Hi Everyone,

A brief update before I am out of contact for the next 10 days....

After a few days in Kathmandu, I am now in Pokhara with 5 students. We are all excited to be here, especially because tomorrow we are beginning a 10-day trek to Annapurna base camp. While I have trekked the Annapurna circuit twice, I have never been into the fabled Sanctuary, so I am really looking forward to this trek.  For all of the students, it is their first venture into the Himalayas....they don't know just how awesome it is going to be!

We are leaving Pokhara early tomorrow and will drive about 1.5 hours NW to Nayaphul where our trek will begin. Rather than go straight up to base camp, I have decided to first head west to Ghorepani and Poon Hill, before cutting back NE towards base camp. Poon Hill is famous for the incredible sunrise views it offers over the Annapurna and Dhaulagiri ranges. This should be a great way to begin our trek and it will also assist us in our acclimitisation for Annapurna base camp, which is situated at 4130m above sea level.

We are hoping to spend two nights at the base camp (30th and 31st March) before descending all the way back to Pokhara in two days. Let's see how it goes.

Thanks for all of our messages over the last few days. I will be posting photos and some news about the trek when I return to civilisation in about 10 days.

Until then,

Namaste from Nepal

Gavin