Annapurna Trek - Part one - 24 hour Journey

17th March

Up and out early this monring, arrived at the Airport in plent of time for the flight, unfortunatley we relialised we where a day early.  So back home again, good practice run I suppose..


18th March

Well Back at the Airport again, this time the right day.  Had my first go at giving Airport Security a fright, as they now use those body xray scanners that see through your clothes.

Settled on the plane, leg room fairly ok etc..  10 minutes into the flight, I looked at the live flight information and realised at that very moment we where at the height which we will be at when we go through the pass, though I don't think I will be walking at that speed (going to take us about 10 days hard treking before we get to that height).

Well Dad is flaked out and I think I will check out what movies they have on offer.

Just had breakfast and it was pretty good and you got quite a lot.

Dad decided to watch a movie but his headphones don't work, we asked for another pair and bugger me they were broke as well.

About halfway to Doha now and have realised we are now flying near some the most dangerous areas of the Middle East at the moment, all those people that could be being killed right now belwo us makes me feel quite sad.

Finally landed in Doham had all our gear xrayed again but this time no body scan, so no scaring the security this time.  The Airport is not huge but a reasonable size, we have looked around the Duty Free as you do then sat down with a drink to watch this part of the world go by.

As we knew we where going to have a 14 hour wait at Doha before we catch the flight to Kathmandu, we booked ourselves in for a 6 hour block in the ORYX Lounge.  Free food & drink, comfy chairs to sit on, free internet, also a shower you can use.  The nice guy at the desk felt sorry for us and gave us 7 hours instead of six, what a vary nice man.  We are enjoying these little triangle cut sarnies and the lovley cakes, this will be the last time for nearly 3 weeks I am going to have it so good.

It's about 1:30am Doha time and I am not really tired, Dad is zonked out on a chair next to me.  I think I will go and type all this up onto my Blogg on one of the free Internet PCs, also means If my Dad starts snoring his head off, I don't dont have to look sheepish at the other people in the lounge.

Final walks before going to Nepal.

With less than a week to go now we thought we’d try and get some more walks in.

First we did a relatively short but hilly walk to the top of Moel Famau to Jubilee Tower and for the first time this year when heading to the tower the weather was great.   

The walk up pleasant and rather busy, with many people out making good use of the good weather.

Clear sky meaning once at the top you could see Liverpool on one side and Snowdonia on the other.

Due to the clear skys and good wind there was quite a few Para-gliders enjoying their sport, though it looked peaceful and fairly safe you still wouldn’t catch me try that.

The next day after an hours drive some on some scary windy roads we parked up and walked into Cwm Eigiau, again a nice clear and pleasant day which made it all the better.

After a couple of miles walking in to the valley we stopped off at the cottage that climbers and walkers use as a base station.



Taking care of all needs





Enjoying the view whilst having a snack





Once fed and watered whilst enjoying the view, further in we walked until we arrived at the old abandoned Slate Mine and a took a look around at the remains of the workers slate houses that they would have built themsleves to live in whilst working in the valley.

Then it was time to walk back to the car park and on the way, we was lucky enough to come across the wild ponies of the valley.

So no more walks until we get to Nepal at the weekend, then it will be non-stop for 3 weeks.