Climb Everest - I Dare You

We just got back last night after a pretty great 9 day trip to Nepal for our school break. We wanted to get out of the heat and desert and head for the mountains. Our sights were set on a week long hike on the Annapurna Circuit as our plane touched down into foggy Kathmandu.

As we headed out on the trail, the sights and sounds we met along the way did not disappoint. Mike was in heaven snapping pictures and Mavis' excitement was probably a little over the top with comments like "this is the best hike I've ever done!" at exactly 29.5 minutes into the hike.

We stayed at 'tea houses' along the way, which are pretty basic lodges in locals' homes. They provided a bed, outhouse and meals, and usually a noisy rooster or donkey for the early morning wake-up. We'll let some of the pictures from our hike speak for themselves, as we climbed up from rice fields, to rocky cliffs, to old growth forest.

One of our lodges that we stayed at

These are some interesting sights that was saw along the way:

Donkey trains along the trail

People carrying just about anything (it made us not complain about our packs)

These guys were trying to force a bull across a bridge. It took six of them to drag him across - he put up a good fight.

We almost got run over by this herd of goats charging down the trailAnd plenty of cute little Nepali kids

Unfortunately, when we initially flew into Nepal, our flight was delayed by almost a day because of the fog. Since we were pushed back a day, once we got on the trail, we weren't sure that we would have enough time to properly acclimatize at the higher altitudes. We made the smart decision to turn back. Our decision was rewarded with a beautiful sunny day on our final day on the trail.

Don't worry, not all was lost - we got a couple of days to kick back in Kathmandu, drink beer and eat bacon. We'll fill you in on what we got up to in Kathmandu in our next post.