Annapurna Circuit and Sanctuary

The plan was to do the Annapurna Circuit hike, and link up the end of it with the Sanctuary hike. This is a simple and common thing for people that have the time, and although I had hiked the Circuit 10 years ago with Hanno, I was looking forward to doing it again, and also of stitching on the Sanctuary hike which I had never done.

At the trailhead at Besishar though, another major difference between now and 10 years ago became disappointingly apparent. The government here has been steadily building a road further and further along the trail, from both ends of the hike, and now there is a bus from Besishar as far as Khudi.

I was thinking of getting that bus, as nobody wants to hike along a road, but the cheeky beggars were charging tourists a hefty fare. I decided to walk on a bit and flag the bus down as it passed, as I reckoned I could haggle a fair price then, but once we started walking Sarah decided she wanted to walk the entire trek, and so we didn't bother with the bus at all (and of course I greatly supported Sarah's determination, being of like mind myself, although I had hiked the circuit before so I hadn't been too bothered about getting the bus).

So although the roads the government are building are great news for the local people, who can now travel in a few hours what used to take days, it means the Annapurna Circuit will never be the same again. 10 years ago when I hiked the trail with Hanno we didn't see a single car, motorbike, or any form of a wheel for the whole 3 weeks. And that, apart from the stunning mountain vistas of course, was really one of the main highlights of the whole thing - just the feeling of getting totally away from everything, and especially from the noise and fumes of cars. The road is far more extensive on the other side of the Thorang La pass, and even if they do cut a new trail just for hikers away from the road, every time you stop for the night in a village you'll be surrounded by beeping jeeps and motorbikes. Ah well, such is progress...

Anyway, at the start of the trek, the road only runs for a few kilometers, so once we'd hiked that section I was looking forward to not seeing a car again for weeks (I didn't know at the time that the road from the other direction of the trail has reached all the way to Muktinath already!).

So all-in-all we spent 23 days hiking in the mountains, and it really was fantastic. The weather throughout was great, at times just stunningly clear, although we did have a couple of cloudy days at the start, and a couple of very hazy days in the middle and towards the end. But rather than try and recount the 23 days myself, Sarah will probably resurrect her long-dead blog and update it with the daily notes she took as we went along, which suits me nicely.

Although I suppose I should mention one of the days hiking, day 6, April the 19th in fact...