World's Best Hikes: Part 2 - Nepal

In part 2 of our new World’s Best Hikes series, 83-year-old inspirational adventurer, Pat Boys, looks back on her experience of trekking in Nepal to celebrate her 80th birthday.

What to do in my eightieth year?

A trip to Nepal, obviously, but then what? A brainwave - how about doing my three favourite treks in one fell swoop? although five to six weeks of trekking was a little daunting to say the least. Still, full of enthusiasm, I sent an email to Madu, (my trekker in crime) to ask him if he thought I could do it. The answer was short and to the point - why not?

I arrived in Nepal in mid-March and spent the normal three days in Kathmandu, catching up with old friends. Then, the long bus ride to Pokhara, which is always spent in gleeful anticipation. We spent another three days sorting out trekking visas and transport to the trail head of the Annapurna circuit, the Annapurna Base Camp and finally Mardi Himal, if I hadn’t run out of gas. We began rather comfortably by hiring a car and driver to take us to Bessisar. We were then in limbo, waiting for our porter Neema who was coming straight from Kathmandu having got back the day before from an Everest trip – I should worry. Unfortunately, he was held up by the vagaries of Nepal travel and we lost a day. But Neema is an old friend and worth waiting for and we decided to pay for a jeep to take us to our kick-off point – Gharipani.

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It would take six hours and we would arrive after dark but would make up the lost time. We arrived shaken and stirred and made an instant pact – never again! The road building is developing ever upward and it is getting difficult to find the original trails and to enjoy staying in the old villages and small tea houses. The road has become a very controversial topic, with most guides and guesthouse owners in the lower villages regretting the old way of trekking. Now, visitors just want to get as high as possible on four wheels instead of two feet which I feel is sad for all concerned. After my own experience in the jeep my advice is keep walking – more comfortable and less dangerous. The snowline was much lower than in previous years and even at this level it was extremely cold – thank goodness for down bags and woolen hats.

The next day it seemed like a good idea to complete two days trekking in one day and build up a bit of spare time, just in case the going got rough. It proved to be a rather ambitious eighteen miles with a lot of ups and downs and when we finally reached our goal I could have kissed the frozen ground. Our trip impressed the villagers and sure impressed the hell out of me. Next stop was Manang, an oasis in the middle of a mountain desert, and trekkers are advised to spend two nights here to start the acclimatization to the altitude.

Manang is almost a small town and boasts many coffee shops which serve huge chunks of chocolate cake or apple pie. If you have any energy left there is also the offer of free condoms in a box outside of the post office. On the spare day it is advisable (so they say) to climb to a greater height and then return to sleep at a lower level and pig out on the aforementioned chocolate cake and a cappuccino. We met a young Australian girl here who was using the area and the pass as a rehearsal for Everest and K2 the following year. Ironically, she was suffering from altitude sickness and had to descend from the pass. It can obviously happen to the best of us.

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The next day saw us at the base camp of the Thorung La. There was a lot of snow and ice and a very crowded Guest House, due to the Pass having been closed for several days because of the heavy snow. I was intrigued by the diversity of nationalities here, all waiting to go and play in the snow. A conservative count produced Australian, Belgian, French, Spanish, Italian, American, Israeli and a lass from Yorkshire.

There was a general exodus at 0400 hours the next morning - the aim being to get the steepest part done before the sun starts to melt the snow. It is quite a sight to watch a long line of head torches floating upwards in the darkness. Once started, it is imperative to get over the top and down to the first village at the bottom of the other side as there are no guest houses on route. This was definitely my most difficult crossing. The arrival at the top and seeing the tea hut was like all my Christmases and Birthdays rolled into one.

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The following 3-day descent was spent rather pleasantly eating and judging the best cakes. There is an unbelievable number of “German Bakeries” in even the smallest villages. No one seems to know why. We finally reached Tatapani, meaning hot water and indeed the natural springs are very hot. Navigation suddenly became interesting as we were crossing from one area to another and relying mostly on the locals, which worked well and enabled us to make use of a lot of shortcuts, although some were rather obscure and were tackled heart in mouth. One of these days was my nemesis. The ideal overnight stop was reached at midday but I insisted that we carry on - this from a trekker who believes you should always listen to your guide and the locals. We finally reached the next stopover at 1800 hours so had been trekking for twelve hours. My hero went to hunt for coffee whilst I sat on my bed and cried. Madu was rather perplexed until I told him that “I am too f*****g tired to take my f*****g boots off”. That’s no problem he says, “Madu will take the f*****g boots off”. I realized then that not only was I teaching him to speak English with a Yorkshire accent but was throwing in a bit of Anglo Saxon for good measure.

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Chomrong was the beginning of our next trek to Annapurna Base Camp. This village is an old favourite and boasts yet another German Bakery. where I was treated to an early birthday cake sporting eight lit matches, (no candles). I am glad they didn’t use eighty matches or we might have burnt the whole place down.

Apart from watching several helicopter rescues, the trek up to ABC was fairly uneventful and we made good time. The guest house was almost buried in snow which looked very beautiful, but made for interesting night visits to the loo. We met a Chinese mother and her young son who was being educated at a private school in Bath. ABC used to be called the Annapurna Sanctuary Trek which describes it perfectly as you are completely surrounded by snow clad peaks which makes for wonderful sunsets and sunrises when the sky is clear.

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Unfortunately, this is pretty much a one-way trek, so we had to run the gamut of German bakeries yet again. It was a sad feeling to be making for the third and final trek but the navigation across country was interesting to say the least. Once again we took a lot of shortcuts, (and made several mistakes), but eventually we reached one of my favourite stops, a flower covered guest house run by an ex-Gurkha and his family. Here the food is wonderful and the shower is always boiling hot, (ouch!). The final push for the Mardi Himal was started with both sadness and elation, nothing was going to stop me now if I had to crawl.

Base camp was a big celebration with old friends plus a snickers bar, omelettes and hot chocolate. It was here at the Paradise Guest house that I realized how obsessed one becomes about food - usually the things you would never eat at home but taste heavenly in the mountains.

The last few days were spent meandering down through the foothills and tea gardens. We even watched “Miss Nepal“ on someone’s TV, but never discovered who won because we fell asleep. As we had promised we were back in Pokhara for the Nepali New Year. I felt that all the celebrations were just for me. To round off my epic journey I had a surprise visit from an American girl I had met the previous year on the Annapurna Circuit. Audrey was on the Langtang trek when she heard someone talking about this white-haired English woman doing three treks. Guessing it was me, she made a phone call to my hotel to confirm it was and then flew to Pokhara as a surprise. I have to admit that the beer and wine flowed freely and it was a rather fitting end to my adventure.

I always leave Nepal full of gratitude to the families who have made me so welcome into their homes but on this trip, I had so much help from people that I will probably never see again and I found that my thoughts were a mixture of thankfulness and sadness.

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Pat Boys lives in the Yorkshire Dales National Park and has been interested in trekking and outdoor adventure throughout her life. She annually walks over 2000 miles on local trails and plans to return to Nepal as soon as international travel restrictions are completely lifted.

Photos: Pat Boys

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