Annapurna circuit advice etc

[Single Speed George]

Hi guys ,
Eve and I are going to Nepal in November and are thinking about taking our bikes and doing the Annapurna circuit I have map and guides and am aware it is quite good on bike with some pushing. We want to bike as we only have 3 weeks , do it tea house style , kit on bikes , fly our bikes out there and hopefully leave our bike boxes somewhere in Katmandu etc before bussing to besisahar

Has anyone on here done it and is there anything weird we should know haha...
I know its ages off but need to book flights soon ! And work out other things to buy , better sleeping bags or whatever

[GregMay]

I've not ridden out there, but if you can get in contact with Ricky Cotter I believe she's ridden out there.

As for leaving bike boxes somewhere and getting them back....good luck :)

Sounds like a nice trip though.

[GregMay]

Double post tastic!

[jameso]

Will let you know - booked a flight there recently. Using the circuit loop as a base with some options to explore side routes. Have some contacts at trekking company there from a past trip and riders via Paul78 who rode the Yak Attack a while back. There are places that do bag storage, just go with the more reputed and well-used places.

is there anything weird we should know

Maybe not weird but Kathmandu is full of scammers, the 'I don't want money, please come with me to buy milk powder for the baby' one was popular when I was there. Don't get a cab at the airport either. The water needs boiling. Getting fuel is a problem. Get used to wiping your ass with water and the left hand, eating with the right : ) That wakes you up at 3500m+ when the wipe-water bucket has ice on top!

3 weeks should be plenty. The mileage doesn't look to be the challenge, it's more the rate of height gain so I expect we'll do a fair bit of hanging around - part of the appeal of the ride tbh. Even on foot I found that maybe +800m a day (can't remember exactly) was too fast as you don't go back down to help acclimatise, by the time I was up high the headache wasn't pleasant and I realised that the slow walkers weren't slow .. just wise.

[Sarah]

Wow, just want to say GOOD LUCK and keep us updated.

Spend a day or 3 in Pokara if you can, lovely place [or it was 25 years ago !]

It is on my 'would be ace to do' list.

[Single Speed George]

ye should be good hopefully as i say a while off yet but trying to plan so good to here other peoples experiences whilst we plan it !

[ZeroDarkBivi]

Have a look on the Yak Attack website - they have loads of good info on the route the race uses, which goes through the Annapurna.

http://theyakattack.com/yakattack/

I did this in 2012, and can thoroughly recommend it; great part of the world. The only downside is getting ill, particularly gastric problems, that loads of people fall foul of. It might be worth getting out early, getting ill before the trip, then you should hopefully build some resistance to getting ill whilst on the trail. Maybe!

I also found the high altitude challenging, although everybody copes with this differently. I took some meds (I think it was Diamox) for this, but hard to say if it helped much, and it did result in me having to get up several times during the night to piss, which isn't the most convenient. We started riding in Kat then got transport back from Pok, although you could ride back along the valley trails over a week or less (I did this on another trip), just avoid the roads; traffic is a bit crazy. I expect most hotels in Kat would let you leave your box there.

Have a great trip - one of the few places left that is good value for those of us paid in £s.

[jameso]

Just got back from our trip to Nepal .. and one bit of advice might be that it's a good idea to stick to the more well-ridden areas! We are all now very well trained for the World Hike-A-Bike Championships and I've probably ridden less than 12 hours in the last 12 days : ) It's changed my outlook on 'bikepacking' that's for sure. A stunning, humbling and truly inspriring place to be. I love that country and want to be back there before too long.

George - I got a set of local maps for the Annapurna, Jonsom and Muktinath areas so if you're at the WRT I'll bring them along. They're only ~$3 there so I grabbed a load for future reference, feel free to borrow for planning and if you wanted to take similar maps on the ride you can pick them up in the Thamel area of Kathmandu really easily when you arrive. Some great people there, a couple of useful contacts I can mail over if you wanted any help with riding, a shop in KTM that does guiding and can make spare mech hangers in brass in a couple of hours, that sort of thing!

[Single Speed George]

yes im at the WRT so and mapsm sound interesting so will pick your brains there !