The prettiest of ‘walks’

When I use the term ‘walk’, I mean trekking uphill for 6 days through dirt roads, lush green forests, sun, rain, snow, remains of avalanches,… until we reached the sanctuary of Annapurna and then downhill for 3 days .
In the heart of Annapurna.
We were surrounded by some of the highest mountains in the world and had a 360 degree view of rock and whiteness. At night, the sky filled up with stars; one could see the contours of the mountains, and at dawn, the rays of the sun hit the summit of each mountain and basked them with sunlight.
No words, simply no words.
Sitting by the Stupa at base camp, under falling snow, I found myself tearing up and once again, wondering what I may have done to be so lucky.
‘Muchness’, ‘powerful’, ‘magnifique’, ‘incroyable’ were some of the words used.
I have no words.

Some of my favorite moments during the trek:

- Manoj (how about 2 Manojs in a group of 4), our guide, while talking to us about Everest Base Camp, compared Mount Everest to a fat guy with a pretty girlfriend.

- Playing a made up game with Asia on a piece of paper.

- A small boy, not more than 4-5 years old, waiting at a village with a basket of flowers, putting a flower on each of our bags.

- The morning at Poon Hill, watching the first rays of the sun on both the Annapurna and Daulagiri ranges.

- Walking from Deorali to Annapurna Base Camp and back. Truly the prettiest walk I’ve probably had.

- Walking on the remains of an avalanche. Exhilarating and scary!

- Waking up to pee in the middle of the night at Annapurna Base Camp and watching the stars in the sky and the mountains.

- The morning at Annapurna Base Camp watching the rays of the sun falling on the mountains.

- Meeting Audrey and Sam, and listening to a Nepali man telling us a story about Shiva and telling us that if we ever want our unborn child to be a climber, we should make a baby in the mountains.

- The last night with Manoj, Khansa, Bhimal, Asia and Hanna, drinking and laughing.