H and I went to the Destinations travel show yesterday, and had a chat with the Mountain Kingdoms team about what trek to do next, given we enjoyed their Annapurna Circuit trip so much.
I’m tempted by Everest, not Base Camp in particular (or the prospect of 9000 or so fellow trekkers) but the combination of Nepalese hospitality, fantastic scenery, circular routes and tea house accommodation, and corresponding camera battery recharging opportunities!
Currently on my 2010 trek radar I have:
- Everest Base Camp & Gokyo Lakes
- Three High Passes to Everest
- Kangchenjunga North & South Base Camps (still Nepal), and
- Cordillera Huayhuash Circuit, Peru
H and I are both a bit concerned about spending a lot of time over 4,400m – we both noticed the altitude at Thorung Phedi and the following day’s crossing of the Thorung La – and all the Everest treks look like there are a few days up that high. The snag with the Huayhuash trek (apart from flying over all that ocean… ) is that it’s camping… it is not so much the camping itself that puts me off (so long as we don’t get wet, and we’ve got snug kit for the cold nights), it’s not being able to recharge my camera batteries!!! Hey ho….
We also popped in to say Hello to Nat and Jonny at Wild Frontiers, who suggested their High Road to Kashmir (a long time wishlist destination since my Hindu Kush Adventure) and their Lhasa to Kashgar expedition which includes a circumambulation of Mt Kailash and a trek to the Chinese EBC …. OK, neither of them are lengthy treks but those itineraries look awesome….
In the meantime, Phil and I are going to Morocco on Intrepid’s Colours of Morocco trip in April/May – a fortnight touring round all the key sights/sites from Casablanca to Marrakech. We’re planning to travel down on the train, a la “The Man in Seat Sixty-One…“, but so far booking the trainhotel from Paris to Madrid is proving somewhat elusive…