Nepal: first post
My Himalayan adventure!
There. I did it. I sometimes tend jump in before I think but as much as I like to plan my life I like to have a few surprises around the corner.
Don’t get me wrong, I have been thinking about this adventure for a while ever since my mate Chris told me about it when he read about it somewhere.
More info on wiki: Annapurna Circuit Trek page on Wikipedia
To get to the point… I have gone ahead and my deposit down for the Annapurna Circuit trek.
I know that it’s should be slightly easier than the Kilimanjaro trek but I am 2 years older and will be 3, when I will do this trek. Plus now we have bloody COVID to deal with and potentially shit on my plans.
The plan
The trip will start from Kathmandu, Nepal after which we will drive for 5-6 hours to Besisahar where the actual trek starts. According to Wikipedia the trek is anything between 160–230 km long and I can tell you after how long it will be for me. The highest point is the (in)famous Thorong La pass at the altitude of 5,416 metres so just about where I started to have some issues on the Kilimanjaro hike in 2019.
I (in)famous pass but it’s not specifically because of the pass but in October 2014, right about the same time I will be doing the trip, there was an unseasonal snow storm that caused 43 deaths around that area. More in this wiki post https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_Nepal_snowstorm_disaster . Oh, and to add to this … none of the Nepalese airlines is allowed to fly to the EU because of safety issues.
The trek ends in Jomsom from where we take a flight to Pokhara where the overall trip ends.
Preliminary map of the trek
I won’t publish this article just yet so I don’t have to have egg on my face after I have to bloody cancel the whole thing. But I will strive not to.
New adventure ahead 😃😃
Update May 29th 2022
Today I heard that a plane has gone missing in Nepal doing the the exact same flight (allbeit in the opposite direction) I knew that Nepalese airlines are not allowed to fly to/from the EU due to their safety issues but this is a little more unsettling to hear. The flight I will be taking would be from the end of the trek in Jomsom and it will take us to Pokhara where we were supposed to stay for a couple of days. The airplane in question is a De Havilland Canada DHC-6-300 Twin Otter 9N-AET operated by Tara Air, a plane I know quite well from my skydiving times and its a very reliable piece of kit.
Now I’m not sure if Tara Air would have been the operator I would have flown on but it seems likely as its the only official operator for this route .
Sadly the following day they found the wreckage with no survivors.
https://news.sky.com/story/nepal-plane-goes-missing-with-22-people-on-board-officials-say-12623429
Further bad news… This is not the first airplane crash involving Tara Air. The Tara Air flight 193 crashed in 2016 less than 10 km from the suspected crash site of this airplane.
Tara Air DHC-6 Twin Otter 9N-AEV in Jomsom airport, image: Solundir / Wikimedia
This is the actual plane that went missing today
Tara Air DHC-6 Twin Otter 9N-AET in Lukla airport, image: Matias Trachsel, JetPhotos
External links:
- Plotted route on Komoot: https://www.komoot.com/tour/606980637
- Annapurna Circuit Trek page (Wikipedia): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annapurna_Circuit
- 2014 Nepal snowstorm disaster (Wikipedia): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_Nepal_snowstorm_disaster