The following morning, we continued our trek towards the beautiful, hilltop village of Chomrung. Our ultimate aim was to enter the Annapurna Sanctuary and hopefully, reach ABC (Annapurna Base Camp). It took nearly all day to reach Chomrung. It was a very steep asent followed by a swift decent followed by yet another steep asent. However, the views along the way were well worth the effort. We stopped for a welcome drink of tea and hot lemon pancake at a tea house just outside Chomrung. The view of the Fish Tail mountain and Annapurna South were stunning. Above us there were Griffins circling in the sky. We reached Chomrung around dusk. We had walked for around six hours!

The following morning was bright and clear. We headed towards our destination with the fish tail mountain in our view. The decent was steep! We climbed down over 3,000 (so I was informed)stone steps, then up a winding footpath then more even steeper stone steps. All the time the landscape around us was changing from green fields to rhododendron trees and Bamboo forest. We spent the night at Buddha Lodge in a small village named Bamboo (after the surrounding vegetation). During the evening, several other parites arrived at the lodge. They had all reached ABC and had some great experiences to tell us. The evening was cold and a Cerosene heater was put under the table to warm us. It also dried and warmed our boots and clothes.

The following day we set off towards Hymalayan Hotel. The landscape was beautiful, like an enchanted forest. We saw black faced, grey Lemur monkeys watching us from the ruins of a disused lodge. We reached the Hymalayan Lodge around lunchtime. It had snowed heavily. We decided to spend the rest of the day and the night there. It was at a higher altitude than we had previously been so it would help us to acclimatise to the higher altitude of our next destination. The night was very cold so we borrowed several thick quilts to keep us warm.

The next morning we set off for Derali, from there, we hoped to reach the ABC (Annapurna Base Camp) the following day. However, as we approached Derali, we had to cross an avalanche which we were told had happened the previous evening. When we reached Derali, the news was not good, nobody had set off for ABC on account of the heavy snow and more avalanches. Towards the afternoon, more trekkers arrived at the Derali lodge, hoping, like us, to make it to the ABC. We stayed the night, hoping the snow would clear.

The following morning, the snow was still too deep to attempt to reach ABC. We were less than five hours away from our goal!!!! We decided to decend along with the other groups of trekkers who had stayed at the lodge.

It was much easier to decend!! The snow was powdery and fun to walk on (I fell down a few times but was ok once I got used to it!!!) It took only 2 days to return to Chomrung. From there we decended steeeply to a tiny village called Jhinu.

Jhinu is famous for it's hot springs. We spent a very relaxing two days there. The hot springs were wonderful! Were were watched by several families of brown Rhesus monkeys. Apparantly, they wait until people have left the springs then they go in for a bath!!

After Jhinu, we continued our journey towards Tadopanni. The landscape changed again to Paddy fields and farmland. Again we climbed and decended steeply. The following day was bright and clear, the landscape changed yet again to tall Rhodedendron, birch and Magnolia forest. The Annapurna Massif was continually prominant in between the trees. It was much easier to walk as we were following a ridge. We spent the night at a small hamlet named Derali (yes! Another Derali). From here we ascended 200m to a viewpoint with observation tower to take in sunrise over the mountain panorama. We were the only people there, unlike the famous poon hill which affords similar views but is crammed with over 100 tourists each morning. After breakfast we began the long descent, via Ghorenpani to Nayapul. Although downhill virtually all the way it was tough on the knees with over 5000 steep stone steps. We did not envy those coming up. It took another over-night stop in a local village (where for those who were really struggling could hire a pony to reach their destination) before finally reaching NayaPul late the next afternoon.