I've ever been on". It was crazy rough and wasn't helped by the fact that both Mo and my chair-backs were broken so we were leaning back at 45 degree angles while getting routinely launched and thrown from side to side as the locals threw up out the window. Thank goodness for Gravol. "...made it to Galeswor. We have an awesome guide/porter with us named Sansar.

Mar 10..."Rain and mule shit...and spectacular scenery. It hadn't rained in 6 months in Nepal until today - and it came down in buckets. Mix that in with the mule crap (there are mule trains to get supplies into some of the mountain towns) and you have great fun." We did walk 7 hours though and made it to a town called Tatapani which was set in a real "Lord of the Rings" type environment. Very neat. It has also been pretty cool to walk over several large suspension bridges today - thankfully we have yet to meet mules halfway.

Mar 11..."rain all morning, but we decided to head out anyway. We climbed around 750 vertical metres to get to Sikha and have decided to call it a day even though it is only early afternoon...a good call though as the rain is coming down in sheets now...it's now 4:30pm and the rain and clouds are lifting and we are able to see mountains for the first time - wow. From our lodge bedroom window we can see Dhualagiri - at over 8,200m one of the tallest 10 mountains in the world. And it's covered in snow, as is everything else at a slightly higher elevation than here. Oh well, that's tomorrow's challenge"

Mar 12..."some $^#& Maoist guerilla/terrorist just walked in to our lodge in Ghorepani to collect our 'voluntary donation' to their cause and the benefit of the people. I argued with him for a bit, asking how their recent bombing at a market in Pokhara really was helping the people. I also cancelled part of my dinner order in front of him, telling him I now couldn't afford it and that that would hurt the hotel owner because of him......oh boy, he just left and told Sansar to accompany him - I hope I didn't get him in trouble....oh shoooot....now he wants me to come outside too. If he doesn't kill me I think Mo will..." (I'll tell you the rest of that little story some day back in Canada :-)
.......anyway, we had a bright, clear and warm morning and climbed up to Ghorepani at 2,900m. We're here hoping to wake up at 5am tomorrow morning to climb up another 300m to see the sunrise over Dhualagiri and South Annapurna from a 360 degree viewing tower on a place called Poon Hill.

Mar 13..."5:00 is early...It was made a bit tougher due to the fact that I was walking blind in the dark with no glasses. I forgot to stock up on contact solution so I have to use my glasses alot (only enough solution for a few days) and when I start sweating (which I have seemed to do alot of) it all drips into my glasses so I can't see anyway. So, glasses in the pocket, and I walk blind until Mo or Sansar tell me there's something worth seeing...it kind of sucks. The view from Poon Hill was so worth it! We're really excited about the fact that there is snow on all the mountains - makes the walking more difficult but also makes them look that much better. I think I'm too tired to go anywhere today though....."...so...today's hike went like this - 2900m - 3100m - 2700m - 3150m - 2400m - 2600m - 2300m - 2600m......quite a workout. We stopped in Tadapani just before it started to rain (it's rained/snowed every afternoon so far) and met a great AUS couple named Matt and Athena with whom we played cards and visited all evening."
The only place to stay warm in these places is in the dining room where they either put hot coals or a blazing kerosene burner under the table (fire safety anyone?)

Mar 14..."Today we got some variety and had hail in the afternoon...sigh...we had an amazing shower at our lodge in Chhomrong today though. Just awesome. The other highlight was that we were able to watch a local volleyball game until the hail started"...Volleyball is a huge deal here in Nepal and they are awesome at it. It was pretty cool to see a court built on a hillside (surrounded by a high bamboo fence so they don't lose the ball over the edge) and a bunch of local guys who could really play. The local crowd sure has fun heckling them :-) We also met up with Matt and Athena as well as a Dutch/English group with whom we'll probably trek up to basecamp, meeting up each night for some cards and visiting.

Mar 15..."We saw an avalanche from our hotel room today. cool (becuase it was in a different valley than the one to which we're going."

Mar 16..."We're getting closer. We've climbed up to Deurali now (3200m from 1800m when we left Chhomrong). It's only 2pm so we've got some time to kill...what to write about?...it's hailing again...5:30pm...there is now 5 inches of fresh snow...7:00pm...make that 6.5 inches."

Mar 17. St Patrick's Day 2006..."We made it! we arrived safely at Annapurna Base Camp after a really tough 4.5 hour climb from Deurali that brought us up from 3200m to 4130m. The altitude was not a huge issue for us which is a real blessing as it definitely bogged down other group members. Becuase of all the snow (9 straight days here now) we have to trek single file on a path made by porters carrying food and supplies to the lodges. Anytime anyone stepped off the path they'd plunge into the snow all the way to their thigh...there is over 6 feet of snow on the ground here now....it is just awesome here! What a feeling of accomplishment! We are completely surrounded by mountains ranging in height from 5,800m to 8,100m. Sander (one of the Dutch) and I are planning to get up at 2am to try and take some photos of the moon reflecting off the snow."

Mar 18. "2am is even earlier than 5am. And it was cold. Like -15 to -20 cold. Thailand where are you?......the pics are awesome though....................however, I could never really get back to sleep and the altitude really got to me. Mo and I were both fully clothed and wearing tuques and mittens under our blankets and sleeping bags, yet the sieves they call rooms up here at base camp still let so much cold air in that I could never warm up. Also, the altitude and lack of oxygen also kept me from over being able to catch my breath. So I huddled in my bag as best I could from 2:45-4:30am before waking up at 6am to see the sunrise again...The view of the mountains here is absolutely magnificant and awe-inspiring in every sense. We had spectacular blue skies this morning against which the snow looked incredibly white...I don't really know what else to say except that we just sat there and looked around for the longest time trying to drink it all in. What an experience."
We began our descent down the mountain shortly before lunch and came across a French tour group heading up the mountain. It was disgusting to see how poorly their porters were treated...each man carrying 2 bags each of which was larger than 70L as well as another bag or box on top of that. They had no socks and wore only thin canvas shoes so were stumbling and slipping as they tried to fight their way up the steep snowy slope...I can't imagine what their night must have been like up at the cold base camp. Unfortunately, there are many many porters abused and mistreated by tourists here in this way, which is one reason why we decided to take a porter and pay him well as a way to bless him.

Mar 19 Today I felt like Sam and Frodo climbing the stairs into Mordor. To get back into the town of Chhomrong we had to climb a stone staircase from 1800m to 2400m. Straight up...but at least once we reached the top we were able to go downhill a ways to Jhinu where there were some more hotsprings. What a great way to relax after 11 days on the trail! We saw some really neat monkeys on the path down to the springs also.

Mar 20-21..........On these last two days we just kept heading back towards Pokhara and arrived back in town around noon on the 21st. We were very glad to see traffic on the roads as we approached Phedi (from where we took a bus 20km to Pokhara) as there had been a Maoist ban on all transport until Mar 20. Thankfully we made it to town when we did as later in the day several hundred heavily armed Maoists closed down traffic on that road again and demonstrated near the army checkpoint...good times in Nepal :-)

...oh yeah, one last thing re: the trek. We ate over 20 Snickers bars...we heard they were great for energy on the hill :-)