Trek to Annapurna Base Camp
Day IV
Day 4:
Annapurna Base Camp - Bamboo
We both couldn’t sleep very well. Rajan had a headache and I was worried if it was altitude sickness. A tablet of medicine and a few hours of hazy sleep later, we woke up to catch the sunrise. Rajan was fresh and active and my mood automatically lifted.
We went outside at around 4:45 am. It was pitch black on the ground and when I looked up, snow-capped mountains bathed in moonlight were looking down on me. I felt tiny. We walked to the viewpoint and the ground was glittering with icicles shining in the moonlight. At a distance, we could see the head torches of trekkers who were hiking up from Machhapuchre Base Camp to catch the sunrise.
Like us, many stayed at the base camp and they were also gathering to see the sunrise. The scene so far was promising. The sky was clear with a few stars here and there and the dawn was just at the horizon. We chose a comfy place away from the crowd just for the two of us and sat down. Sunrays began to hit the tip of Annapurna and the light started to spread on the mountains casting a golden glow all over it. All I can say is that the camera tried its best to capture the beauty of the moment and I am truly grateful that I was experiencing it. What the eyes truly saw is hard for the camera to capture. We put our gears down and just lived that moment.
After having our moment, we followed the trail that led to a central shrine and around which the majority of the people were gathered and it was located almost at the edge of the cliff. We stood at its edge and looked down, we found ourselves staring down into a huge crater. My first thought was that this looks like a scene from a sci-fi movie. The cliff we were on was part of a ridge running away from base camp, covered with countless flags and several other shrines. Standing on this edge with the towering mountains above us and glaciers groaning below us, I felt extremely privileged. Privileged for the fact that I was there and that I could experience it, privileged that we made it and I was there with Rajan, privileged that my years of fantasizing about going to ABC, preparing step by step, asking for advice, researching, and finally taking that first step out of my house to the Himalayas has brought me to this place. Privileged that I made it, we made it. It was a feeling that I can’t really define and it can only be felt in that moment.
It was a bittersweet moment for me to say goodbye to the place. We explored the area for some time and finally looked towards the Annapurna one last time from the camp. You were everything I thought you would be. We were the last people out of the camp that morning. We began our descent at 10:45 am.
Coming down the hill was easy. It took us around 1 hour less to get down to MBC than hiking up to ABC. We set an ambitious goal to reach Upper Sinuwa by evening and to top it all, we hadn’t booked the room yet because there was not a good reception. We were slightly stressed but we knew we would make it in time. So, we kept walking. Surprisingly, I was faster than Rajan during the downhill and he encouraged me to go forward without waiting for him. So, I went forward with renewed energy and actually almost ran down the stairs. In my haste, I didn’t see there were loose rocks and stepped on one and the next thing I knew, I was tumbling down a few steps. The people around rushed towards me but I got up embarrassed, brushed off the dust, and went on my way as if nothing had happened, a bit more carefully than before.
We tried booking in Upper Sinuwa but we could not find the signal and with each passing hour, we grew more tense for the night. Where we would stay was one of the worries and whether would we be able to get to Upper Sinuwa by 6 was another. We were determined to reach there by all means so we didn’t waste time for lunch, rather we only stopped to snack on some noodles, and instant coffee. We got the signal and called Upper Sinuwa, only to find out that all the hotels were fully booked. Our only other alternative was Bamboo and luckily there was one hotel that had a room but the owner said it’s actually better to stay somewhere in Dovan because reaching Bamboo might be impossible. After 15 minutes of rest in Himalaya, we started our journey to Bamboo at 4 pm. The owner had asked us to call him as soon as we reached Dovan so that he could estimate if we would make it in time. We reached upper Dovan at 6. He was skeptical yet we were not. As we started our walk, we realized where his skepticism was coming from. See, Upper Dovan was a small village and you had to walk a considerable distance to reach Lower Dovan. And after Lower Dovan, you again have another good distance to reach Bamboo and it was getting dark. Sun was setting casting the most amazing light across the horizon and after some time the darkness slowly blanketed us. We kept going.
As we were leaving Lower Dovan, Rajan’s legs started hurting. As a partner, you would want to call it a day and hope to find a place to stay right where we were but I had taken it as a challenge for us to get to Bamboo that night and I just didn’t want my body to feel it was time to rest only to be disappointed because there was no room. I didn’t think I would be able to go on after that. So, the best thing I could do in that situation was to urge him to take a small step at a time. Rajan is a gym trainer and he knows a thing or two about the body. Thank god for that because I clearly was starting to panic while he remained calm and did a few squats. We couldn’t believe it but he felt better and we could take our pace.
We could not minus the fact that we were walking through the forest and we were told that bears usually came out for food at that time and it was not advised to walk through the woods at such time. I knew we were supposed to make noise to let them know that many humans were passing through. So, I played Harry Potter in full blast. After a while, Rajan and I started talking about anything and everything under the sun just to get the noise going. It actually became one of the best memories I made during this trip. We discussed topics that we seldom discuss and it brought us even closer and just appreciate our bond.
It gave us immense relief to know that it wasn’t just us walking through the woods that night. We met a group of people who were also headed to Bamboo. The thing about walking in the dark is that you really can’t tell how far the village is. So, we both thought we still had a long way to go when we crossed a bridge, then we made a turn and saw Bamboo Village bustling with trekkers lounging on the patio, a few enjoying their dinner, some engaged in a game of cards. Immense relief flooded through us and to know that we could have a room all to ourselves was a privilege we experienced for the first time during this trek.