Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Sunrise trek to Poon Hill

Day 3  Ghorepani (2,860m) -> Poon Hill (3,193m)
Total time: 45mins (up), 30mins (down)

Annapurna II (I hope I am right)
Today we gotta wake up early at 4+am to walk up to Poon Hill for sunrise.  Me, as usual got up especially early to go through my daily morning ritual of toilet, brush teeth, wear contact lens, moisturize & sunblock my face, wear my knee n ankle guard, change and wear boots. When I am almost done, kenn will slowly wake up... 5-10mins later we are ready to go.

It's cold and dark outside, put on my warm soft-shell jacket, gloves, fleece hat and head light. Walking slowly in the dark, panting hard as it's always up and up to higher altitude.  Not much strength cos I did not eat anything.  I  do not want to voluntarily stop to rest so I always welcome "traffic jam" so I have excuse to stop and rest for awhile. My memory started flowing, to last year when I did the Mt KK summit, almost the same just that there is no scary big boulder to climb, I need not go on all 4 to negotiate a pass.

We just walked up steps after steps, it's so near yet so far.. when are we reaching?  Why it's like never-ending?  Finally, finally... after about 45mins later we finally reached (but the 45mins seems more like 2 hours!).  Poon Hill is truely one of the best Himalayan viewpoints in Nepal. 360 degree of Himalayan view where we can view more than 30 white mountain peak including Dhaulagiri (8,172m) and Annapurna I (8,091m).  Only minus point - it's so CROWDED!


It's cold, about 2 degree.  After much perspiration from the trek and with the wind blowing at me, I can't stop shivering and I don't feel like moving.  It's only after much effort that I got my camera out and start taking photos.  Kenn had brought along his thermos, so we got hot water from the lodge to make our 3-in-1 vietnam coffee (nice change from the sometime bland Nepali coffee).  It was surrealism, it just warm my body.

The tip of Annapurna II catching the 1st ray of the sunrise

Than the beautiful sun risen from among the mountains... another surrealism that warm my heart.... 










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