Pradeep visits England :o)

Pradeep, who I knew from Nepal, came to London on business, and we spent an evening sightseeing on the London Eye... luckily it was the only day in weeks that wasn't pouring with rain, or blowing gale force winds, so we had some nice views! London at night is pretty... and the planes flying overhead and coming into land at Heathrow reminded me in an odd way that I am living in England and not just flying in for a minibreak...

Houses of Parliament from the eye

The London eye

London sky

Pradeep and I

Ant and I... in the eye (pod? hahaha... oh the wit)

Pradeep, me, Ant and the Nadj in Bumbles restaurant (Victoria)... after the 3 courses for £10 bargain meal deal...

Introducing... Peanut

This is Peanut... our house seems to have adopted him (although I am not sure how long for)... he has been sitting outside for several months to no avail, but now we finally relented and he is being fed, snuggling on beds, and using the cat flap, and generally prancing around like he owns the house... which technically speaking he does as he used to live here, but his real owners moved about a year ago and now cant seem to make him stay at their new house... they have come round to collect him several times on request, but appeared to not be too bothered about it all... which is strange as he is cute and very fluffy!

Peanut tries to find Ted's legs under the duvet

It's been a while

I have not been good at all at doing this since I returned to England... but I thought I might have a go at updating things... got a few things to write about... at the same time I will upload some more arty photos onto FlickR.

I was traumatised by momos just before Christmas. (L-R) Me, Marky Boy, Ed, Nadj, Lizzie, Gaz and Ant met up for a Nepali reunion at the 'Ghurka Chef' a Nepali restaurant in Winch. Ant and I shared Thukpa and Momos... I think in Nepal this costs less than £1... here it was £10 for each. CRAZY. It was very traumatic.
On Christmas Day, the aging pampered Princess HRH Mimi the 1st enjoyed a most glorious cat nip pet toy from pets at home...

After Christmas there was a trip to Kew Gardens where I got overly excited about the temporary Henry Moore exhibition of HUGE sculptures that seemed to frame all sorts of things interestingly... have uploaded more photos onto Flickr...

Spot the orange boy

There were also some plants...

Big Blue Kathmandu has been out and about a bit since his glorious (visa-less) entry into England. Char and I got properly muddy in Winch and then he went on a minibreak to York, where he was able to enjoy the delights of a blue run (easy) at a special mountain biking park. Next time we might try a red run... The photo below shows some of my minions fixing a puncture (2 in one weekend)... I should note however that I can actually fix a puncture myself... however when one has staff why bother...

Ant and I then decided to camp in a tent in the Peak District for New Years. No one I spoke to before about this plan thought it was a good idea... and I don't actually have a photo of the HUGE tent to prove we did it... however here is Ant in his sleeping bag... looking cold. Actually it wasn't really too cold, not freezing temperatures anyway. However it wasn't warm in the tent, well it was... but only after I was wearing about 5 layers of clothing and was in my uber thick down sleeping bag... but we is hard core init. We even made our own food. Below is a variation on Chris Cowan's bean stew... Temperatures inside the tent were not particularly conducive to staying awake until mid-night to celebrate new years... so we opened our mini bottle of carva at about 7pm... how exciting. The walk up Kinder Scout on New Years eve was worth it... despite some navigation issues (even with a GPS)... I took loads of bleak winter leafless tree photos (see flickr) and generally enjoyed being outside up a hill...

Path along the top of Kinder Scout

Short diversion through boggy chasm

Encounter with sheep - Upper Booth

Lost

Was in London last week near the London Eye, and I realised I was back in England... or at least it hit me properly... surrounded by landmarks like the Houses of Parliment and the London Eye with the planes overhead coming into land at Heathrow I suppose I couldnt stay in denial for much longer... was kind of overwhealmed a bit... then a street musician busker bloke started playing Bob Marley 'no woman no cry'... and I liked the words... and recovered my sanity ;o)

Good friends we have, oh, good friends weve lost
Along the way.

In this great future, you cant forget your past;

So dry your tears, I seh.

ere, little darlin, dont shed no tears:
No, woman, no cry.

Everythings gonna be all right!
Everythings gonna be all right, now!
Everythings gonna be all right!

So, woman, no cry;
No - no, woman - woman, no cry.
Woman, little sister, dont shed no tears;
No, woman, no cry.

Recently I have mostly...

Recently I have been mostly...

Loosing Miffy in a London hotel and having to do the email of shame to ask them if they could locate and send back my fluffy toy rabbit. Which happily to all concerned they did.

Miff was then reunited with his glorious Mongolian wrestling hat courtesy of Sadie, Brian and Nig.

On bonfire night... which for non British readers is when we Brits celebrate the foiling of the Gunpowder Plot of 5th November 1605, when Guy Fawkes tried (unsuccessfully) to blow up the Houses of Parliament. Mr Guy Fawkes was later hung for his crimes and we now celebrate by lighting bonfires and fireworks etc.
So the Nadj and I mostly made a chocolate bonfire cake with marzipan 'guys' (recipe courtesy of Hil's mum)...

Sparklers greatly added to the general marvel of the cake.
Last week orangeboy was mostly sending me corporate orange flowers...
Yesterday we mostly made mincemeat for mince pies... it was a highly domestic activity...

ABC

So I thought I should write a blogedy blog about the trek The Nadj and I did to Annapurna Base Camp (or ABC as they say)... I have put some photos up on flickr... but I think here I will try to write a bit about each day with some classy photos of the Nadj and I.

Map's first - Click to enlarge

Map 1 - Kathmandu in relation to Pokhara

Map 2 - Our route to ABC is marked in red. Places we stopped over night are marked with green dots. We started at Nayapul and ended in Dhampus Pedi.

Day one: Nayapul (1025m) to Ghandruk (1940m)

Setting out... it was flat (that didn't last long)! Madhu our guide always carried an umbrella to protect her from the sun... made it feel like we were just going for a stroll in the park rather than up a mountain...

Mt Machhapuchhre (fish tale) is barely visible in the far distance. During the trek we got right up close to it.Beautiful waterfall

(Extra large) cucumber breakEnd of the flat and we start to climb up the valley towards Ghandruk

School children run up the steps to get home from school. The trekking route is pretty well surfaced with steps etc for a lot of the route. In other, less touristy parts of Nepal children have significantly harder, rougher paths to walk on to get to school.Landslide has washed away the bridge... this temporary bridge was really not much more than a couple of logs. Our porter Sunita leads the way... The Nadj follows...

Mini break...Ghandruk... end of day one... already the mountains seem a lot closer!

Day two: Ghandruk (1940m) to Chhomrong (2170m)

Setting out bright and very early.

Walking along towards the mountains... it was so incredibly beautifulOur guide and porters (L-R): Madhu, Sunita and Purna. We organised it all with 3 Sisters Trekking Agency who specialise in supporting women to train as porters and guides. In Nepal women are so marginalised and trodden on it seems a great idea... and our people were fandabulous... keeping us going when we were tired, leading the way, and generally being friendlynice!

Donkeys are used to carry provisions for the tea houses on the first part of the trek before it gets too high.At Chhomrong it was time for a cup of tea... in a British mug... of course

Day three: Chhomrong (2170m) to Himalaya (2920m)

My aren't I the tanned one... fear not I put the legs away after their pastiness was mocked ;o)

Lots of steps... both up and down... even tho our altitude increased each day it was VERY up and down... but I suppose overall up...The Nadj heads up the valley towards ABC

Getting closer to Mt Machhupuchre

I never travel without my Molton Brown products you know... behind me is the bathroom... luxury bucket of course.Our abode at Himalaya

Day four: Himalaya (2920m) to ABC (4130m)

Small caty joins me for breakfast porridge. I looked concerned.

Sunita crosses precarious bridge

The scenery started getting a lot more craggy, wild and moor-likebut the mountain valleys were beautiful!

Nearing the top... 1 hour to go... The Nadj's boots had been practically killing her, but like all true legends she soldiered on.Made it!

Except oh no the guest house is up a small hill behind the sign... grrr

High altitude volleyball match as ABC...Aitana and The Nadj enjoy many biscuits courtesy of Tomaz Humar... random Slovenian climber we met at ABC who told us (darling snort snort) many tales of climbing... and tried unsuccessfully to buy us beer... instead we opted for biscuits... and so we got very many...

Day five: ABC (4130m) to Bamboo (2335m)

Early morning at ABC, and we awake to 360 degree views of some of the highest mountains in the world... Annapurna 1 (8091m), Annapurna 3 (7555m), Annapurna South (7219m) etc. etc.

Nadj found time to read (the cover) of Glamour magazine... her footwear testament to its advise perhaps?Of course I was (as ever) the height of glamour... it was COLDOn the way down it was time for a powernap to sleep off the altitude heaviness in my head...

The Nadj joined in too...

Day six: Bamboo (2335m) to Jhinu (1740m)
This day is known as the day we conquered the steps of death, doom, despair and despondance. A long steep down and up which we did in reverse on day 3... however it seemed somewhat worse going back...

A fraction of the millions of steps we must have trudged up... and down... and down is pretty hard going on your knees and legs when you just keep on going and going and going steep down!
Some did the steps carrying huge bags and wearing flip flops - who says you need goretex walking boots? Many of the larger trekking groups loaded the porters up like this... obviously these guys are legends and/or desperate for money... but sure to develop chronic back and neck problems I would think...

Some (The Nadj) appeared to do the steps disguised as a hunch back.Some used traditional Nepali baskets to carry their goods up the hill... not a rucksack... more of a head sack as you balance it over your head. Some carry gas cylendars in their baskets... you know something light... The Nadj and I obviously could have carried 10 of these if we had wanted to.

Some (naming no names) developed sweaty arses... this photo is in tribute to Callum who is a leader in these matters. Then it was time to enter the hot springs and wash... which we hadn't done for a while... we were careful to follow the instructions on the sign and not use soup in the springs... shame as we had taken some cupasoup with us...Then we had to wash some clothes... as they stunk tooThe Nadj recarged on a deep fried Snickers. Yum???

Day 7: Jhinu (1740m) to Pothana (1900m)

Nearing the end... a long darstedly bridge had to be crossed

Back to the hills and rice fields...A lovely rainbow

Day 8: Pothana (1900m) to Dhampus Pedi (1130m)
The final day... and this was easy... a short flat stroll and then steeply downhill... and a short drive back to Pokhara in time for lunch!

Early morning Mt Machhupuchre

Mountains and valley all spread out in front of usGetting lower...

The final (and very steep) decent down to Dhampus Pedi... the trek's end was right at the bottom of the picture by the river and road.