Poon Hill Trek
We all started to feel excited about the trek when mum and dad told us to pick any snacks we wanted for the four days of hiking. Apolline, Raphaël and I rushed about the shop, picking up chocolate 🍫 bars and sweets 🍬. During that whole day, preparations were made, bags were packed and equipment bought.
The next day, we took the bus 🚌 from Kathmandu to Pokhara, the starting point of our trek. We started off alright, the bus was going quite slow though. But after about an hour and a half of driving, disaster struck. The bus had broken down. The driver never really told us what was going on but we met a Nepalese couple who spoke English. They told us that the driver said we would stay there for about “half an hour max”. As you may have guessed, of course it wasn’t just half an hour. We ended up staying there about three and a half hours. And of course the driver never managed to fix the bus and another one had to be called all the way from Kathmandu.
When we were finally off again, we stopped for lunch but it was four in the afternoon! We had a lunch/snack kind of thing and set off again. Another thing that slowed us down was that we didn’t know that day was Lord Shiva’s birthday (Shiva is one of the Hindu gods). And because 80% of the population of Nepal is Hindu, everyone was going to visit their families as it was a national holiday. In the end, we arrived at eight in the evening, very annoyed at getting there so late, especially since we were planning to go to bed early…
The next morning, we had a big breakfast since we knew we had a long hike ahead. At 7:45am, the jeep 🚙 came to get us, and we were off for a 1.5 hour drive.
We got to our starting point and set off for about 5h of walking until we got to our first guest house. The day passed rather uneventfully but we soon discovered that the path was FULL of steps, and mostly steep ones.
What we found the hardest during this trek was the fact that when we got to the guest houses, it was freezing cold and the fire 🔥was only lit a few hours later. We would put all our layers on, but then when the fire was lit, it got so hot that on the third night, we were only wearing our t-shirts in the common room!
For first impressions, I found the walking tough and the cold horrible. The only moment you were warm was either whilst sweating during the day (but then you were too hot) or by the fire. Plus, the first day’s views weren’t that amazing. But it wasn’t all that bad.
The next morning, we got up at 6:30, had breakfast and set off at 7:30 for 4 and a half hours of trekking. At the end of the second day, we arrived at the house and were at first amazed by the view but then the clouds started rolling in and the mountains were all covered up. It rained and hailed for the rest of the day. It got us really worried that the weather would be too bad to be able to go up to Poon Hill the next day, and have a nice view of the sunrise.
We also played in the snow and made a snowman whom we named Leon Poon Hill!
We finished off the day by tasting yak cheese (which is actually really good! We ordered it twice!) reading by the fire and playing Magic for Dad and Raphaël.
The next morning was the hardest. We all woke up at 5am and left the guest house at 5:20. The way up was extremely hard for me because I felt like I couldn’t breathe and my stomach was aching. But in the end we got there and I saw the most beautiful sunrise I have ever seen. The most amazing part was when only the tops of the peaks of the Annapurna range were illuminated. At that moment, I realised that all the effort was more than worth the view at the top!
After spending about 45 minutes contemplating the sunrise, we went back down and then had breakfast and set off again for about 7h of hiking. This day was the best of all of them. We started off rather normally but soon found out that a good 2 hours of the walk was going to be in the snow! All three of us were thrilled! We jumped, ran and skipped in the snow so happy to be seeing snow this winter!
It was all fun and games until the snow started falling heavier and heavier. We put on the rain covers on the bags and our raincoats on. We continued the walk in the snow and oh yes! I forgot to say that Dad, Apolline and I were wearing shorts during the whole hike!
We got asked a lot by other hikers if we were cold or not and every time we said no because well, we weren’t!! The stop for lunch was short because we still had 3 hours to go until our sleeping place. The rest of the walk was also nice because we walked in snow again and the snowfall was over. The evening was spent first on the terrace of the hotel admiring the sunset and then in the common room reading and having dinner. In total, we walked for 9 hours that day, excluding the stops!
The last day was the worst in my opinion because we started off in the pouring rain and then the rest of the walk was without Dad because his knees hurt too much whilst going down so in the end he took a jeep and waited for us at the bottom. Obviously, he was quite disappointed at not doing the whole loop but oh well. Better not to hurt yourself too much because the walk is not that enjoyable anymore.
Along the way, we saw quite a few villagers, most of them seemed to be carrying very heavy loads and we also were lucky to see 2 new born kids (baby goats) that were born 20 minutes ago. They were soooo cute because they were so tiny and couldn’t get up.
I realise I haven’t talked much about our surroundings during the hike. The first and second day we saw lots of green hills and mountains but the first time we actually saw the Annapurna mountain range was the third day. The last day was also quite surrounded by green mountains and the path was quite dull and muddy as well.
To sum this all up, I can’t really say it met my expectations because I really had no idea what to expect but although it was the hardest thing I have ever done, I really think Poon Hill was extraordinary and the views of the Annapurna mountain range will stay imprinted in my mind forever.
