Annapurna Trail: Day 3
This was the final full day of the trekking and it was tough. I made a huge mistake in packing by putting all my spare lenses in the porter’s bag. After breakfast I noticed a small smudge on the lens so thought to wipe it clean with the micro-fiber cloth. Everything went downhill from there, the lens and the filter both ended up smudged, blurred and unusable. It was at this point we were told that the hike was starting and I was unable to do anything more.
Needless to say I was in a black mood walking up the first trail. Camera back in my bag, a dead weight on my shoulders, and worried that the seal was bad and the sensor was going to be damaged.
At the first stop, I took it out again and realised it had cleared up but was still greasy. Aiming it near the sun brought in lines of light across the image. Feeling a little better, at the reassurance that the sensor was fine, I tried clearing it again and got the same results. This was repeated all day with gradual improvements, but after the second cleaning it was at least usable if the sun’s position was considered.
At our first refreshment stop, I decided to buy a Buddhist mantra bracelet after a bit of haggling and using the fact I was about to walk off to my advantage, I got a good price. He claimed to have been robbed, so hopefully it was at least a moderately reasonable price.
At this point we were given the change to choose our own path:
“The Killer Steps”: 45 minutes of steep stairs cut into the very rock of the mountain and winding back and forth up the hill.
“The looping pathway”: A 2 hour walk reaching the same point but at a more gradual gradient, but still tougher than we had done all day.
I chose the looping pathway, and was very quickly glad I did, The scenery is better and the climb was as much as I’d wanted to do at this point, though it was embarrassing to admit.
The day had become misty which was a bad sign for what could be coming and a bad sign for the view!
After about two hours and when I was running painfully low on water we arrived for lunch.
I had a mixed rice dish which was very filling and a single coke, making it my cheapest meal of the trek!
As we were about to head out I realised that, at this slightly lower level, the mist was looking more like rain so I took the precaution of putting the waterproof cover on my bag but did keep the camera out and ready.
About thirty minutes into the trek the rain started coming down, from a few drops it rapidly became a tropical down pour and I rapidly stashed my camera away safely. Though it is weather-proof, I was unsure if I wanted to trust the seal after the issues I’d had that morning. It was at this point we all started to move more quickly, and shooting past me like a rocket, the American lady, who up till now had often been at the rear of the group, steamed into the lead and disappeared. Twin walking polls moving like pistons.
We more or less jogged into the Tea House in Dhampus and jumped into our rooms, which were lovely. Clean ad cosy,. We were even able to have hot showers, which, after the cold showers we’d been faced with running for the roof of the Tea House was a welcome change.
After that, we all slowly congregated in the dining hall for drinks and dinner. I managed to get a passable image of the sunset despite the clouds, but by night time there was nothing that could be done, the whole valley was clouded over.
After an exhausting couple of days, I took to bed early in hopes of a nice early start for a sunrise.
