Trekking in Nepal

 Nepal 2019

In October 2019 I traveled to Nepal to join a group of 17 Canadians going on a group trek in Nepal. The goal of the trek was to reach 4,200m (13,779.5 feet) at the Annapurna Base Camp. This is famously called the ABC trek in Nepal. The trek would last 15 days. It was a very memorable experience. 

Trekking in Nepal is rather luxurious in comparison to hiking in the Canadian Rockies as each person is assigned a porter. Your porter carries your main pack with your heaviest items. My responsibility was to carry a day pack with water, warm clothes and my camera. Each night we stayed at a tea house.  This was a small dorm style room with a bed. All our meals were eaten in a small restaurant in the tea house. So it was very luxurious hiking by Canadian standards. I did not have to carry my own gear, pitch a tent upon arrival to the camp or even cook my own food. 

The highlights of the trip were:

•  walking across many suspension bridges - the longest was 287 meters long and 135 meters high,
• drinking masala tea,
• eating dal bhat (24 hour dal bhat power - my guide's favourite saying),
• meeting locals in the mountain villages with no road access,
• visiting a local school and playing volleyball with the students,
• stunning mountain views of the Himalayas,
• attending a harvest celebration with traditional dancing and music,
• watching porters carry all of our stuff without complaint and
• watching the filming of a bollywood movie in Chhomrong.  
• trekking a total of 135km in 15 days

Each day we walked between 15-25km depending on the trail. We were very lucky with the weather and we only had one day when it rained on us in the afternoon. We always had a long lunch break with a chance to relax and take our hiking boots off. Our porters would always beat us to each tea house as they were extremely fast hikers even though they were carrying 100-120 pounds.