Wanderlust: ABC Trek: Day 4

2 days into the hike we had struck to the original itinerary and we intended to stay the course. We woke up, once again, to amazing views of the Annapurna range, had our breakfast and started our steep descent towards the river, which was to be followed by similar steep ascent to Sinuwa

While it was cold the previous night and early AM, the day started to get hot pretty soon. We started around 7:30 am and by 8:40 am I had reached the lower Sinuwa where I was met by porters and IL by 9 am and we decided to partake some tea. CD & PC were experiencing severe muscle soreness because of long and tiring hike of the previous day (our hiking time alone was 6-8 hours - it varied by the individual) and hence when they didn't reach the tea stop by 9:20 am, we proceeded towards main Sinuwa. This was a tough 30 min hike but after that the route was a bit easier - lot of steep ascents still but some relief in form of intermittent flat trails. Porters, I and IL reached Bamboo (our lunch halt) by 11:30 am and we all waited for CD & PC at lunch.

In the meanwhile we learnt that getting rooms at Himalayan - our original stop would be next to impossible at this late an hour as we hadn't booked it ahead of our arrival. So we debated if we should stop at Doban instead of proceeding towards Himalayan. It was almost 1 pm and there was no sign of other two. Keeping in mind their pace, I requested our porters to call and book a room for us at Doban. A practice that we followed rest of the trek - call ahead and book rooms so that we don't have to sleep in dining hall.

CD & PC arrived at 1:20 pm and PC was quite tired plus it was getting late for us to try finding rooms at Himayalan after reaching there. So we decided to end the day early - we started for Doban at 2 pm and were there by 3 pm.

Now we all had to share one room - twin occupancy rooms were all sold out. The room was decent in size and its proximity to common wash basins and toilets was a plus in the cold weather that dominates evenings, nights and mornings at this altitude.

I had spent some time chatting with a Dutch hiker (R) while waiting for others to join me at Bamboo. Incidentally he was also staying at same lodge (Annapurna Approach) and we met again in the dining hall. I usually spend my free time in dining hall chatting with other hikers and listening to their experiences and backgrounds. R and I spent some time walking around the lodge, enjoying the view of the waterfall and exchanging stories about our current and previous hikes. IL bundled herself up and found some nook outside to read her kindle, CD decided to take a hot shower and PC was...well I have forgotten what she was doing :)

We all had dinner by 7 pm and since next day was to be long one in order to make up for stopping earlier today, we retired pretty early - by 8 pm.