We started our adventure from Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal.
To get to the traditional starting point of the trek at Besisahar, we endured a seven-hour, 170-km bus ride from Kathmandu to Dumre (two hours of which was just getting out of the gridlocked city), then another two hours by local mini-bus for a bumpy 50-km ride to Besisahar.
Lunch at dusty Dumre.
Bikes travel on the roof of the local Dumre-Besisahar bus. Mike P is a bit worried about how his carbon baby is going to handle the rough ride ahead.
The bus was packed to the seams, and coloured with local flavour – a loud drunk trying to chat up Mike, a baby vomiting, street-food peddlers with their clanking pots and pans, and noisy kids on their way home from school….. And the ‘personal scent profiles’ of the passengers that pervaded the air … very interesting. Well, can’t really complain …. the fare was only a measly R200 (less than USD2)
Some of the colourful passengers boarding the bus
The road from Dumre to Besisahar
Like most Nepali towns, Besisahar is a nondescript, scruffy little dot on the map. But we didn’t care. We were finally here on the Annapurna Circuit, impatient to start our 2-wheeled adventure. Here, we’re outside the hotel we stayed in at Besisahar. It was located exactly where the bus from Dumre stopped to unload us.
Next: The ride begins — Besisahar to Syange.
