We’ve had a hell of a lot of down since Jomson. This side of the circuit is definitely less hiker focused. There are lots of road sections, which although they do bring ‘excitement’ to the day, aren’t exactly the peaceful, natural hike I signed up for.

When we are on trail there has been multiple occasions where the route just drops off into the valley or off a cliff – guide walls and all.

This has ended with a 30m climb up a landslide, which awkwardly gained an audience on the road to make sure we made it up alive.

Another ended with a 6ft slide/jump – I will point out my dad has an advantage here, being 6’4” to my 5’10”. Even with all the mishaps, it’s been a huge amount of fun. Lots of 2pm finishes with beers and cards in the teahouse courtyards.

We even saw 3 monkeys playing near the trail. This was a real highlight as we really hadn’t seen any wildlife till then.

Yesterday we had to go up again, towards Poon Hill. The change from down to up was not Dad’s preference, which he subtly made very well-known! Nah he once again powered on up, with the satisfaction that we could finally see Annapurna 1 – it in fact was not even Annapurna 1 a sad lunch time discovery…

Another early morning hike in the dark to get up to the top of Poon Hill for sunrise. This time, we were accompanied by hundreds of other people and felt a lot like herded cattle. But it was good to be up there as the sun came up, huddled under my sleeping bag for extra warmth, watching the mountains slowly turn orange.

Today could have been our final day on trail, however we decided to stop half an hour before the end. This will make getting into Pokhara tomorrow less stressful, plus we don’t want to say goodbye to the trail quite yet. We are however, looking forward to a few well-earned restful days in Pokhara.