mountaineering

Getting ready for the trip to Morocco

Getting ready for the trip to Morocco

First post

Atlas mountains (Shutterstock) This is a trip I have been thinking about for a while. But I didn’t just want to drive to an airport and fly to Morocco. I wanted to use my favourite transport mode - my beloved motorcycle. And the KTM Super Adventure is well up for the task. I have only made a very approximate plan of my route but it would basically look something like this: ride to Folkestone, Channel Tunnel to Calais, then ride through France but not planning to stop much.
Nepal: last post

Nepal: last post

Cave In to finish off the adventure

Caught the airport shuttle from the hotel which actually turned out be my first trip in an electric car. Weird considering where I was. The flight to Doha, Qatar and then to London, Heathrow was boring and uneventful. My bug that I had a few days ago made a comeback though and by the time I arrived at the hotel at Heathrow T4 I was pretty much feeling it again.
Bhaktapur

Bhaktapur

The ancient city. On crutches

Yesterday was spent visiting the local temple in Kathmandu called Swayambhu or Monkey temple in English. Today I decided to venture out further. A friend recommended I see this ancient city with some wonderful architecture. The place is called Bhaktapur and it is about 20-30 min out of Kathmandu. I ordered a proper taxi this time. Even with Kathmandu temperatures at about 25°C it was pretty chilly on the bike the previous day when it was warmer.
Kathmandu

Kathmandu

Exploring the temples

Had a rather chaotic return to Kathmandu as I had to find a taxi and as I came out the domestic terminal there was not much of accommodation for foreigners. I do advise to anyone else to get themselves a local SIM card with data install taxi apps and use them to order one as you will get much better prices and less of a hassle with haggling. Headed back to the original hotel we had our meeting at just to pick up some of my luggage I left there.
Pokhara

Pokhara

Touch of the lurgie

Old Pokhara airport To my relief I was starting to feel better in the morning. See my post from Trek: Day 11 of 11 on what happened the day before. Popping paracetamol down my throat every few hours did probably help as well. Got a cappuccino and a croissant from the local cafe called am:pm. After that went on a short walk but ever minding not to move far away from the hotel.
Trek: Day 11 of 11

Trek: Day 11 of 11

Pothana to Phedi. The end of the trek!

Machhapuchhare Hike start: Pothana (2,000 m) Hike end: Phedi (1,160 m) Length: 7.34 km Ascent: 10 m Descent: 810 m Started to feel much rougher during the night and by the morning I was feeling quite fluishy ill. Sore throat, feverish, sore joints. Felt rubbish. Now the plan was “only” for a three hour hike but that seemed an impossible task in the morning. I had to skip breakfast as I was not feeling ok to eat.
Trek: Day 10 of 11

Trek: Day 10 of 11

Jhinu Danda to Pothana ... and a Happy Birthday to me

This happened to be my birthday for which I did intentionally plan this trip. Wanted to celebrate my 50th doing something unusual, thrilling and challenging. Spending with this lovely bunch of people was just such a big bonus. Sadly this was also a day three of our fellow hikers left the group as they had to get to Pokhara a bit sooner. There was a road nearby and a 4x4 was able to pick them up and drive them to Pokhara 2.5h away.
Trek: Day 9 of 11

Trek: Day 9 of 11

Bamboo to Jhinu Danda

Uneventful hike. We all just wanted to get down as soon as possible. Stayed at a place called Jhinu Danda which is near an intersection of three valleys. The one thing we were looking forward to see was the Jhinu Danda hot springs.
Trek: Day 8 of 11

Trek: Day 8 of 11

ABC to Bamboo

The night was mostly uneventful except we had a new issue with the dogs. What’s with the dogs up there. There was one that insisted on sleeping on our doormat. He seemed quite comfortable but he was essentially blocking our room. See the full story on how we managed that situation out.
Trek: Day 7 of 11 - Annapurna Base Camp reached!

Trek: Day 7 of 11 - Annapurna Base Camp reached!

MBC to ABC

This one was the shortest hiking day by length and time. Only 3km but the altitude we would reach would be the highest, hence the careful and slow ascent. Most of us only had mild or no symptoms at all. The lead guide was already regularly checking and documenting symptoms or lack of them together with blood perfusion checks.