, arranged for some washing to be done (plenty oflaundry service here) and then taken for lunch at a Mediterranean restaurantoverlooking the lake. We were encouragedby Anup to try a Mediterranean steaming pipe. We had mixed results and lots of laughs.!!
By now Lexie was ready for a rest and we took her and Becback to hotel while the rest of us went to the largest peace stupa in Nepal(more climbing of steps) it was impressive and so were the views overPokhara. From here we came back to theLake and hired a boatman to take us around the Lake. It was lovely, and we saw some Cormorants,monkeys, an owl and kingfisher before returning to our hotel.
Tonight, we were taken out to dinner and a culturalshow. It was pleasant, but I thinkeveryone is a bit tired after a couple of big days. Emma has now got a cold too. We were able to pick up cold tablets at alocal pharmacy. A bargain at 30 for90c. Everyone is now tucked up in bed,the washing was collected, and we will be leaving at 8.00am tomorrow.
Brake Family Adventures 