Annapurna Base Camp Trek

Introduction

Aachal, a close friend of mine, decided to get married: which led to planning of her bachelorette trip to Nepal! The bachelorette plan was for 3 days in Pokhara. For me, if I were going that far (okay, not really far in global context, but a new country for me nonetheless!), and in the Western Himalayas, I had to make a proper birding trip out of it. That was enough to get me started.

Logistics

Planning & Resources

The trip was planned at short notice. A friend put me in touch with (the) Carol Inskipp. She has birded extensively in the region and has authored several field guides. She (and Sanjib, a local bird guide) recommended me the best birding locations for May and I narrowed it down to the Annapurna Base Camp, popularly known as ABC, trek. The trek was via Pokhara, so logistically it made sense too. This part of the trip was solo. Carol cautioned me not to be alone, especially in the remote birding areas if I take offbeat paths. She mentioned that birding alone in Nepal isn’t as safe as it used to be.

This was going to be my first Very High Altitude trek (4130m), and I knew I wasn’t in the best shape to complete the trek. I just wanted to have a good time with the birds. Considering all of that, I decided to hire a trek guide and a porter. The entire logistics were managed by my guide. Also, I was surprised to have a female guide and a female porter too. Not something you usually come across, especially in wildlife communities.

The trek is ideally 8-10 days long for an average trekker, but I didn’t have that time. I’m told the locals make it to the top in just a single day in summer season! Anyway, I had 7 days to finish it, irrespective of whether I made it to the top or not.

I have birded in the Western Himalayas before, though limited experience. Most of the bird families were familiar to me. I knew a large number of the birds by looking at them, but identifying them by call has never been my strong suit! For a field guide, I used my decade old Birds of the Indian Subcontinent (authored by Carol Inskipp) and my second-hand copy of Birds of South Asia: The Ripley Guide, by Pam Rasmussen. I also downloaded the Nepal bird pack on the Merlin app, but it wasn’t that accurate.

Accommodation & Food

All the accommodation for the trek was in tea houses along the way. Each village had a few tea houses with limited rooms and shared bathrooms. Most places are decent and clean. Unless you are travelling off season, they need advance booking. I’m told in the peak season, trekkers are often forced to sleep on kitchen floors or in communal dining rooms due to lack of accommodation. Hot water is chargeable, and so are extra blankets. In general, I don’t do so well with cold temperatures, so I carried my own sleeping bag: it greatly helped! Use of plug points is available at extra charge: most rooms do not come with charging points. I used my phone for tracking the trek as well as making all the eBird checklists. Cellular network was available on Ncell until Derauli, beyond that all networks are patchy or unavailable. I carried my power bank which lasted me several days. When I did need a charging point, the tea house owners didn’t charge me – the perks of traveling in off season!

The local food is very similar to Indian food. Most of my lunches were Dal Bhat, a traditional Nepalese thali. It consisted of lentils (dal), rice, a green leafy vegetable, salad, and raw mango pickle. However, all along the trek route you can find food ranging from margherita pizzas to spring rolls to kimchi noodles! Some places even had Puri Bhaji on the breakfast menu which made me miss home – but just for a little bit! The food has been adapted to suit the international range of travellers but with the use of local ingredients like Yak cheese, Gundruk (a leafy green), and more such varieties. I loved the Yak cheese so much, that I bought a kilo before heading back to Bangalore!

Additional Info

Nepal in general, especially the trek areas, are a very cash heavy economy. It is extremely difficult for Indians to get cash in the country. Indian debit and forex cards cannot be used in Nepal to withdraw currency. Carrying Indian currency for exchange can be done only in denominations of 100 INR, limited to 25,000 INR in total. It is quite disappointing and painstaking. Otherwise, the next best option is to use remittance sites, but it isn’t easy! Thankfully, I had this sorted thanks to my Nepali friends. I transferred Indian currency to Aachal locally, and Jay, Aachal’s brother, got me Nepali rupees cash at the start of my trip. All this without any exchange fee (thank you guys🥺). On that note, don’t we need a PayPal consumer payments in India and Nepal?!

For things to carry, clothing requirements, medicines, etc, Indiahikes does a good job at documentation.

Annapurna Base Camp Trek

The Annapurna Base Camp trek is the second most popular trek in Nepal, the first being Everest Base Camp. The base camp is located at the elevation of 4,130m and yet is only halfway to the Annapurna I: at 8,091m, the 10th highest mountain in the world. The Annapurna 1 was the first 8,000m peak to be climbed in the world. Known as the deadliest mountain in the world because of its extremely steep face, it has a fatality ratio of 1:3, that is for every 3 people who have attempted the climb, 1 has died. For comparison, the Everest has a fatality ratio of 1:100 (it has greatly improved in the last 2 decades)! From the base camp, the entire Annapurna range is visible, and it is absolutely magical. A ruthless landscape, but worth every sore muscle and every inch of sunburnt skin!

How high is 4,130m anyway? The average floor height 12-14ft, ie ~4m. The height of ABC is equivalent to 1,000 floors! The tallest building in the world, Burj Khalifa, has 163 floors. Thankfully, I started at 1,700m (equivalent to 400 floors). But it wasn’t always an uphill climb. The trek goes through a series of valleys and hills: the entire elevation gain for the trek would have been around 2,700m. (I might be exaggerating a little, but I’m incredibly proud of myself for making this trek happen, so bear with me.)

Itinerary

I had direct flights from Bangalore to Kathmandu which made my life and the trip much easier. On arrival, I was picked up by Jay at the airport. I spent the night with Aachal’s family where auntie cooked me the yummiest dinner I had had in months! Jay got me a local Ncell sim and a lot of Nepali Rupees (NPR).

I headed to Pokhara the following morning. The check-in at the domestic KTM airport took me 5 minutes, followed by a delay of 2 hours to Pokhara: the weather conditions rule all the domestic flights in Nepal!

At Pokhara airport, I was picked up by my guide, Chhak Maya (+977 986-3797066). She’s not a bird guide but aims to be one. She was brilliant throughout the trek, matched my pace, and knew just when to push me. I couldn’t have completed the trek without her! Also, she and our porter were inquisitive about the birds, and I always enjoy talking about birds, so it was a great match. We took a private jeep up until Jhinu Danda where the trek began.

The Trek

The weather was generally bearable throughout. I carried clothing for rain, sun, snow and cold, and used all of it. It rained heavily on day 5 and my waterproof shoes were soaking wet from the inside! I trekked with plastic bags on top of my socks on my Day 6 of trek. Please don’t do that: I broke my knee and had to cut short the trip by a day. Use your slippers or try something else and tell me about it.

At the end of every single day, my calves, and the whole of my legs, would feel like jelly and it would hurt so much that, at times, my brain wouldn’t even register or acknowledge the existence of my legs! After every night’s sleep, my legs would become solid rock by the morning, making it literally unable to move. The trek tested my physical strength, and there was no other option than to just power through everything!

All along the route, there were signages and guidelines for the distance, elevation and the average time taken. Most of them were accurate for the time taken for an average trekker. Trekking with bird watching took more time, and was usually dependent on what you come across.

On Day 4, we climbed from Derauli (3,200m) to Annapurna Base Camp (4,130m), a climb of nearly 1,000m for a single day, and that too above 3,000m. Ideally for new trekkers, it is advisable to not climb more than 500m in a day above 3,000m elevation in order to better acclimatise. I didn’t have that time and I was pumped up on adrenaline to make it to the top. Altitude sickness hit me hard after MBC (3,700m). We started from MBC after lunch around 2pm. The route from MBC to ABC has a very gradual climb stretched in 3 kms. The guideline which recommended 2 hours for MBC to ABC, took me 4 hours, without birdwatching!

I could barely breathe, each step felt heavy, I had headache, nausea and I told Chhak that if I fainted, she could call an air evac for me! Thankfully, that wasn’t needed! When I reached the camp, I checked myself on the oximeter: my oxygen levels were down to 75%. I didn’t do so well at the base camp: it was too cold, I could feel the low air pressure around me, but it was just about manageable because the views were absolutely worth it! After barely being able to sleep at night, my oxygen levels improved to 82% the next morning. I survived!

Birding

Trekking with birding is fun. It really tests your patience and that of the ones with you. I had the best guide and porter who were such patient people. They stopped at every single bird I wanted to see: trust me it can get really frustrating at times. At one point, it took 45 minutes for the Pygmy Wren-babbler to come out, and Chhak sat by me all the time and had fantastic views of her first ever wren-babbler!

The Rufous Sibias dominated the landscape and called incessantly up until Himalaya village, drowning out most other calls. On one of the mornings, I was woken by the loud sibias next to my room, and not my alarm! The best bird of day 1 was a Red-billed Leiothrix. I particularly enjoyed all the finches: some opportunities were quite educational seeing different species (males and females) in a single flock and identifying them! The fulvettas were amazing, and such adorable birds. I had great views of White-browed Fulvettas which came calling in response to playback only to later realise that they were everywhere! We had good views of Golden-breasted Fulvettas: good enough for Chhak to make a video using her phone. The parrotbills were a no-show except for Black-throated Parrotbills, sorry, cute Black-throated Parrotbills as they should be called! The habitat from Sinuwa – Bamboo – Dovan is a single patch of undisturbed – okay, well, slightly disturbed – bamboo forest. It is lovely and dense, with very limited open patches to look into the valley. At one such opening, we came across a Scarlet Finch! I wasn’t expecting this bird: it wasn’t on my radar at all, and that just made it a memorable sighting.

I spotted a White-browed Bush Robin while standing on a slope. I got so excited, that I did a little dance, and then fell on my face. Thankfully, just a bruised knee and no serious damage done. Some of the other notable birds were Fire-tailed Sunbirds, Mrs Gould’s Sunbirds and a breeding pair of Darjeeling Woodpeckers. I even managed to show the Mrs Gould’s Sunbirds to other tourists on the way!

One interesting observation I made was that the Greenish Warblers above Himalaya village (2,900m) were calling, but the ones below it were singing. I wonder if the higher altitude ones weren’t ready to go back home just yet! Most of the phylloscopus warblers were singing, and it was treat to hear them. It took me 2 days to get accustomed to their songs, after that identifying them was a breeze!

The landscape drastically changed from Machhapuchhre Base Camp to higher: it went from Alpine to snow very quickly. I didn’t encounter much snow on my path, but there were a few patches. Overall, it was rocky slopes with dried grass, mostly devoid of any life. On my way from MBC to ABC, the landscape was filled with Rosy Pipits which I enjoyed thoroughly. I got lots of rosefinches of all kinds, a single Citrine Wagtail (which made me very happy!), various species of redstarts, Red-billed as well as Yellow-billed Choughs, one Blue Whistling Thrush (which I initially thought was a chough but Chhak identified it correctly!), and flocks of Snow Pigeons. A Robin Accentor responded to my playback, and I also found a Rufous-breasted Accentor.

Oh, in remote areas word travels fast if you are an odd one, like a single female birdwatcher. At the ABC camp, my breakfast came with a dead Dark-breasted Rosefinch. The owner just *knew* I was into birds. The bird had entered their kitchen and exhausted himself finding a way out. The owner saved the dead bird for me. I nearly thought to carry it back home for the BNHS specimen library, but am pretty sure that would have been illegal!

After my trek, I had one morning in Pokhara before the girls arrived for the bachelorette trip. I went to Sarangkot specifically to look for the Spiny Babbler, the only endemic species of Nepal. Sanjib had sent me call recordings and vaguely directed me to suitable habitats, and where to look for them. After an hour of searching, one responded to my playback! It was a gorgeous sighting. Sarangkot is a hilltop which is popular with paragliders. In the same session, I got 4 species of vultures – Cinereous, Red-headed, Egyptian and White-rumped. I considered paragliding just to get closer to these vultures soaring amongst them!

I saw ~153 species in my 12 days in the country out of which 22 were new to me. The bird list can be found here: https://ebird.org/tripreport/57461.

Summary

This was my first Very High Altitude trek and the experience was surreal. I have been to higher elevations before, but never trekked my way up. The joy of trekking through is unmatched. It is kind of addictive. The landscape is breath-taking and brutal.

The trek helped me push my own boundaries, I was so much stronger than I thought, and powered through the whole thing. It was just as much about testing my emotional strength as it was about physical strength. Even now, months later as I pen down this blog piece, just thinking about the trek is making me smile and wanting to do more. Did I mention how incredibly proud I am of myself?