Circumnavigating

The Annapurna Sanctuary lies west of Kathmandu.  On the outskirts of charming Pohkara, here in the post-monsoon season, thousands of people start any number of treks within sight of this incredible range.   There are some serious expeditions here; you can get to a few different base camps, and if you happen to be totally mad, can even climb some of these peaks.

Ours was more conventional fare; six days of extremely vertical but otherwise unencumbered hiking (compared to some other hikes I recall), through surprisingly tropical rice terraces and rhododendron forests.  Villages you can still imagine having been remote before recreational hiking descended on the area in the 60s dot the trails, and offer surprisingly decent food to the hoards.  And while there are a lot of hikers, it’s easy to understand why:  based on merits including beauty, trail condition, weather, and general sense of accomplishment, this has been the best hiking we have ever done.

Did you have any idea this place could exist?  I mean seriously.  It’s unreal.  It simply can’t BE an act of nature that valleys could grow so lush, that mountains could tower so brilliantly.  And the waterfalls?  Supernatural.  Crystal clear, except in the small pools at the base of anything from ten to fifty feet of cascading chutes, where it would shine aquamarine blue in everything from sunshine to rain.

They defy description, these waterfalls.  They reminded me of that bit in a Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy movie -  (have you seen it?  You should.  It’s funny.  Especially Bill Nighy, who plays the part of Slartibartfast) -  where Slartibartfast takes a bewildered Arthur Dent to the factory floor of the planet Earth (where, indeed, the Earth is being built).  It kills me when Bill admits he won a prize for doing the little fjord bits.  Anyways.  The falls are just like those fjords; works of art, they surely had to be invented, and not created to be that amazing.

Since we’re on the subject of the Hitchhiker’s Guide, and since this is not the first time I’ve nagged everyone to go out and READ the damn book (because frankly, if you haven’t by now, you probably won’t) let me just go ahead and ruin it for you.  Turns out the EARTH is actually a computer, designed expressly to answer THE big question of the universe.  And forgive me if this waxes sentimental, but I get it now, what that question means.  To have seen things in this word so beautiful, so extraordinary, it seems perfectly obvious that the answer can actually be found in this beautiful planet – in the majestic landscapes and the incredible places I have done so little justice to in both words and images these past eight months.  And if the answer to life, the universe, and everything is as simple as 42, I think I can accept that calculation, having seen the things I’ve seen.

Because it really shouldn’t be any more complicated than this: