Annapurna High

 

 

It has always been a dream of mine to hike through the hills and mountains near Pokhara at the foot of the Annapurna Range in the Himalayas. To finally arrive in this corner of the world was exhilirating. We stayed in a wonderful hotel that had a balcony view of this awe-inspiring set of peaks. After climbing Sangarkot to watch the sunrise and light up the Annapurnas on the first morning, we took two day long hikes in the Pokhara hills. Both hikes involved very steep climbs for a couple of hours but the views were incredible when we reached the top. We then hiked along the ridge for a few more hours past endless terraces and fields and farmhouses and haystacks all set against the beautiful alpine backdrop. We passed people carrying incredible loads up and down the steep paths (or a chicken for supper). We were huffing and puffing up the steps just to take in a view while they were doing their daily (who knows how many kilometres) walk up and down and to and from the well or the market or the field. Everywhere people were either working in their fields or creating something in front of their small huts or farmhouses.

 

Schoolchildren were making the trek to and from their mountainside schools along the paths we were taking. We saw some children doing their homework outdoors early in the morning in the shadow of the mountains. The Everest English Boarding School is located on one of these hilltops and we got a chance to tour it after the principal invited us in. The children were so well-behaved and were completing English exams that we found to be more challenging than anything we were giving our students. They really value education here and see it as their ticket out of poverty but there are many people with degrees doing manual labour or working in tiny shops because this country doesn't have the jobs for them.

When we weren't hiking around Pokhara, we were walking through the neighbourhoods close to our hotel seeing how Nepalese people live in the city. The city had a big village feel to it with people chatting in front of fruit stalls or fixing their bicycles on the side of the road.

It was sad to leave this jewel but we will have lots of pictures to help us remember just how incredible this part of the world is. (Something tells me one of us will be back!)