Trailgunner Blogs

 The Last Ride This was it. Our last day of this circuit heading back to the chaos of Kathmandu over a 7 hour long bus ride.  We checked out early, had our breakfast, cleared our dues and caught a glimpse of Annapurna from the hotel terrace and boarded our bus. This was another comfortable bus with electric fans, curtains, cushioned seats and pre-assigned seats.  During this long journey, Sonam and I reminisced about our last two weeks and were already planning our next adventure. It was a melancholic journey for sure as we headed closer and closer to modern civilization. The bus stopped at a couple of rest stops for tea and lunch before going through 3 hours of hell on dusty roads with a lot of diversions due to massive construction work. We eventually reached Kathmandu around 5pm. We bid goodbye to Jangbu and headed to our hotels. This ended a fantastic experience of the Manaslu circuit, it's culture, it's authenticity and traditions and still untouched landscapes.

 Bhimtang to Besisahar Today was the final trekking day for us and I was already feeling nostalgic about the whole trip. We were getting close to getting back to our mundane lives. The whole group was in high spirits and just wanted to have a good time till we reached Kathmandu. After our breakfast, we started around 7,30 descending from the village into the Dudh Khola. The morning was a little cloudy but it didn't bother anyone anymore. We were all used to worse weather by that time. We followed the Dudh Khola for 30 mins before stepping into the Annapurna Conservation Area. It was remarkable to see the change in scenery from alpine to stunning dense rhododendron forest within 10 mins of crossing a wooden bridge. The forest was absolutely stunning with the rhododendrons in full bloom in a variety of colours, giant oak trees with thick moss like carpet led us through this trail. It was a very long walk through this forest but very pleasurable.  After descending further down th...

 Crossing Larkye Pass We had crashed early the previous night after an early dinner, however, due to the continuous rain, I could barely get any sleep. We gathered in the dining hall at 3.30 for porridge, however, it was difficult to even eat a spoon of it. The boys I had praised so highly yesterday probably made porridge in bulk in the same vessels some of the other dishes were made and reeked of a burnt taste and smell. I could see many just leaving their bowls as is. I was anyway not hungry and was eager to get on the trail. We knew it would be a tough start as the trail would be slippery and it was still drizzling which made the vision blurry. The idea was to just follow the headlamp ahead of you and just be slow and steady till the rain stopped or the sun appeared. We left Dharamsala around 4 and the rain also started to subside. The trail began just behind our dining hall so it was easy to make progress on it. The initial climb was gentle and I was barely even looking up due ...