Annapurna Circuit (pt. 2)

Part one: https://reillysroute.com/annapurna-circuit-pt-1/

DAY THREE: JAGAT to BAGARCHHAP (3/21)

Jagat (1300m/4265′) – Chyamche (1430m/4700′) – Tal (1700m/5580′) – Dharapani (1860m/6100′) — Bagarchhap (2160m/7090′)

Distance: 15km/9.5mi

I woke up with an idea and twisted my long sleeve around my backpack, securing it with safety pins in my first aid kit. It worked, but now I was down a layer and it was only going to get colder. A problem for another day.

After a breakfast of banana porridge, Emma and I packed our bags and set off. When we arrived at the next village, Chyamche, there was another suspension bridge.

We climbed over rocks and boulders along the riverbank, pausing in the small pockets of shade to escape the beating sun. The trail moved from one valley into the next, twisting through the trees and grass.

Swarmed by goats

Do you see the road on the other side of the river?

Waiting for trekkers

Tal in the distance

We passed under a gate welcoming us to the Manag district and descended to the village of Tal. There, we stopped for lunch and met Wouter and Veerle, a Danish couple. Down the road, we met Margot from Belgium and her guide.

Wouter and Veerle in the bottom right corner (green backpack covers)

On the walk to Dharapani, clouds gathered in dark gray swarms above us. There was a loud rumble. “Was that thunder?”

“No, construction,” Emma said, as we stopped to drink water.

Another rumble. Definitely thunder. We put on rain gear and move quickly as the storm approaches. The path became more slippery as the rain fell, but we managed to get to Dharapani before it poured.

The Danish couple arrived in town quickly after us. We hid together in a small hut and drank milk tea, waiting for the rain to subside.

I had planned to sleep in Dharapani but decided to press on with the others to Bagarchapp. We stopped to check in at the permit office and then walked uphill for another 30-45 minutes in light rain.

Bagarchapp

View from my room

After showering, I sat at a table in the dining hall downstairs. A young man entered. He gave me a menu and then asked, “Are you vegetarian?”

“No, yes, I can be,” I said quickly, “Why?”

“We’re making yak momo. Do you want to try?”

“Uh, YES.”

I followed him into the kitchen. He was a civil engineer in the process of obtaining his Master’s and was doing an internship with one of the road construction crews. He helped translate all evening.

The room was both a commercial kitchen and common space for the family. I sat by the fire and watched as they expertly rolled and stuffed the momo, making a few myself. Verlee and Wouter joined.

The family made me a plate of tsampa (below), a staple dish in Tibetan families and not one they advertise on the menu. I was basically Anthony Bourdain.

Tsampa is made with roasted barley and served with ghee. It’s delicious, but you have to be careful not to overeat because it expands in your stomach.

We talked for a long time that night, hiding together from the rain that poured all evening. I slept well.

DAY FOUR: DHARAPANI TO CHAME (3/22)

Dharapani (1860m/6100′) – Timang (2750m/9020′) – Koto (2600m/8530′) – Chame (2670m/8760′)

Distance: 15.5km/9.5mi

In the morning, I realized my water bottle was missing. I was partial to it; it had a built-in filter and I’d grown emotionally attached to it the past two months.

The others went to Chame but I hitchhiked back to Dharapani to see if it was at the tea shop. It wasn’t. As I slowly walked back up the hill to Bagarchapp, I saw it on the ground next to the permit office. It must’ve fallen out of my backpack while we were there.

The bottle was flat like a sheet of paper, the guts of the filter shooting out of the mouth of the bottle like jellyfish tentacles. RIP LifeStraw (2024 – 2025). Thankfully I had a second water bottle with me and a few days’ worth of water filtration tablets.

I picked up my backpack and said goodbye to the Tibetan family, looking forward to hiking alone again.

It was a steep climb to Timang and I stopped often. My period started right before I went to look for my water bottle.

Menstrual fatigue is interesting because it’s like every energetic hormone in your body was sucked out by a shock vac and then your cells were transformed into rocks. So you’re this heavy, deflated balloon that’s collapsed on the ground but you have to float anyway, or at least try to because shedding your uterus isn’t enough.

I was trying to float 3000′ in 3 miles and it sucked.

I arrived in Timang around 11:30 and stood in awe before the mountains. They were striking, beautiful, frightening.

In Hindu mythology, the Himalayas are considered to be the home of the gods, particularly Lord Shiva. You’ll notice that the Shiva statues throughout Nepal are always positioned so that his back is to the mountains. He cannot look at them because they are of him.

I was in the land of the undying and was deeply aware of my mortality.

The neighboring Annapurna I is considered to be the deadliest mountain in the world to climb. One in three people attempting to reach the summit do not survive.

What I was doing was not nearly as dangerous, thankfully, but I still felt fragile and humbled. These mountains were here before me and they will be here after me.

It was another 5 miles to Chame but most of the elevation gain was done for the day, so I left after lunch with a renewed sense of energy.

The path followed the road to Chame, but there were very few vehicles as I meandered through pine forests, past waterfalls, and between villages.

I really enjoyed this section.

Every time I passed a community, I’d think about the journey it took to get there and how, two generations ago, people walked this route on foot.

Road King is my favorite truck in Nepal

Eventually, I reached Koto and registered myself at the checkpoint. There were more people here, freshly dressed and wide-eyed with their guides and porters. Timang, Koto, Chame—these were the villages where a large portion of people chose to begin their trek.

I noticed the clouds were forming above and guessed that if today was anything like yesterday, the afternoon rain would be here soon. I pressed on to Chame.

My new friends were somewhere near but I couldn’t reach them because the power was out (and stayed out), so I found a room and hoped to find them on the trail in the coming days.

Main street in Chame

It was cold and the only place with heat was the common space downstairs.

The family’s elderly grandmother sat next to the fire pit and every few minutes, like clockwork, she’d start hacking and throwing up phlegm into a metal tin. There was another guest and he kept ordering plates of food, eating with such open-mouthed vigor that you’d wonder if he’s trying to spit it back out like a mama bird. Soon, everything smelt like grandma’s mucus.

I decided to lay in bed with all my clothes on.

I liked the days but the nights were hard. That was when the loneliness crept in.

Keep reading: https://reillysroute.com/annapurna-circuit-pt-3/