24 December 2008
An early start in the dawn light meant a constant uphill walk. We had our first break at the top of the steep climb with the weather heating up. After about 4 hours we had a lunch stop which ended all too soon before yup, you guessed it even more uphill at an even greater incline. The walk was across valleys with no memorable level or downhill steps.
Purna and Indra stuck b y me on the long slow haul. We finally got close to Ghorepani and the weather started to get really cold and darkened considerably. SB had already made4 it to the lodge, when he came and walked back to motivate me and get me across the line.
The lodge was huge and very full as this was the crossing place for those changing over to the Annapurna Sanctuary and Poon Hill treks.
The room we had was freezing so I jumped in the shower and Scott ordered some blankets while I waited for my bag to arrive. As usual Scott’s bag was the first to arrive as Purna is always the first porter to get to each lodge.
We headed to the dining room to order food and had some great popcorn. There were quite a few others starting to gather so we grabbed a large table and started to have a few Christmas drinks. Miranda spotted a bottle of Bombay Sapphire and due to the lack of tonic we resorted to a bottle of sprite to help with the massive gin portions and by the time dinner arrived we were all on the way to being merry.
The Japanese contingent started off the festivities with a Christmas carol and huge supply of balloons. The music was then turned on and our table of Australian/English were the loudest and caused much amusement to the porters who hadn’t really seen us let our hair down so far. After such a huge day of walking it was nice to relax a bit.
SB and I waited and celebrated Xmas on Perth time before heading to bed. Missing out some of the action later and judging by the loud singing it wasn’t such a bad idea.