Annapurna day 1
It was only two days before I was due to set off on the Annapurna Circuit Trek, that I acquired a trekking companion by the name of David. We organised our permits the day before and gathered the last few essentials for our cold hike through the Himalayas.
The morning of the trek we dropped our excess bags to reception for storage and took our other backpacks with us to last us the 17-20 days. My bag was tiny (15L daypack) but I seemed to have the essentials and anything else I needed hung off the back of the pack. It sat comfortably on me and I was happy with having only this to carry on the long trek even if I did have to sacrifice a few things.
We took a cab to the Gongobu bus station and took a local bus for the 6hour journey to Besisahar where we would take the optional walk to Bhulebule instead of bussing or taking a jeep like a lot of tourists were now doing. We'r on a trek after all. We walked from Besisahar through rice paddys and small villages filled with smiling faces- typical in Nepal and eventually met a lovely local guest house owner by the name of Hari. He invited us to stay at his guest house 'The Hilton' in Nghadi which was 40 mins walk from Bhulebule and after chatting with him and how i reminded him of his recently deceased daughter we couldn't help but warm to him. We walked along muddy roads, down a long dark tunnel and up a 'steep' hill before arriving at Nghadi where his family welcomed us. We had agreed to eat all our meals at his guest house so our room was free in return (something pretty common on these types of treks and with it being low season it seemed very easy).
We were given a basic but cosy room with two beds and the lovely family which included Hari, his wife and their grandchildren were a joy to be around. We watched some TV and drank homemade rice wine (to help us warm up and sleep well) in the small makeshift lounge while Hari's wife cooked up a storm in the kitchen area even though she wasn't feeling very well (David gave her some medication for her cold & flu). We were then presented with a huge portion of Dal Bhat (Typical Nepalese dish of rice, lentil curry, pickles, potatoes etc) with more and more helpings to keep us full all evening. We enjoyed some more time with the family before heading off to bed to get a good rest for our big trek the next morning. We planned a 5/6hr hike to get to Ghermu which would take us up to 1130 metres above sea level and considering our trek would reach heights of around 5,500 metres we knew this would just be the start of it. Day one was done and dusted and it was such a great day filled with baby goats, chicks and an evening that just fell into place.
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