Annapurna Circuit Trek

This page has links to pages that describe an amazing experience — a trek around the Annapurna mountain range in Nepal. At the bottom of this page are pages keyed to the days of the journey. When you visit a page, please be patient as the images may take a while to load. I put quite a few images on each page. You can move from day to day during the trek by clicking the “NEXT” button at the bottom of each page.

These pages are much more a personal photographic journal than a travel guide. But if others enjoy reading them and seeing the photos, that is great.

This slide show has some of the highlights, but please be sure to visit the individual pages. You can click the center to pause this slide show, or any of the slide shows, and step through the photos at your own pace with the arrows on the side.

On the return trip from Nepal in April, 2011, I pulled out a blank book I had purchased at my favorite store, Folk Nepal, and wrote, “Bravely charging forward, like our grueling climb over the Thorung La pass, I go longhand without benefit of a word processor. Maybe it’s a way to kill over 4 hours in Paris, or maybe this will result in a longish recounting of a wonderful third trek in Nepal. I hope my words, inspired by Kim and based on scratched notes during the trip, will be worthy of this Nepali handmade paper by Mahagnthi from Daphne Bush (Lokta paper) grown between 6500 and 9500 feet. In any case the purchase of this journal will help support disadvantaged Nepali women and children.”

That was a long start so I’ll keep this paragraph short.

The high points for me (the first literally) included: the hike over Thorung La starting before dawn, Kagbeni, old town Manang, Upper Pisang, and Marpha. Plus no cold (first for Nepal) or illness of any kind, except for 2-1/2 days dealing with a very sore left calf which I finally figured out how to manage thanks to help from Keg. Low points were Muktinath, a noisy, dusty town after the pass, and the long (over 30 hours each way) travel time to and from Katmandu.

As on the previous two treks, Chhongba was a wonderful, caring, and knowledgeable guide, and the four sherpas (Mingmar Sherpa, Pasang Sherpa, Mingmar Dorji Sherpa, and Nabin K.C.) were helpful and fun. The six porters were a friendly and cheerful lot, even though they carried considerable weight up and down some long “hills”.

1 Flights to Katmandu and arrival
2 Touring Kathmandu and Patan
3 Trip to Besi Shar
4 Besi Shar to Bahundanda
5 Bahundanda to Jagat
6 Jagat to Dharapani
7 Dharapani to Chame
8 Chame area acclimatization day
9 Chame to Pisang
10 Pisang to Manang
11 Manang acclimatization day
12 Manang to Yak Kharka
13 Yak Kharka to Thorung Phedi
14 Thorung La
15 Muktinath to Jomson via Kagbeni
16 Jomson and Marpha
17 Fly to Pokhara
18 Pokhara & Kathmandu
19 Bhaktapur
20 Kathmandu
21 Faces of Bhaktapur
22 Faces of Kathmandu